Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song

The documentary is about Marlene Dietrich. Its director, David Riva, is her grandson. The film goes through her years in cinema. What it really settles on is something else. Dietrich refused to go back to Nazi Germany. She became an American citizen. During the war she helped sell war bonds. She sang for soldiers close to the front line. She kept it up for years. In Germany that choice was not forgiven for a long time, and the film puts the tension at its centre. Shooting took place in Germany, Los Angeles and Washington. Jamie Lee Curtis reads Dietrich’s own words in the American version. It was shown at the Berlinale in 2002. Rosemary Clooney, Hildegard Knef and Burt Bacharach speak in the hundred minute film, a German and American production David Riva finished in 2002.