Romy Schneider Movies
The daughter of two popular European actors -- Austrian leading man Wolf Albach-Retty and German film star Magda Schneider -- Romy Schneider began her own career at age 15. Billed as "The German Shirley Temple," Romy starred in a series of fluffy comedies about young Austro-Hungarian Empress Elizabeth, better known as Sissi. She matured rather quickly, right before the eyes of her most fervent fans, with a sexy assignment in director Luchino Visconti's Boccacio 70 (1962). She also successfully tackled a difficult role in Orson Welles' The Trial (1963). After playing a prostitute in the big-budget war film The Victors (1963), Romy began her largely unrewarding Hollywood career, where she was usually cast on the basis of her ripe figure and cute middle-European accent. Settling in France in the 1960s, Romy became one of that country's most respected actresses, winning Cesar awards for her performances in L'Important C'est d'Aimer (1975) and L'Histoire Simple (1978). In her last years, she was beset by several personal tragedies, including the accidental death of her 14-year-old son. She was on the road to emotional and professional recovery when, in May of 1982, Romy Schneider was found dead in her Paris apartment; the official cause of death was heart failure, though many believe that she committed suicide. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1969
- PG
Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) is an out-of-work writer having an affair with Marianne (Romy Schneider), a successful journalist. As they frolic in a swimming pool in St. Tropez, she receives as call from the record executive Harry (Maurice Ronet). He arrives with his nubile young daughter (Jane Birkin). Harry and Marianne were once lovers and he makes a pass at her. Meanwhile, Jean-Paul makes a pass at Harry's daughter. After some drinking, Harry and Jean-Paul fight, resulting in Harry being pushed into the pool. Jean-Paul refuses to help the struggling man as he drowns, and the young couple tries to get their stories straight in order to avoid being charged with murder in this sometimes masochistic feature from France. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, (more)
- 1966
Julia (Romy Schneider) gave away her infant son to a foster couple before she married Werner (Michel Piccoli). Now she selfishly wants her child from the foster parents who have never officially adopted the boy. Radek (Hans Christian Blech) is the foster father who refuses to give up the boy he has grown to love. He climbs up a chimney and threatens to jump if the police take the boy away from him. Soon the event is splashed across the media, with public opinion naturally with Radek. Julia must decide whether or not to pursue her quest to get her child back. Mario Huth plays the young boy, with Sonia Schwarz as the foster mother. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, (more)
- 1961
The political overtones in this action-oriented drama may be a little murky outside of its time and place, yet the story is well told. Clement (Jean-Louis Tritignant) is a right-wing rabblerouser married to aspiring young actress Anne (Romy Schneider). He belongs to an underground terrorist group determined to spread chaos among the Western nations in order to eventually gain political control and then expand their activities. At the moment, he is taking part in an assassination scheme aimed at a major labor leader that ultimately fails because of an informer. Clement takes off to find the culprit, leaving Anne in the care of his supposed friend Paul (Henri Serre). That turns out to be a mistake on several different counts. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Jean-Louis Trintignant, (more)
- 1974
Michel Piccoli is irresistibly slimy in the role of a conniving attorney. Making the acquaintance of two lovely sisters (Romy Schneider and Andrea Ferreol), Piccoli seduces them both. He then invites the sisters into his latest scam: marrying and murdering gullible men and women, then cheating their insurance companies. The noirish intrigues of Infernal Trio are all the more remarkable in that they are based on a true story. It shouldn't be too surprising to first-year French students that the original title of this French/Italian melodrama was Le Trio Infernal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, (more)
- 1975
Old Gun (Le Vieux Fusil) stars Philippe Noiret as an aging, embittered French physician. During the occupation, Noiret loses his wife and daughter to Nazi bullets. He vows to personally kill every one of the Germans responsible (along with a few who weren't) in order to assuage his grief. Romy Schneider and Jean Bousse costar in this heart rending character study. Philippe Noiret was justifiably honored with the French Cesar Award for his towering performance in Old Gun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Noiret, Romy Schneider, (more)
- 1970
After laboring in obscurity for several years, French filmmaker Claude Sautet finally struck a responsive chord with moviegoers in Les Choses de la Vie. The plot isn't much: the hero, businessman Michel Piccoli, must choose between his wife and his mistress, two women whom he loves with equal fervor. It is what Sautet does with the material that lifts the film above the ordinary. The director puts the central character's plight in context with his ongoing concerns over his job, his income, and his relationship with his family. In Choses de la Vie Sautet has nothing but the warmest feelings for his characters, which results in more three-dimensionality that might normally be expected in so banal a plotline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider, (more)
In this French satire, a meek little bank (Jean-Louis Trintignant) clerk finds fame and fortune when he begins getting lessons from an impoverished novelist (Jean-Pierre Cassel) . Soon the clerk is wowing the Parisians with his ability to make the women swoon, and for his talent at attracting money. The film is also known as The French Way Is. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Romy Schneider, (more)
Luchino Visconti (Count don Luchino Visconti di Modrone) was a film director, true, but he was also a nobleman and a grand patron of traditional European culture: opera, art, music, crafts and literature. These interests enliven many of his films, but few have been so inspired as the four-hour epic, Ludwig, about the castle-building "mad king" of Bavaria. This long film, made very near the end of Visconti's life, suffers greatly when shortened, as every moment is essential to the story. There are at least four different versions of the film (from just under three hours to over four hours in length); the uncut four-hour version is the most coherent, even though many might find it rather long. The disintegration of aristocratic individuals is a continuing theme of Visconti's, though Ludwig's is the most thorough decay he filmed. The last ruling king of Bavaria (1845-1886) is noted for many things besides his eccentricities: he sold Bavaria to Germany, ending the rule of the Bavarian monarchy; he built amazing castles all over his country (with the proceeds from the sale); and he was Richard Wagner's main sponsor. He was also a notorious recluse, conducting a lifelong platonic love affair with Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and finally succumbing to his adoration of handsome men in a series of outrageous affairs and orgies. His excesses eventually led to his being declared mentally incompetent and being held prisoner in his own castle. The film depicts this incredible life from his coronation at age 19 to his (unproved) assassination well over 20 years later. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helmut Berger, Romy Schneider, (more)
- 1976
Michel Piccoli plays Simon, a French businessman reluctantly venturing into middle age. As he deals with his own midlife crisis, Simon becomes virtually oblivious to the social changes around him. The businessman tries to counter advancing age with an increased sex life, but finds that women aren't the same compliant creatures he remembers from his youth. Though the material is rife with opportunities for "radical" camerawork, director Claude Sautet chooses an austere, near-classic cinematic style, allowing us to concentrate more on the people in front of the camera rather than the person behind it. Featured in the cast of Mado is actress Romy Schneider, a Sautet favorite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Ottavia Piccolo, (more)
- 1971
Max (Michel Piccoli) is a former judge obsessed with seeing criminals brought to justice. The frustrations of the courtroom, where evidence matters more than guilt, lead him to join the police force. Independently wealthy, he uses all his official and personal resources to make criminals pay for their crimes. He hits on a scheme involving a prostitute (Romy Schneider) and her small-time criminal boyfriend (Bernard Fresson) in which he incites the boyfriend to carry out larger and larger crimes until he can arrange to catch him red-handed. While he has been using the prostitute to set up her boyfriend, he has also fallen in love with her, so that when a policeman who disapproves of his methods threatens to prosecute her as an accomplice to the same crimes, he kills him. This is a French-language film, with no dubbing or subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider, (more)
- 1957
Monpti is better known by its English-language title Love From Paris. Romy Schneider stars as Anne Claire, a seamstress who pretends to be wealthy in order to crash society. In this guise, she meets and falls in love with starving artist Monpti (Horst Buchholz), who has no time for women of wealth. Sensing a challenge, Anne pursues Monpti, keeping her true identity a secret. What starts as a light-hearted romp unexpectedly deepens into tragedy. The film is narrated by a wry, all-knowing Parisian who, at closer inspection, turns out to be director Helmut Kautner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Horst Buchholz, (more)
- 1970
- R
The British/American co-production My Lover, My Son stars Romy Schneider as Frances, the unhappy wife of businessman Robert (Donald Houston). When her lover is accidentally drowned, Frances turns to her teenaged son James (Dennis Waterman) for comfort. Her husband doesn't like this set-up and bundles James off to college, but upon his return the boy enters into an affair with his own mother. Robert discovers the incestuous couple in an embrace and reacts violently, whereupon Frances kills him in self defense. Knocked unconscious during the struggle, James thinks he is the killer and takes the rap. The boy is released on the grounds of self defense and returns to his mother -- only to renounce her when he discovers that he's the illegitimate son of his mother's dead lover. MGM was the American distributor for My Lover, My Son, and that low vibration you feel is Louis B. Mayer spinning in his grave. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Donald Houston, (more)
- 1958
Christa Winsloe's novel Maedchen in Uniform was first filmed in Germany in 1933. The story, about a sensitive schoolgirl's lesbian attachment to her headmistress, was handled tastefully, albeit with remarkable frankness for its period. The 1958 remake is somewhat toned down and the material directed in a routine fashion, though technically the production has fewer frayed edges than the 1933 version. Romy Schneider stars in the old Hertha Thiele role as the student, while Lili Palmer takes over from Dorothea Wieck as the older woman. Made in 1958, the remake of Maedchen in Uniform was not released in the U.S. until 1965, possibly because it went against the production code edict concerning "suicide as a plot solution." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lilli Palmer, Romy Schneider, (more)
- 1954
Filmed in 1954 as Madchenjahre einer Konigin, The Story of Vickie stars 16-year-old Romy Schneider as England's soon-to-be Queen Victoria. Purportedly based on the Queen's diary and letters, the story concerns the early romance between "Vickie" and her beloved Prince Albert (Adrian Hoven). When first she meets Albert, Vickie has no idea that he is her betrothed, thus she delights in embarking upon a "forbidden" love affair. Enlivening the film is the young princess' frisky unwillingness to conform to Royal protocol--until it becomes utterly necessary for her to do so. Those who question the casting of an Austrian actress as Victoria should be reminded that the real Queen was also of Teutonic heritage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Adrian Hoven, (more)
- 1969
- PG
Gerald Arthur Otley (Tom Courtenay) is a British secret agent called in to investigate the murder of a suspected influence pedlar and document smuggler. He trails double agents and double martinis at a posh cocktail party before discovering the villains have the cooperation of top government officials in Parliament. Otley is pegged to masquerade as a possible defector to oust the criminal mastermind who plans to sell some stolen documents vital to national security to any enemy agent with the most money. Murder, blackmail and auto chases dominate the action as the femme fatale Imogen (Romy Schneider) first has Otley beaten up by her thugs before combining forces to go after the real villains in this confusing and sometimes funny spy yarn. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Courtenay, Romy Schneider, (more)
- 1970
Mariana (Romy Schneider) is riding along with her weekend date when she infuriates him by insulting his virility. The irate man drives off a high cliff and crashes into the ocean. She emerges unscathed and she is rescued by the victim's brother. Mariana and the brother become lovers, but he soon believes she may have killed his sibling. The other brother miraculously appears and Mariana kills him and buries his corpse in the garden. The brother has already supposedly identified his brother's body before the victim returns. The police wait for the lovers to return when the rain washes away the soil and exposes the victim's body in this suspense story with a decided lack of tension. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet, (more)
- 1957
17th century author Daniel Defoe is assisted by a group of children in this drama. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1955
Romy Schneider makes an impressive starring debut in the delightful Austrian comedy Sissi. The titular heroine is a preteen 19th century lass of noble birth, who charms everyone she meets. Especially impressed is young Franz Joseph, emperor the Hapsburg Empire. When Sissi comes of age, the emperor pursues the girl romantically, with fascinating results. Filmed in 1955, Sissi was the first of a popular series of films showcasing Romy Schneider as the young Empress Elizabeth. The actress' mother, Magda Schneider, also appears prominently in the proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Magda Schneider, (more)
- 1956
Trouble rears its ugly head when the young emperor and empress of Austria arrive in Budapest for their coronation. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider
This film is Joseph Losey's mood piece that delves into the psychological makeup of Frank Jackson (Alain Delon), the assassin of exiled Russian Communist leader Leon Trotsky (Richard Burton). The tale chronicles the final few months of Trotsky's life, from the May 1940 raid upon Trotsky's Mexican compound until August of that year when Jackson's assassination attempt succeeded. Much of the film details how the shy and mysterious Jackson gained access to the compound through ingratiating himself with family friend Sylvia Ageloff (Romy Schneider). The reclusive Trotsky, seeing a part of himself in Jackson, begins to warm up to him, never realizing that Jackson will be the man to finally kill him. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Burton, Alain Delon, (more)
Tom Tryon plays the title role in this Otto Preminger version of the Henry Morton Robinson novel. In his matriculation from Monsignor to the College of Cardinals, Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon) must undergo several grueling life experiences: standing up to bigots in Georgia, defying Nazis in Austria, and so on. The film boasts cameo appearances by Dorothy Gish, Cecil Kellaway, John Saxon, John Huston, Robert Morse, Burgess Meredith, Raf Vallone, Ossie Davis. Incidentally, Tryon eventually quit acting and became a popular novelist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Tryon, Carol Lynley, (more)
At the beginning of World War II, while the Germans entered France from the north, many people had reason to believe that the Germans would not treat them kindly, and they fled by train to the south. This French film tells the story of a few of them. Because they were fleeing the best-organized bureaucrats in the world, many of them chose to flee in freight cars, unseen and unnoted. When Meyereu (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is separated from his wife during the escape, he allows a Jewish girl (Romy Schneider) to pose as his wife. As the deception continues, they come to care for each other, but she discreetly disappears when his real wife turns up. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Romy Schneider, (more)
Much of Orson Welles' latter-day reputation as an "unfathomable" genius rests upon his seeming unwillingness to tell a story in clear, precise fashion. Sometimes, as in such films as Touch of Evil, Welles' spotty storytelling skills can be forgiven in the light of the excellent visuals. In other cases, as in his 1962 adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, Welles'style comes across as empty virtuosity, precious and petulant when it should be profound. Anthony Perkins plays Joseph K, a man condemned for an unnamed crime in an unnamed country. Seeking justice, Joseph K is sucked into a labyrinth of bureaucracy (Welles once described the character as being a "little bureaucrat" himself, who deserves to be punished. This is never clearly expressed in the finished film). Along the way, he becomes involved with three women -- Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Elsa Martinelli -- who in their own individual ways are functions of the System that persecutes him.
While Welles considered The Trial one of his finest films, this enthusiasm is not universally shared; even his most fervent admirers have been known to emerge from a screening of the film with quizzical, disappointed expressions on their faces. On the plus side, Welles and his cinematographer Edmond Richard perform miracles in transforming an abandoned French railway station into the headquarters of a totalitarian, red tape-ridden society. It's also fun to hear Welles' voice emanating from several of the supporting characters (his post-dubbing budget was nil). All in all, however, The Trial never truly works; it is unfair, however, to lay the blame for this entirely on Welles, inasmuch as the 1948 and 1994 attempts to cinematize the original Kafka novel likewise came a cropper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
While Welles considered The Trial one of his finest films, this enthusiasm is not universally shared; even his most fervent admirers have been known to emerge from a screening of the film with quizzical, disappointed expressions on their faces. On the plus side, Welles and his cinematographer Edmond Richard perform miracles in transforming an abandoned French railway station into the headquarters of a totalitarian, red tape-ridden society. It's also fun to hear Welles' voice emanating from several of the supporting characters (his post-dubbing budget was nil). All in all, however, The Trial never truly works; it is unfair, however, to lay the blame for this entirely on Welles, inasmuch as the 1948 and 1994 attempts to cinematize the original Kafka novel likewise came a cropper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
