TOM TYKWER was born in 1965 in Wuppertal. "Peter Pan" was probably the first film he saw, and he says that the youthful fantasy of creating a magical parallel world remains an inspiration to this day. The dreamy, childlike sense of wonder in “Peter Pan” fascinated him, as did Vittorio de Sica’s "Miracle in Milan". Another important cinematic experience was seeing "King Kong" – nine-year-old Tykwer realized that cinema was artificial, man-made. This particular film marked the start of his fondness for the horror genre. Tykwer also names James Whales’ "Bride of Frankenstein", "Miracle in Milan” and John Carpenter’s "Halloween" as some other early discoveries. From this point on Tykwer’s adolescence revolved round his passion for the cinema. To get greater access to films he helped out in an art-house cinema, which also allowed him to circumvent age restrictions.

Tykwer started making Super 8 films at the age of eleven, a purely fan-driven exercise in which he essentially rehashed his favourite films and – as he readily admits – bored his long-suffering circle of friends stiff. Nevertheless, he continued to work on similar projects all through school. He was much impressed by a visit to Berlin, an apparent film paradise. Every night literally dozens of film classics were on offer. After graduating from school and numerous unsuccessful applications to just about every film school in Europe, he moved to Berlin and worked there as a projectionist. In 1987 he became the programmer at the ambitious ‘Moviemento’ cinema, and even at that young age was a highly respected film buff and contact point for German directors. At the same time he was analysing screenplays for the story department and interviewed many of his cinematic idols for TV profiles.

The desire to make his own films didn’t really take firm shape until he met and became friends with filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim, who vigorously purged his fixations with genre, urging him instead to come up with stories born of his own experience. For example, he suggested Tykwer record arguments with his girlfriend of the time and – in exaggerated form – turn it into a short film. BECAUSE (1990) was screened at the Hof Film Festival, which at that time was for Tykwer a veritable mecca of film culture. BECAUSE was greeted by the public with laughter and sympathetic identification, a totally unexpected reaction that turned out to be a watershed experience for the young director. To communicate intense personal truths, but at the same time challenge with formal experimentation – that was he now envisaged as the way forward. Another short film, EPILOG (1992) plunged Tykwer into personal financial debt, but allowed he and his cameraman partner Frank Griebe to gain important technical experience.

In Hof in 1990 he met Stefan Arndt, who also ran a cinema in Berlin. Their idea of doing something in tandem finally came to fruition when the producers of "Kleines Fernsehspiel" at German public broadcaster, ZDF, gave Tykwer the go-ahead to shoot his screenplay DEADLY MARIA, his first feature film. Here the horror film influences of his youth are very evident, but it then evolves into a love melodrama. The unusual story and extravagant, streamlined visual shaping of the film created a stir in the industry, highly unusual for a television drama, and enabled a - modest - cinematic release. Although audiences were far from large, dozens of film festivals around the world were now aware of Tykwer's talent. The film was screened at over a hundred festivals and even in cinemas in some countries, such as Spain, Holland, Sweden, Norway and Brazil. Viewer reaction to the first German television broadcast was impassioned, confirming the impact – both disturbing and moving – that DEADLY MARIA had had at festivals.

Together with Stefan Arndt, Wolfgang Becker and Dani Levy, Tykwer founded production company ‘X Filme Creative Pool’ in 1994. It was to be a filmmaker collective that gave maximum creative control over their productions, yet still guaranteed a certain amount of structure and financial security. Together with Wolfgang Becker Tykwer wrote the screenplay for LIFE IS ALL YOU GET, while at the same time working on his second cinema feature WINTER SLEEPERS (1996/97). This ensemble film is clearly a bigger and far more complex production than DEADLY MARIA. The shooting in the mountains of Berchtesgaden was the first really big challenge for Tykwer and the new company. The hypnotic qualities of the film, already typical of Tykwer, brought the young director to the attention of the thinking members of the young German cinema-going public. The film itself became an insider tip at festivals.

The only thing not going well for X Filme by this stage was the financial side of things. A new project needed to be generated. Tykwer took up an idea that had fascinated him in BECAUSE. The role of coincidence and fate and the notion that the smallest alteration in the unfolding of a day could have enormous consequences, even make the difference between life and death. The result was RUN LOLA RUN, swiftly written and filmed, and brimful of ideas. The film struck a chord with the public and outdid its director’s wildest dreams, becoming the most successful German film of 1998. The arresting image of flame-headed Franka Potente dashing through Berlin captivated more than just German audiences. It triumphed at the Venice film festival, from where the film’s reputation spread all over the world, earning copious prizes. RUN LOLA RUN took over seven million dollars at USA box offices alone. Even more significant, however, was the acclaim Tykwer received from Hollywood actors and directors. He was now regarded as one of the most promising directors around and countless top film names let it be known that they wished to work with him.

Tykwer himself took relatively little account of all the hype. By then he was already working on his next project with Franka Potente, who in the meantime had become his girlfriend. There were no famous names in THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR and the location – Wuppertal, Tykwer’s hometown – was less than spectacular. However, the director was in his element here, finally able to address – without budgetary problems – the subject that had always intrigued him. Namely, the instinctive power of love to overcome external obstacles as well as internal emotional hurt. The newly founded X Verleih distribution company delivered the film to cinemas, meaning Tykwer and his partners retained complete control of the distribution chain. The film was shown at the Venice film festival and in over thirty countries. In 2001 it won a silver ‘Lola’, the German award for best film. Tykwer himself commented that THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR was his most successful film to date – epic and yet intimate, personal yet universal.

Almost immediately Tykwer forged ahead with his next project. The American firm Miramax, specialists in Oscar-winning art-house films, suggested a screenplay by the late Krysztof Kieslowski, HEAVEN, to be filmed in English by English-speaking actors. And in fact Tykwer saw his own preferred themes of guilt and forgiveness in the Polish director’s script, in particular the idea that two lovers are able to save one another and so become one. The leads were Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi and it was filmed in Turin and Tuscany. HEAVEN opened the Berlin international film festival in February 2002, Tykwer’s most radical film to date. It gained cinematic release in virtually every country worldwide and it too won a silver ‘Lola’.

However, by this stage Tykwer was admitting to a certain creative exhaustion, exacerbated by a personal crisis of his own. He saw himself at the end of a creative period, and was uncertain how to proceed. Then he received an offer by a French company to make a ten-minute film for a compilation project titled PARIS, JE T'AIME. The film was to be made in one of Paris’ twenty arrondissements, and was to be about love. Tykwer, however, wanted to make a film about the end of love – a subject permeating his own life at the time. In August 2002 with almost no pre-production time he made TRUE with Natalie Portman and Melchior Beslon and a small team, filming rapidly on the streets and in the cafés of Paris. A love story is retold as if in time-lapse photography, a rush of images that Tykwer himself found personally liberating. TRUE was premiered at the 2004 Berlinale festival in the short film competition and incorporated the utopian outcome that Tykwer always liked seeing in cinema – he gave the film a happy end.

Tykwer now felt ready to embark on the most challenging project of his career – the filming of Patrick Süskind’s bestseller "Perfume" in collaboration with a new partner, veteran producer Bernd Eichinger.