Marlene

Maximilian Schell wants to make a documentary about Marlene Dietrich. But Dietrich will not go in front of a camera. Instead she signs for forty hours of audio recording. So the subject of the film is nowhere in the picture. Rather than hide that, Schell makes it the subject: he shows his own difficulty in putting the film together. Dietrich’s voice is heard throughout. On screen there are old film clips, stills and newsreel footage. What comes out is not a summary of a career but an attempt at building a portrait. Schell himself appears in this German documentary of 1984, ninety four minutes long.