When the Austrian star, ultimate icon of French chic, arrives on our screens, it's ecstasy. On the occasion of the phenomenal exhibition dedicated to Romy Schneider , Netflix has joined forces with the Cinémathèque and is offering a cycle on its platform in tribute to the favorite Austrian star of the French.
On the agenda: Orson Welles , Alain Delon , Claude Sautet , Yves Montand , Anthony Perkins … An exceptional program available from March 16 to discover the mythical paintings that marked his filmography ( César and Rosalie , La Piscine, Le Procès…) but also more confidential jewels which distinguish the career of Romy Schneider .
Christine by Pierre Gaspard-Huit (1958)
The pitch: a costume film set in 1906 Vienna, with Romy Schneider (Christine) and Alain Delon (Lieutenant Lobheiner) playing an impossible couple. The lieutenant has a relationship with a rich married baroness that he can no longer get rid of and meets Christine, the daughter of an Opera musician already engaged to a pathetic composer...
Why you'll love it: Released only a year after the last film on Sissi , there are common elements with the famous bio on the Empress. Colorized images, crimps galore and kitsch lace, the film marks above all the meeting between Romy and Alain Delon who will become the iconic couple of French cinema in the city and on the screen. Cult scene: the duel between the husband of the baroness and Alain Delon, who is resolutely THE heartthrob of the situation and accumulates stories with all the damsels in distress.
Full Sun by René Clément (1960)
The pitch: a masterful work oriented in Italy with Alain Delon (again!) and Maurice Ronet who will meet in La Piscine . Adapted from the detective novel Monsieur Ripley , it is the story of Tom (Alain Delon) forced to find his friend Philippe who has gone to Italy with his girlfriend ( Marie Laforêt ) and to bring him back to California, on his father's orders.
Why you'll love it: Marked by the New Wave with young actors and live shots, we discover the future great actors who will play with Romy Schneider, even if she only appears for a few seconds in the film.
The Trial of Orson Welles (1962)
The Pitch: Joseph K finds himself accused of a misdemeanor without knowing the nature of the charges and discovers the complexities of a failing justice system, as well as the absurd bureaucracy and the anguish of an unjust conviction.
Why you'll love it: you have to have seen this adaptation of Kafka 's book , with an amazing cast ( Anthony Perkins , Jeanne Moreau ). A dramatic and dark film that offers a critical questioning of the meaning of life. Romy Schneider proves to be brilliant in the role of Leni, madly in love with Joseph K and ready to do anything to save him.
The Swimming Pool by Jacques Deray (1968)
The pitch: it's obviously THE cult film where Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) and Marianne (Romy Schneider) spin the perfect love in their villa in Saint-Tropez ... until the day when Harry ( Maurice Ronet ) and his daughter Penelope ( Jane Birkin ) invite themselves and wreak havoc on the couple. Between unleashed passions, ambiguous relationships and reciprocal jealousies, tensions will be at their peak until an inevitable murder...
Why you'll love it: a 100% glam' cast between Romy, Alain Delon and Jane Birkin but above all ultra-aesthetic images that celebrate the Côte d'Azur , its palm trees, its luxurious idleness. And of course its David Hockney -style swimming pool which was widely advertised in the 1960s.
The Things of Life by Claude Sautet (1969)
The pitch: awarded at the Cannes Film Festival in 1970, the film presents the actress who imposes herself as a glamorous mistress with her lover Pierre, an architect, victim of a road accident. Pierre, in a semi-coma, goes on a nostalgic journey and rehashes the highlights of his life between his ex-wife, his son and a mistress played by Romy Schneider that he couldn't leave. The couple form a duo worthy of a Greek tragedy version of “ I love you, me neither ” where the actress reveals herself to the general French public as a big star with a breathtaking naturalness.
Why you'll love it: grandiose, Romy Schneider appears like a hieratic icon with sublime poses. The actress moves to tears without needing to speak and pours out her most intense emotions through her eyes. Gorgeous !
Max and the scrap dealers by Claude Sautet (1971)
The pitch: Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli find themselves in this mind-blowing thriller in the disreputable neighborhoods of Nanterre: she as a double agent prostitute, he as a hoodlum cop. The two lovers help each other in their delinquency cases on which he works.
Why you're going to love: the 70's aesthetic between kitsch scenes and improbable looks with, among others, the famous vinyl trench coat that Romy wears so well.
César and Rosalie by Claude Sautet (1972)
The pitch: Sautet again! Rosalie (Romy Schneider) embodies here a lovely thirty-year-old Parisian, mother of a child from her relationship with a painter, and in a relationship with César ( Yves Montand ), cliché of the charismatic self-made man. Everything is fine until the return of David, Rosalie's former lover (the dashing Samy Frey ) where an infernal love triangle begins...
Why you'll love it: Romy Schneider definitely appears as the on-screen man-eater, enhanced by director Claude Sautet , who can no longer do without her.
The important thing is to love by Andrzej Zulawski (1975)
The pitch: we go to the other side of the camera to follow Nadine ( Romy Schneider ), a drifting actress who turned to the world of porn to get by. Scenes of horror between semi-rapes and raw dialogues, we follow the daily life of an actress between career disappointments, constraints and sacrifices to meet her needs and stay in the profession.
Why you'll love it: a hot cast with the irresistible Jacques Dutronc perfect in the role of the borderline corny husband and Romy Schneider (who won a César in 1976 for his role), overwhelming, particularly in the close-ups fixed on his face where the time seems to stand still.
A woman at her window by Pierre Granier-Deferre (1976)
The pitch: Athens, 1936. Romy Schneider plays Margot, the beautiful and rich wife of the diplomat Rico Santorini, the two forming a bourgeois couple in mortal boredom. He endures the setbacks of his marriage between adventures and amorous conquests. She, the frivolous, does not despair of meeting the great love. Witness of a manhunt, she collects Michel, the communist fugitive ( Victor Lanoux ) whose ideals fascinate Margot. They obviously fall in love with each other before fleeing together to live a passion.
Why you'll love it: Sunshine, drama, passion and sunbonnets. Everything is there to create a wildly desirable retro atmosphere.
Romy Collection , from March 16 on Netflix .
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