Ingrid Caven
Ingrid Caven (born 3 August 1938) is a German film actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in several films directed by her husband, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, including Love Is Colder Than Death (1969), Why Does Herr R. (1970), and The American Soldier (1970). She has also appeared in Silent Night (1995), 35 Shots of Rum (2009) and Suspiria (2018).
Ingrid Caven

Quejaytee · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1938.
- Nationality
- Germany and France.
- Occupation
- singer, film actor, chansonnier, actor and musician.
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Ingrid Caven (born 3 August 1938) is a German film actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in several films directed by her husband, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, including Love Is Colder Than Death (1969), Why Does Herr R. (1970), and The American Soldier (1970). She has also appeared in Silent Night (1995), 35 Shots of Rum (2009) and Suspiria (2018).
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Note VALÉORINE
Ingrid Caven (born 1938) is a French and German actor, chansonnier and film actor, among other activities. The actor was born in Saarbrücken.
Languages used include German. Ingrid Caven received German Film Award.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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museum · d2456d62-2b78-424f-b9d7-3fe7ee6e2e70 · wikidata · Q70294 · wikipedia · Ingrid Caven
In this article
Early life
Early life
Caven was born Ingrid Schmidt in Saarbrücken, Germany on 3 August 1938. She had one younger sister, Trudeliese Schmidt (1943–2004), who went on to become an opera singer. Caven's father worked as a tobacco trader. Prior to establishing herself as a film actress in the 1970s, Caven worked as a teacher in Upper Bavaria.
Career
Career
Caven originally began acting onstage in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's antiteater (Anti-Theater) acting troupe in the 1960s. Her film debut was in 1969 in the short film Fernes Jamaica; this was swiftly followed by her first feature film Love Is Colder Than Death, directed by Fassbinder, to whom she was briefly married (1970–1972). She also had a supporting role in his film The Merchant of Four Seasons (1970), a drama about a farmer who drinks himself to death. Even after their divorce, Caven remained a frequent collaborator of Fassbinder until his death in 1982, also appearing in his films La Paloma (1974), Fox and His Friends (1975), and Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven (1975). Her career was at its peak in the 1970s and early 1980s, mostly in film. In the 1970s, while making films in France, Caven became acquainted with fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, and became one of his muses; he designed one of her stage costumes during her career as a singer. In 1979 she was a member of the jury at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1981 Caven starred alongside Carole Bouquet in the film Day of the Idiots as a doctor, and the next year she won an award for Outstanding Individual Achievement: Actress at the German Film Awards for her performance as Inga in the film Looping. In 2000 she appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's film Fassbinder's Women. Caven has appeared in several films since the turn of the millennium, including supporting parts in Claire Denis's 35 Shots of Rum (2009), and Luca Guadagnino's American remake of Suspiria (2018).
Personal life
Personal life
Caven has lived in Paris since 1977. She resides with her partner, French writer Jean-Jacques Schuhl, whose book Ingrid Caven won the Prix Goncourt in 2000. In January 2018, Caven, along with 99 other French women writers, performers and academics, signed an open letter that argued the #MeToo movement had gone too far, turning into a "witch hunt", and denounced it as a form of puritanism. The letter defended men’s “freedom to bother women,” which they said was “indispensable to sexual freedom.”
Albums
Albums
Au Pigall's (1978 LP Barclay, live in Paris, re-released on CD Barclay in 2001) Der Abendstern (1979 LP RCA, re-released on CD Viellieb Rekords in 1999) Live In Hamburg (1980 LP RCA, concert at Audimax Hamburg, May 9, 1980) Erinnerungen An Édith Piaf (1983 LP RCA, Édith Piaf chansons with German lyrics) Spass (1986 LP Schariwari) Chante Piaf 'En Public' (1989 LP Clever, recorded in 1988, live at Théâtre de l'Athénée, Paris, re-released on CD Fpr Music in 2001) Chambre 1050 (1996 CD Arcade/2000 CD Tricatel, 13 songs from Helle Nacht in French) Helle Nacht (1998 CD Viellieb Rekords, 16 songs, German version of Chambre 1050)
Soundtracks
Soundtracks
Chansons und Themen aus Fassbinder Filmen (1994 CD Alhambra, includes 3 Caven songs from the movie "Mutter Küsters Fahrt zum Himmel/Mother Kuesters Goes To Heaven", 1975) Hors saison (CD released in Japan in 1993, includes 6 songs sung by Ingrid Caven)
Works cited
Works cited
Fischer, Michael; Hörner, Fernand (2013). Lied und populäre Kultur - Song and Popular Culture (in German). Vol. 57. Germany: Waxmann Verlag. ISBN 978-3-830-97787-2. Lorenz, Juliane; Schmid, Marion; Gehr, Herbert, eds. (1999). Chaos as Usual: Conversations about Rainer Werner Fassbinder. New York: Applause Books. ISBN 978-1-557-83359-4. Reimer, Robert C.; Reimer, Carol (2010). The A to Z of German Cinema. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-1-461-73186-3.

Ingrid Caven on the Red Carpet at the 2026 Locarno Film Festival
Quejaytee

Ingrid Caven on the Red Carpet at the 2026 Locarno Film Festival
Quejaytee
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Ingrid Caven”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q70294: Ingrid Caven
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Ingrid Caven
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.British Broadcasting Company. Ingrid Caven. BBC Music.
- 2.Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei. Biographies: Ingrid Caven. Scala. 1–4. 4. 1989. 890503896.
- 3.Hodgkiss, Rosalind. The bitter tears of Fassbinder's women. The Guardian. 8 January 1999.
- 4.Desta, Yohana. Suspiria: A Guide to the Coven's Key Wicked Witches. Vanity Faire. Condé Nast. 29 October 2018.
- 5.Stage Costumes for Ingrid Caven. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris.
- 6.Berlinale 1979: Juries. berlinale.de.
- 7.Ingrid Caven. Volksbühne.
- 8.100 French women denounce wave of #MeToo 'puritanism'. dw.com.
- 9.'Apologists for rape': French actress Deneuve slammed for attack on #MeToo. SBS News. 2018-01-11.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Fischer, Michael. Lied und populäre Kultur - Song and Popular Culture. Waxmann Verlag. 57. 2013. 978-3-830-97787-2.
- Lorenz. Chaos as Usual: Conversations about Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Applause Books. 1999. 978-1-557-83359-4.
- Reimer, Robert C. The A to Z of German Cinema. Scarecrow Press. 2010. 978-1-461-73186-3.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for Ingrid CavenMetaBrainz Foundation
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
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