Marlene

In September 1982, actor/director Maximilian Schell arrived in Paris for a series of on-camera interviews with Marlene Dietrich intended for a documentary film on the screen icon's 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. The hypnotic final result is buoyed by self-reflexive making-of footage, and an impressionistic re-creation of her sunless flat.
Actor/director Maximilian Schell's award-winning homage to one of Hollywood's most seductive and enigmatic stars: Marlene Dietrich. Despite her vehement protests about being the subject of his documentary, Schell has managed to weave an interesting biographical portrait, using film clips from the over 50-year span of her work, such as the early German silent, "Nights of Love," to "Just a Gigolo" made in 1978, as well as concert footage with her conductor, Burt Bacharach, extracts from American talk shows, and stills. Their interviews together, three days conducted in German and three days in English, are revealing, humorous, and extremely argumentative. (official distributor synopsis)