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ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
MARLENE
A Film by Maximilian Schell
An Oscar® nominee for Best Documentary and winner of the 1986 New York
Film Critic¹s Circle non-fiction film prize, Marlene is a "portrait of a
remarkably strong-willed woman, stage-managing her career right up to the
bitter end" (New York Times) that brilliantly lifts the veil on a movie star
of the brightest magnitude as she is fading into twilight.
In September of 1982, Oscar® winning actor and director Maximilian
Schell (Julia, The Man in the Glass Booth) arrived in Paris for a series of
on-camera interviews with Marlene Dietrich intended for a documentary film
on the screen icon¹s life and work. Despite having agreed to participate,
the near-recluse Dietrich withdrew permission for her Judgment at Nuremburg
co-star to film in her flat. Instead, in over 40 hours of audio-taped
interviews, the 81 year-old screen legend provoked a battle royale of
conversational mind games leading to unforgettably raw and truthful
emotional revelations. Using Dietrich¹s candid, bruising, infuriating, and
occasionally touching off-camera musings on childhood, marriage, sex, love,
collaborators, co-stars, life, death, and the Holocaust, Schell "sets her
words, like a score, to the stunning film images of the young Marlene."
(Washington Post).
The hypnotic final result- buoyed by self-reflexive making-of footage,
and an impressionistic re-creation of the sunless Paris flat where star and
filmmaker fenced, fought, and ultimately connected- is the "Sunset
Boulevard of documentaries" (Washington Post).
1984 Germany
91 min.
B&W/Color
In German and English with optional English subtitles
a film by MAXIMILIAN SCHELL MARLENE
cinematography IVAN SLAPETA, HENRY HAUCK, PAVEL HISPLER
editing HEIDI GENEE, DAGMAR HIRTZ
original music NICOLAS ECONOMOU
sound NORBERT LILL set designer HEINZ
EICKMEIER
written by MEIR DOHNAL , MAXIMILIAN SCHELL
line producer PETER GENEE
co-producer NORBERT BITTMANN
produced by ZEV BRAUN, KAREL DIRKA
directed by MAXIMILIAN SCHELL
© 1983 OKO-Film Karel Dirka |
