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Marlene Photos

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Movie Info

Directed by German actor Maximilian Schell, this film focuses on the life and career of screen star Marlene Dietrich. The famous actress declined to appear in any new interviews, so much of the documentary consists of the notoriously private Dietrich talking to Schell off-screen over film clips and photos of her legendary Hollywood heyday. Among the movies featured in the production are "The Blue Angel" and "Judgment at Nuremberg," a film that included both Schell and Dietrich in the cast.

Genre:

documentary
Original Language:

English
Director:

Maximilian Schell
Release Date (Streaming):

Sep 1, 2016
Runtime:

1h 35m
Production Co:

Braun Entertainment Group, Bayerischer Rundfunk

Cast & Crew

Maximilian Schell
Director

Critic Reviews for Marlene

All Critics (7) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (7)

Marlene, then, is infuriating, but rarely boring: Dietrich herself makes sure of that.

April 14, 2020 | Full Review…

Geoff Brown
Times (UK)
A shrewd summa of stardom and late-life legend-burnishing, wearily but no less admiringly acknowledging its irascible subject's perverse genius

May 31, 2017 | Full Review…

Melissa Anderson
Village Voice
The bilingual parrying between the withholding diva and her frustrated chronicler often seems like Sunset Boulevard re-imagined as a radio play, with sex removed from the equation but marlenus interruptus aplenty.

October 5, 2009 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Bill Weber
Slant Magazine
I think we learn much more about Dietrich than we would have if she had submitted to the usual paint-by-numbers, fawning Biography Channel type of film.

October 26, 2009 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Goatdog's Movies
The result is a fascinating document, not only of the star herself, but also of the documentary as personal process.

October 10, 2009 | Full Review…

Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Schell uses the limiting conditions-Dietrich did't let him photograph her-to an advantage, resulting in a revelatory work that's more interesting because of the combative relationship with his subject, a star wishing to keep control to the bitter end

August 13, 2007 | Rating: A- | Full Review…

Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
At once enigmatic, deliberately obfuscating in nature and extremely revealing.

August 18, 2005 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)