Product Description

Film goddess. Cabaret chanteuse. Tireless soldier. Immortal icon. Marlene Dietrich endures as one of the most seductive and glamorous personalities in cinematic history. But who was she really? In this fascinating, 'revealing glimpse behind the image (Los Angeles Times) narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, director J. David Riva pays tribute to his world-renowned grandmother. On screen, she wasa legend. But that was only the beginning. She became the German-born all-American girl, entertaining U.S. troops on the front lines, doing whatever she could for her boys on the battlefield. Rare,never-before-seen footage and candid interviews are featured in this stirring portrait that will have you falling in love again with Marlene!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61602 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-12-03
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, German, Hebrew
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Customer Reviews

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A Different Angle
Marlene Dietrich was an interesting woman. She was completely dedicated to her homeland of Germany; she spoke fondly of the culture until her death. She was raised in a priveledged class and was lucky enough to begin her career that brought her to America in The Blue Angel with Josef von Sternberg. She became a huge star in America and never returned to Germany to make another film. When World War II began, Dietrich rallied against her home country and went to extremes to encourage the moral of the American troops. She even became a citizen of the country.

Dietrich's war efforts have not been explored in the past the way this documentary does. Made by much of her family including her grandson and with interviews from her daughter, this documentary provides a personal view as well as a scholarly one. The war changed this exotic performer, and this DVD shows the world why and how.

As a big fan of Dietrich, I have never admired her as much as I do now after seeing this documentary.

Giving Dietrich's Legendary Life Meaning in Refreshing Documentary
Not as enigmatic as Garbo but arguably more relevant, Marlene Dietrich continues to fascinate with her life story. Although she passed away in 1992 at age 90, there are facets of her life and career that still seem fresh and surprising. This 2001 documentary directed by her grandson David Riva takes a different approach than Maximilian Schell's more famous whipping-boy interview with an aging, off-screen Dietrich in his documentary, 1984's "Marlene". Riva has culled rare home movies and concert footage while de-emphasizing film clips from her remarkable career.

The most intriguing aspect is how Riva chooses to focus much of the running time to her WWII years. What comes across clearly is how giving and concerned a person Dietrich was as she became an American citizen yet conflicted about the pride she held of her German identity, especially since her beloved mother remained in Berlin during the war. Her hatred of the Nazis drove her, often at her own peril, to spend much of that time vouching for European Jews and courageously entertaining troops on the front line. Riva was even able to secure a recording of Dietrich's first brief phone conversation with her mother, after liberation. She couldn't go to Russian-held Berlin herself, but they were allowed to talk, in English only. In a voice much higher pitched than her film roles, Dietrich heartbreakingly exposes her soul in just a couple of minutes.

Just as poignant is Dietrich onstage. Obviously not a great technical singer, she compensates with the bravura of her hard-earned emotionalism, especially during her first performance in Israel when she sang Pete Seeger's anti-war "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" in forbidden German. Other aspects of her life are interesting as well, in particular, her failed affair with French actor Jean Gabin ("La Grande Illusion") and her later, and more personally relevant film work such as Stanley Kramer's "Judgment at Nuremberg". I wish there was a way for Riva to include a more comprehensive overview of her impressive film career as her amazing performances in Orson Welles's "Touch of Evil" and Billy Wilder's "Witness for the Prosecution" are ignored here.

Several interviews are interspersed, most notably with Dietrich's daughter Maria Riva, but also with colleagues and admirers such as actress Hildegard Knef, director Volker Schlöndorff, close friend Rosemary Clooney (who duetted with Dietrich on the comical song, "Too Old to Cut the Mustard" - a personal favorite of mine), and Burt Bacharach, who was her musical director in the 1960's while he was churning out the century's best pop tunes. Jamie Lee Curtis narrates unobtrusively, and there is even a Dietrich vocal impersonator who reads personal correspondence. Even if you feel you know who Dietrich was, this lovingly done documentary is certainly unique and personal enough to make your viewing a worthwhile experience.