Romy Schneider Events

 

Romy Schneider has shooted 57 movies in her life altogether, nine of them until 1957, when she was 19 years old. Curt Riess writes in his Romy Schneider biography: "Her life resembles a bad Courths-Mahler novel at a first glance. A girl, later a woman, who should have been very happy, became unhappy at a very early stage and whenever it seemed that there were better times to come, it ended up badly. A short life full of triumphs and humiliations, full of hopes and cruel falls.

Romy Schneider died 29 May 1982 at the age of 43 due to heart failure. After her death her legacy was sold bidding highest to the press: "Intimacies of a life where the destiny raged like a cine melodrama", "Der Spiegel" wrote in November 1982.

Who was Romy Schneider really? The naive "Sissi" whose image chased her all her life? Or the self-confident, self-emloyed "Hélène", her favorite role, which she played in "The things in life"? In the movies she was the small, brave woman who was fighting against adversities of life most of the time. "She was no Garbo nor Bergann but a star who had to sell the sadness of her own life on the screen", a big magazine used to describe her.

In Germany Romy could never again gain ground. She was a real "star" only abroad, especially in France, even though there were big people of the film industry involved in connection with her films, such as Jean-Louis Trintignant, Philippe Noiret, Alain Delon, Claude Brasseur, Rod Steiger, Audrey Hepburn, Omar Sharif, Lino Ventura, Michel Serrault, Marcello Mastroianni, Jack Lemmon, Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Helmut Berger, Claude Chabrol, Orson Welles, Claude Sautet, Bertrand Tavernier, Costa-Gavras and many more.

Four men played a special role in her life however: Alain Delon, Luchino Visconti, Claude Sautet und Michel Piccoli.

Romy Schneider had a huge break through in the film business at the end of the 60ies alternatively the beginning of the 70ies thanks to the director Claude Sautet and her role in "The things in life". At this time she started to become engaged in social politics. 1970 she publicly stated with hundred other women in a spectacular action in the "Stern": "I had an abortion" and asked for the abolishment of the paragraph 218.

Romy Schneider's life: A collection of concentrated blows?
In any case a life full of ups and downs which was never really fullfilled, constant or balanced. Neither was Romy herself. But she never had the chance from childhood on.

The Romy Schneider archive is always eager to provide you with an extensively individual exhibition and a detailled insight in the life & work of Romy Schneider.

NDR-Trailer
NDR-Trailer
Source: NDR / Exhibition -Trailer 3 days in May - Helga Kneidl