Customer Reviews

Marlene (1984)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is surely one of the most fascinating documentaries ever made. Although Dietrich herself was never filmed (she refused to have her face shown), it is illuminating and you get a full sense of the woman she was. Schell reproduces her apartment where the interviews were held and uses film clips, song recordings, etc. and we hear Dietrich's impressions over these. Bernard, her assistant and secretary, is also interviewed. It is at times funny and poignant and always riveting. She comes across as an intelligent and outspoken woman and also a highly opinionated one with little patience. Many of her musings are very funny - on a certain biography of Von Sternberg, she says "It's the lousiest translation ever made - I burned it!" She often uses the term "kitsch" to describe tasteless things and when Schell shows a clip of her performing on stage in front of a loud pink backdrop she exclaims "Darling, I did not know the kitsch was there!" She also clashes with filmmaker Schell on several things, including how the documentary should be made. She didn't want to discuss her films ("This should not be a critical thing") and after Schell leaves in a huff one day - she says "You walked out of here like a prima donna - well, you are the first to walk out on me and the last!" Schell did eventually convince her to let them bring in a video tape machine and get her reactions to some of her work (as the assistants are clumsily setting up the equipment, she is yelling "amateurs, amateurs!") She obviously is bored to tears with "The Blue Angel" and dismisses it but offers her opinion that "The Scarlet Empress" was her best film. When pressed as to why, she flippantly says "Because it's the best film". In addition to her life's work, she and Schell discuss some of the people she worked with (on Spencer Tracy - "I loved him" and Orson Welles "The man's a genius and when you speak his name you should cross yourself.") They also talk about Germany during the war and Schell reads one of her favorite poems which causes her to cry. This is wonderful stuff and a must for fans!

It's illustrative of Marlene Dietrich's clout that nearly all English speakers pronounce her name more or less correctly. (OK, so my own father did not: he made it rhyme with "Darlene," but I suspect he was in the minority.) As a former German teacher myself, this fact has some significance to me. I used to struggle to teach my students that a final "e" in German was nearly always pronounced as a "schwa" sound (an unemphasized "uh"). Somehow though, even people who knew how to pronounce "danke," "bitte," "Rilke" and even "Goethe" would still seem to remain puzzled by an orthography that is actually more consistent than our own.

When you're a true star, though, you get to insist on people pronouncing your name right. In that Marlene had a (shapely) leg up on such other prominent German performers as Elke Sommer, Lotte Lenya or Ute Lemper. You also get to pull stunts like agreeing to allow someone to do a documentary on your life and work (that "someone" being Maximilian Schell) and then utterly refusing to let him put you on camera. Or for that matter, to let his crew film ANYTHING in your apartment.

Well, if life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade, right? And so Maximilian Schell wound up making a documentary less about Marlene Dietrich than about the near impossibility of making a documentary with a cantakerously uncooperative subject.

Schell ends up reconstructing Dietrich's Paris digs in the studio. Her taped interviews are played over scenes from her films, from performance clips and from shots from various newsreels. The effect is haunting. The viewer shares Schell's exasperation with his temperamental subject. Is it possible to ever truly fathom this woman's character? It's more than a matter of a former beauty refusing to be photographed: she refuses to let herself be truly known at all. Any penetrating question or observation is dismissed as "Quatsch" (nonsense). Her life, her films, her status as a cultural icon--none of that interests her anymore, or so she claims. Ostensibly, the reclusive screen legend is more accessible than a Garbo, say, who would never even allow herself to be interviewed. But in her steadfast refusal to reveal herself in any significant way, she remains as remote and impenetrable as Garbo ever was. Maybe more so.

I watched this film recently, right after viewing the documentary "Nico Icon"--about another enigmatic German-born singer-actress. It made for a fascinating double bill. Nico, of course, was of a different, more jaded era, but she was once labeled "another cooler Dietrich for another cooler generation." Of course, the Andy Warhol "Superstar" (always meant as an ironic appellation anyway) never actually achieved the level of fame that her countrywoman did in her time. The younger woman, in fact, totally lacked the drive and ambition that Dietrich possessed in spades. Ironic then, that both ended up (pretty much at the same time in history) as recluses in Paris. Of course the Hollywood star lived there in splendor, while the former "Superstar," now a junkie, lived in absolute squalor. Both women withdrew into the shadows, while living in the City of Lights. The difference, of course, is that Dietrich could afford to pay her electric bill. Perhaps the one image that best sums up the difference between these two iconic German women--and, to some extent, the generations that they came to represent--is the stock footage of bombed out Berlin that is used in both films. For Dietrich it represents the world she was fortunate enough to be able to leave behind: for Nico, it was the world in which she grew up. (Both "Marlene" and "Nico Icon" are available on DVD and are highly recommended.)

A very special documentary made by actor/director Maximilian Schell. Marlene herself didn't agree to let her be filmed so you only hear her voice taped in her apartment in Paris. Doesn't matter. Hear when she sings and tells, hear her anger when Maximilian insist on filming her or want her to look at her films, hear her gently, sentimentally crying over her "Heimat" Berlin. And see for your self how Schell have succeded to make a great motion picture without beeing able to photograph the leading lady. Nominated for Academy Award.

Maximilian Schell wanted to do a documentary on Marlene Dietrich, who agreed to be interviewed on audiotape but who refused to be filmed. At face value this sounds like a major problem, but it is like when the mechanical shark would not work during the film of "Jaws": the end product is much improved because of the big headache. Schell has to play Dietrich's comments against clips from her films, creating a palatable irony between a glamorous star who always insisted on the brightest of lights shining on her face and the 80-year-old woman offering her harsh comments on the way to her grave. I think it is safe to say that after Greta Garbo it was Marlene Dietrich whose persona as a Hollywood star was the most elusive (a trait apparently franchised by foreign born actresses to be sure). Because her career was based more on image than substance--her legs in "Blue Angel" remains the signature image of her entire career--Schell's documentary takes advantage of the last opportunity to get a look behind the mask of glamour at the "real" Dietrich. What I took away from this documentary was fresh insight into the latter stage of Dietrich's career, when she took some sorts at "real" acting in films such as "Witness for the Prosecution" and "Touch of Evil." It is impossible to look at these films now and not see her attempt to be much more than just another pretty face. You might say that Dietrich's career anticipated those of the super models in today's world, since still photograph makes it even less necessary for there to be much going on behind a pretty face. However, both her career and these intimate thoughts shared near the end of her life prove that Dietrich was as calculating as anyone in Hollywood. Ultimately, "Marlene" is a unique and penetrating look at a Hollywood legend.

Marlene Dietrich was a recluse in her later years. According to her daughter's memoirs, she spent most of her time withering her famous legs away in bed, not leaving for days and weeks at a time. It is amazing that she let Maximillian Schell into her home to interview her for a documentary, even if she did not allow him to film her. She knew she was being difficult, but she also felt she was doing him a favor.

Faced with a difficult predicament, Schell artistically filmed a recreated home filled with Dietrich memorabilia, look-alikes, and footage from Dietrich movies. It does not go in sequence; when Schell tells Dietrich this in the movie, she seems pleased. The ending is insane and well edited. Everything blurs together and sort of serves as an outlet for Schell's frustrations during creating the documentary, I'm sure.

Half of the interviews were conducted in German and half were done in English, so one must read subtitles unless one speaks both languages. It is nice to hear Marlene speak in her native tongue; she often says "quatsch," or "nonsense" in German. She is stubborn and opinionated, sometimes contradicts herself, but is always interesting. She speaks against feminism, being critical of her, and anything kitschy.

Dietrich did not want the film released when she saw it. She thought it made her look bad and tarnished her legend. In fact, it made me love her more. Dietrich is not a sugary sweet figure and never has been. This documentary emphasizes that point. She was insanely stubborn and opinionated, often comically and always respectably. However, the finale of the film shows Dietrich in her last film singing "Just a Gigolo" quite emotionally. Then she recites a sad poem along with Schell and breaks down in the middle of it. It is obvious that Marlene Dietrich was not the hard-as-nails figure she always wanted herself to appear to be; she had a heart. It is revealed in this film.

This is surely one of the most fascinating documentaries ever made. Although Dietrich herself was never filmed (she refused to have her face shown), it is illuminating and you get a full sense of the woman she was. Schell reproduces her apartment where the interviews were held and uses film clips, song recordings, etc. and we hear Dietrich's impressions over these. Bernard, her assistant and secretary, is also interviewed. It is at times funny and poignant and always riveting. She comes across as an intelligent and outspoken woman and also a highly opinionated one with little patience. Many of her musings are very funny - on a certain biography of Von Sternberg, she says "It's the lousiest translation ever made - I burned it!" She often uses the term "kitsch" to describe tasteless things and when Schell shows a clip of her performing on stage in front of a loud pink backdrop she exclaims "Darling, I did not know the kitsch was there!" She also clashes with filmmaker Schell on several things, including how the documentary should be made. She didn't want to discuss her films ("This should not be a critical thing") and after Schell leaves in a huff one day - she says "You walked out of here like a prima donna - well, you are the first to walk out on me and the last!" Schell did eventually convince her to let them bring in a video tape machine and get her reactions to some of her work (as the assistants are clumsily setting up the equipment, she is yelling "amateurs, amateurs!") She obviously is bored to tears with "The Blue Angel" and dismisses it but offers her opinion that "The Scarlet Empress" was her best film. When pressed as to why, she flippantly says "Because it's the best film". In addition to her life's work, she and Schell discuss some of the people she worked with (on Spencer Tracy - "I loved him" and Orson Welles "The man's a genius and when you speak his name you should cross yourself.") They also talk about Germany during the war and Schell reads one of her favorite poems which causes her to cry. This is wonderful stuff and a must for fans!

Pure genious! A great look at a legend from a different point of view. Want own copy!

Today I watched a documentary on Marlene Dietrich titled "Marlene". It was produced in 1984 and directed by Dietrich's "Judgment at Nuremberg" costar Maximilian Schell. I don't know how many of you know this, but Marlene agreed to do the film only if the director was in compliance with her wish not to be photographed (or her apartment for that matter), and because of this she does not appear in the film. But her Paris apartment is recreated to give the illusion that the actress is really there. Her voice, however, is used throughout the film; aided with various clips of her movies, concert performances and newsreel footage.

To begin with, Marlene shows little interest in this whole project and even less interest in the discussion of her films. I'm convinced now more than ever that she never enjoyed working on a picture. Still, it is nice to discover that she is able to remember her experiences with a lot of clarity, sometimes using the German word "kitsch" (worthless) to describe most of her film work -- though I disagree. The film also delves into other subjects besides her films, such as her concert years and some of the most important people in her life, like Jean Gabin, Ernest Hemingway, Josef von Sternberg and her husband, Rudolph Sieber.

It is a strange documentary that you can't help but like. And not everything you would like to hear is even discussed, such as her war years, where Marlene took considerable time off from her Hollywood career to entertain allied troops stationed overseas. I remember hearing Schell saying to Marlene in the beginning of the film that he didn't want this to be a typical A-B-C from childhood to present interview. Well, perhaps it would've worked better had it been that way. Much of it was a mess -- not difficult to follow necessarily -- just may have been easier on Marlene's temper had there been some kind of order to the whole thing. Maybe.

It gets a little heated towards the end of the film. Schell seems to have angered Marlene at one point by pressing her for a comment on one of her movies. I don't know how serious it was after the tape stopped rolling, but apparently she wasn't amused. In the end, it becomes apparent to the viewer how cranky Dietrich is at this point in her life. You could argue that it might have something to do with her age, but I think it has more to do with the fact that she was an incredibly disciplined woman who favored manners and intelligence over such common habits like idle gossip and negligence. In fact, her attitude during this film is so overwhelming to the point where it's just sad. She may sound bitter, but she's a woman worth listening to regardless of her attitude. Watching this documentary gives Maria Riva's book even more credibility, in my opinion, especially in the final years of Dietrich's life where you wonder if all those incidents you read about were true.

Maximillian Schell likes to put himself at the center of his supposed biographies of others -- the recent one on his sister/actress Maria Schell (MY SISTER MARIA) and this earlier one on Marlene Dietrich.

This one dwells and dwells on his trials with the willful, aging icon during this film's making. It's probably the foregrounding of those behind-the-scenes irrelevancies that the critics admired about this film. There isn't much room, however, for detail, so it winds up a pretty flimsy biography.

Max should have followed Marlene's simple formula for a biography. She tells him right there in the interview. But he may not have been paying attention.

This film is everything that has been said about it in the five-star reviews on this page: a unique masterpiece of filmmaking about a rather cantankerous (and invisible) living legend made in the last years of her tumultuous life. It has finally been commercially re-released on DVD and is available through Amazon.de (Germany) for a reasonable price (I paid about 19 euros for a new copy). The only problems: it is Region 2, PAL, and has no English subtitles. About half (more or less) of the film is in English (and a tiny bit in French), and for those parts, there are optional German subtitles, but there are no subtitles for the parts spoken in German. No extras, except it comes with a cheesy commemorative poster. The audio and video quality are superb.