synopsis

An Oscar nominee for Best Documentary and winner of the 1986 New York Film Critic¹s Circle non-fiction film prize, MARLENE is a "portrait of a remarkably strong-willed woman, stage-managing her career right up to the bitter end" (New York Times) that brilliantly lifts the veil on a movie star of the brightest magnitude as she is fading into twilight. In September of 1982, Oscar winning actor and director Maximilian Schell arrived in Paris for a series of on-camera interviews with Marlene Dietrich intended for a documentary film on the screen icon¹s life and work. Despite having agreed to participate, the near-recluse Dietrich withdrew permission for her former 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.