Romy Schneider's soul explored in '3 Days in Quiberon'
Jochen Kürten eg
April 11, 2018
The movie "3 Days in Quiberon," directed by Emily Atef, portrays the star of the "Sissi" trilogy in a period of crisis towards the end of her life. Here's a look back at Schneider's most memorable roles.
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40 years on: Remembering the legacy of Romy Schneider
The iconic actor's life was marked by career highs and private lows. To commemorate Schneider's 40th death anniversary on May 29, we look back at some of her cinematic successes.
Image: Eva Sereny/Iconic Images
'Sissi' made her a star
Though it wasn't her first role in front of the camera, "Sissi" had the most impact on the then-16-year-old Romy Schneider. After filming with director Ernst Marischka, Schneider was a star. The remarkable success of the first film was followed by several others; Schneider's popularity increased exponentially with each new role. Even today, many in Germany still see the actress as Sissi.
Image: picture alliance/United Archives
Light entertainment with 'Scampolo'
The Heimatfilm genre was all the rage in Germany at the end of the 1950s, as was light cinematic fare. When "Sissi" was released, it became one of the most popular pillars of German cinema. With her next film, "Scampolo," Schneider upped the ante — appearing in what is arguably one of her best films of the era as an orphan girl at Paul Hubschmid's side.
Image: imago/United Archives
An actress emerges: 'The Trial'
Cast as a young Leni by Orson Welles, Romy Schneider made her international debut in a film version of Kafka's "The Trial." The young Austrian-born actress appeared alongside Jeanne Moreau and Anthony Perkins and landed on the radar of many international directors.
Image: imago images/Mary Evans
'The Swimming Pool' becomes a cult classic
By the end of the 1960s, Schneider had already made a few films in France, and her performance alongside her then boyfriend and film partner Alain Delon in "The Swimming Pool" became a box-office success. The elegant melodrama, which relied above all on beautiful images, made headlines — especially in the tabloid press.
Image: Granata Images/imago images
Claude Sautet: a favorite director
With the release of "The Things of Life" in 1970, Romy Schneider hit a milestone in her career. In French filmmaker Claude Sautet, she had found "her" director. Under Sautet's direction, she could show what she had. She was able to rid herself of the "Sissi" typecasting and establish herself as a character actress.
Image: picture alliance/United Archives
Empress Elisabeth, once again
In 1972, Schneider reprised her role as Empress Elisabeth, but in a film of a very different artistic caliber. The great Italian director Luchino Visconti used the now acclaimed actress in his magnificent four-hour film "Ludwig II." Playing alongside Helmut Berger in the title role, Romy Schneider radiated beauty and grandeur.
Image: United Archives International/imago images
'Trio Infernal': A scandalous success
The tabloid press in Germany wouldn't leave Romy Schneider alone throughout the 70s and she found herself fighting many stereotypes, including one rumor that said she preferred filming in France as she wanted to put her "Sissi" past behind her. Scandalous films such as "Trio Infernal" (1974) only reconfirmed those rumors in the eyes of Germans.
Image: imago images/Prod.DB
'The Most Important Thing: Love'
Directly after the release of "Trio Infernal," Romy Schneider filmed "The Most Important Thing: Love," a film which won prizes in France but few fans in Germany. In it, she plays a down-on-her-luck actress who films soft porn to make money and in so doing, Schneider tested her own boundaries. The movie was excessive both in its acting and in the amount of skin shown.
Image: picture-alliance/ dpa
'Group Portrait with a Lady': a luckless return
Schneider's attempts to regain her footing in German cinema had nothing to do with her acting talents. Aleksandar Petrovic's film version of Heinrich Böll's novel "Group Portrait with a Lady" did poorly at the box office; artistically, it wasn't quite all there. For some reason, "New German Cinema" directors did not know where to start with the German star either.
Image: imago images/Prod.DB
'The Passerby' and a woman in crisis
Schneider's later years were overshadowed by the tragic accidental death of her son. The impact of this private suffering can be felt in her last role, in "The Passerby," which appeared in German theaters in 1982. She died a few months before the German premiere.
Image: picture alliance/United Archives
New documentary at Cannes: 'Romy, Femme libre'
Even 40 years after her death, interest in Romy Schneider continues unabated. With their new documentary "Romy, femme libre" or "Romy, a free woman," which just premiered in Cannes, Lucie Caries and Clementine Deroudille depart from the often-repeated image of Schneider as a fragile world star and victim of her fate. Instead, they show her as a courageous, determined and free woman.
Image: Eva Sereny/Iconic Images
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Depicting a cinema icon onscreen is definitely challenging — even more so when the star in question has revealed her charm and charisma in countless films and photos and left her singular mark on European cinema of the 1960s and 1970s.
The film "3 Days in Quiberon" actually manages to achieve this seemingly impossible feat. Director Emily Atef, who's been living in Germany since 2001, has French, German and Iranian roots, and her international background perhaps contributed to helping her portray Romy Schneider from a fresh perspective.
The movie, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, is out now in Germany and will be out in French cinemas in June.
The movie is set in Brittany, France, and focuses on three days during the last year of Romy Schneider's life. It's therefore not a typical biographical work covering the life and career of the actress. "It was a conscious decision not to do a biopic. I didn't want to tell the story of her life, but rather concentrate on three day in Romy's life," the director said about her narrative concept.
The three days Atef picked are however extremely well-documented. During her stay at a health spa in Quiberon in 1981, Romy Schneider invited reporter Michael Jürgs and photographer Robert Lubeck, a friend of hers, for an interview for the German magazine Stern. Schneider also had a close friend of hers to be there, a person whose name and story were changed for the film.
"3 Days in Quiberon" follows these four people meeting through interview sessions and photo shoots, or while they're all spending time together or in pairs at the beach, at a restaurant or the hotel bar.
Emily Atef: 'Reality inspired me'
Did it all happen exactly the way it is shown in the film? "The point was not to exactly reproduce what happened between those people during the three days in Quiberon," said Atef. She rather wanted to provide context to their situation. Reality inspired her to create her own story, the film director explained. Her work however remains very true to reality for two reasons.
For one, the hotel in which Romy Schneider met with the journalist and photographer still exists today. It has barely changed, and its surroundings haven't either. There was therefore little change to the film location.
The other reason is that the meeting was extremely well-documented through Robert Lebeck's photos. While 20 of them were published in Stern magazine at the time, the director had access to Lebeck's archive to prepare her film. Nearly 600 photos were shot over the three days. Like those photos, the film is shot in black-and-white, realistically reproducing the atmosphere of the time.
Romy Schneider: between freedom and self-destruction
The 2018 film offers a very intimate portrait of this exceptional actress in 1981, a person trying to find balance between public and private life, between tabloid news and intimacy. This is also a central question of the film: How should a star reveal herself publicly?
"Romy was completely free while constantly craving publicity and recognition," said Atef. She had a penchant for self-destruction; she also faced existential questions at that point in her life: "Am I a good mother? How can I manage to bring everything together? How can I function?" pointed out the filmmaker.
Atef does not see "3 Days in Quiberon" as an homage to Romy Schneider either, but rather as a "snapshot of a period in her life, in which she manages for a moment to free herself from a massive crisis." Still the film is definitely an homage, in the most positive sense of the term, as the director has created a respectful and loving portrait of the famous woman.
That certainly wouldn't have worked so well without actress Marie Bäumer in the lead role. Because of her resemblance to the film legend, Bäumer, born in 1969 in Dusseldorf, had already been asked to embody Schneider in the past. The actress had always refused to take on the roles.
A woman in crisis, who happens to be a star
It was the concept created by French producer Denis Poncet, who died during the pre-production of the film, that managed to convince Bäumer. "'3 Days in Quiberon' is not an interpretation of the actress or of the Romy Schneider myth, but rather the portrayal of a woman at the end of her life, condensed in three days — and the woman just 'happens' to be a world star," said actress Marie Bäumer of the film.
This might sound like a distinction without difference — and it doesn't really matter either. What does count is that "3 Days in Quiberon" is an outstanding film, featuring superb acting and photography. It tells a story that is bound to satisfy Romy Schneider fans as well as those who only want to see a "portrayal of a woman" in a period of crisis in film.