The images of Sunnyi MELLES (*1958) vomiting in TRIANGLE OF SADNESS have now become iconic. Even ACADEMY AWARD winner Brad PITT recognizes her, the Swiss actress revealed on the champagne-colored carpet before this year's OSCAR awards. It's easy to forget how long the actress has been in the business and what she's accomplished.
Already in 1974 she was seen in STEPPENWOLF alongside ACADEMY AWARD nominee Max von SYDOW. In 1988 she must have been at the OSCARs (unfortunately I can't remember exactly) when Austria was nominated for the best foreign language film with her film 38 - ALSO THAT WAS WIEN. And then Simmel came...
Johannes Mario SIMMEL was an extremely successful best-selling author in German-speaking countries until the 1990s with a penchant for sex ("No Simmel without P....."), kitsch and gossip. His 1987 novel was about evil machinations in medical research and a bizarre massacre during a circus performance. Sunnyi MELLES played a long-suffering journalist who self-sacrificingly opposed the evil intrigues and murder plots. The director of this mini-series for the German television station ARD was Reinhard HAUFF, who had won the Golden Bear for STAMMHEIM four years previously.
So nice that Sunnyi MELLES' patient work in the acting vineyard culminated in this appearance in Los Angeles. This made her the face of this year's award alongside the two actual ACADEMY AWARD winners Michelle YEOH (*1962) and Jamie Lee CURTIS (*1958).
