Romy Schneider

The Sissi films are lovely, romantic, bucolic and portray Sissi as sweetly depressed in Royal life rather than the hyper-intelligent, body conscious, fat phobic, exercise freak.

The other Romy Schneider film I have seen is Jules Dassin’s adaptation of the Marguerite Duras novel 10:30pm Summer with Melinda Mercouri and Peter Finch. I bought in on DVD for some reason.

La Piscine (1969) - with Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, and Jane Birkin (later remade as A Bigger Splash)

Le Combat dans l'ile (1962) - with Jean-Louis Trintignant

She’s great in La Piscine and Orson Welles’ The Trial. I don’t know if it counts, but I also saw Inferno (the documentary about the unfinished film of the same name which Schneider starred in—it’s the source of the GIF posted by OP)—and found it fascinating. Great documentary.

I've seen La Piscene, That Most Important Thing: Love, Dirty Hands, and Death Watch. One of the more fascinating actresses of the 60s and 70s.

“The things of life” was very good with a very memorable soundtrack. It reminds me a little of the theme from “rosemary's baby”.

“La piscine” of course. The scene at the start remains one of the sexiest scenes in cinema in my opinion.

R1 is “10:30pm Summer” any good? I quite liked “good neighbour Sam” with Jack Lemmon.

Also a film called “garde a vue” about a man who may or may not have committed the murder of two girls. She has a small but pivotal role.

I would avoid the “sissi”unless you have a sweet tooth and watch Visconti’s “ludwig” instead.

César and Rosalie (1972) Romy in a love triangle and she really shines, as does cute Sami Frey as her artist lover.

The Old Gun (1975) She is excellent in a harrowing, if occasionally over the top, family drama set in France during the Second World War.

What's New Pussycat with Peter O'Toole. A dopey farce written by an Early Woody Allen but her sunny personality is captured full force.

That is the most extraordinary gif I've ever seen. Whoa!

“Die Spaziergängerin von Sanssouci” is great but very sad

Was she a big name in your countries when she was alive? Was her death a big deal in your countries? And where were you when you heard of her passing? Is she still well-known in your countries?

Was she really seduced and abandoned by that skinny, over-rated Delon?

Didn't her dad invent Post Its?

Clive Donner directed "What's New Pussycat?"

I adore her. Fantastic and tragic actress. Romy was the only truly gorgeous woman the overrated non-actor Alain Delon was with (the rest of his wives and girlfriends were standard blonde bimbos).

She was an old school women's picture type of actress, a bit adrift in the 1970s, but managed to find a lot of avenues to show her talent in.

I think her best work was in the Claude Sautet films, especially "A Simple Story." And a young and very daring lesbian performance in "Madchen in Uniform."

R14 I was testing you all 👀

Thanks for the recommendations so far!

I agree with r6 that "Sissi" isn't really worth watching; it was one of my grandmother's favourite films, but that's really all it is - a film for German (or Austrian) grandmothers.

But! If your objective is getting a feel for the wild trajectory of her career, watching "Sissi" and following it up with "The Infernal Trio" - a pitch-black comedy with graphic shock effects, co-starring Michel Piccoli - would be a great double feature to give you whiplash.

I also second r7's recommendation of "The Old Gun", though I would call it a revenge thriller, not a family drama.

I was going to post that her only film I’ve seen is Diabolique, but then I remembered that was Simone Signoret.

I guess I’ve never seen any of her films.

Beautiful and touching in The Cardinal, where she falls in love with beautiful Tom Tryon, who, unfortunately, was already married (to God). Her mother, Magda Schneider, gives an even more touching performance in Liebelei, and plays her mother in the Sissi films. Yes, they’re saccharine but kind of lovely anyway.

Gorgeous!

[quote] Diabolique, but then I remembered that was Simone Signoret.

Romy Schneider may have had a big jaw like Signoret. But Schneider wasn't in Diabolique but Signoret was.

She was truly stunning. My mom’s cousin is a fan, so I had to rent Sissi for her on Vhs & copy it using the old-fashioned/2 vcr method.

Romy Schneider isn't related to Roy Scheider.

Romy Schneider doesn't appear in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.

has anybody seen “clair de femme” I read that it was based on Jean seberg. One tragic actress of the era playing another. It’s one that I’ve been trying to see for ages.

This interview was so awkward. She seemed really depressive and she really didn’t like that people thought she was as saccharine as the “sissi” movies.

Didn’t Marie laforet say that romy and Alain both mean girled her during the filming of “plein soleil”?

R11 I do not remember how I got into romy I think I saw her featured on the Arte channel once and found her story intriguing. In my early twenties I discovered all those films from that era by Chabrol and visconti… and it made me more interested in the stars like her and delon… While I think she’s most famous in France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland obviously, she’s known among the art house enthusiasts in places like the uk and us.

R25 Marie Laforet said Alain was a total cunt and constantly talks horribly about him to this day. Romy was barely in the movie itself, she has a brief cameo. Romy was always erratic and kind of weird (Richard Burton wrote about her and Alain a bit in his diaries when they made a film together), but not a mean person like Alain.

Her only statement about Romy is that she laughed at her when she joined Delon on set, but her biggest problem was that Delon and Maurice Ronet "snubbed her," because she allegedly rejected Delon trying to pressure her into an affair (which I doubt Romy knew, the guys probably just told her Laforet was a bitch). Laforet was then falsely implicated in the Markovic affair by one of Delon's cronies.

[quote]Marie Laforet said Alain was a total cunt and constantly talks horribly about him to this day.

Still??

R29 - I misspoke, she died in 2019. But she hated him up until her death. She did quite like Delon's rival, Jean-Paul Belmondo. They worked together often.

Agree about Romy in The Cardinal. How on earth could Tom Tryon have chosen God over her?

R25

That talk show appearance became legendary for the moment later on when she puts her hand on the knee of Burkhard Driest (a former bank robber/ex-con turned writer and actor) and says "I like you. I even like you a lot".

Sorry, I misremembered - she just touched his arm, lol.

Here's the moment.

I also just realized she didn't say the word "even", but somehow the popular imagination has added it into the quote. It's really much ado about nothing, but goes to show how obsessed the German public was, and still is, with Romy.

Had a thing for bad boys

From the Richard Burton diaries:

[quote] No offence, Rich,’ he says with a look of age-old wisdom, ‘you're an attractive guy and all that but Romy would give her eye-teeth to get you away from Elizabeth Taylor.’ ‘Very well Ron,’ I say, ‘I will have Elizabeth on set whenever I work with the dreaded Brunhilde and since I only work with her for two days at most and it's only one scene, I think we can safely say that we can consider that particular Biscay safely navigated. ‘Ah,’ he says, ‘she's the kind who will come in on her days off like pretending that she wants to watch you work because you're a great actor and all that I'm telling you Rich you've got to watch it.’ ‘But Ron. I've met the woman and I thought she was pretty dog-like and wouldn't have been interested in her even in the old days.’ ‘Ah! But she has become very beautiful in the last few years. You wait ‘til you see her.’

[quote] Yesterday [...] I worked with Romy Schneider for the first time. She is very arch. She displayed none of the ‘temperament’ which apparently manifests itself in screaming at the hairdresser, make-up man etc. and was, on the contrary the soul of modesty.

I first saw her in "The Cardinal" and "Good Neighbor Sam" - she was indeed beautiful. Sometimes her English was hard to understand - not in the same incomprehensible way that Claudia Cardinale was - but you had to listen close!!!!

R36 That extract from Burton's diary would be more meaningful if we knew the context, year, who 'Ron' is and whether Burton was drunk at the time,

There’s a film about Romy’s scandalous last interview that she gave while in rehab. Its title is “3 Days in Quiberon”. It’s excellent and the lead actress looks very much like her.

R38 - It was during The Assassination of Trotsky (1972), directed by Joseph Losey. I also remember reading in his diaries Richard Burton detested Alain Delon, called him a "permanent juvenile delinquent."

OP - Woody Allen didn't direct the movie.

He did write the screenplay, which underwent so many changes when it was being filmed, Allen decided to direct his own movies.

Most of her 1970s movies are pretentious dreck of the highest order. Forcing someone to watch "L'important c'est d'aimer" or "Gruppenbild mit Dame" on repeat would make for a highly effective torture technique.

R42 = Watching Eternals on streaming for the fifth time already

I never understood her popularity and I'm European. IMO she was not beautiful compared to other actresses of the time. Look at her compared to the others in WNPC, for instance.

She made some good films, but I think the enduring love for her comes more from the last few tragic years of her life. Cinema seems to love tragic, depressed pill head alcoholic actresses.

R44, well, at least gay men into cinema do...

Part of the fascination with her is also that she started out as this icon of innocent teenage wholesomeness, then ran away from this image and did increasingly risque and dark French arthouse movies.

The French loved her so. Projects were developed specifically with her in mind. I read somewhere that this used to drive Capucine crazy. She complained that Romy "gets EVERYTHING" while Capucine got shit Italian TV work

They had the same agent, too, so I think Capucine felt the agent wasn't doing enough for her. Probably true.

Did Capucine and Romy and Seberg all suicide? Who did it first?

R48 Seberg died in 1979 (some say she was killed, interesting with the FBI stalking ties and abusive boyfriends), Schneider in 1982 (some friends say it wasn't suicide, but come on), and Capcuine in 1990.

And I disagree R44 about her looks, Romy was very gorgeous. Face with a view.

Romy got more parts than Capcuine because she was the better actress. Capucine was beautiful but could not act for shit. Meaty roles for women in the 1970s required acting talent, Capcuine did do some French films in the 70s, but usually in window dressing parts. I think she was in some random Belmondo film and that was the last popular movie she did in or out of Europe - the Pink Panther sequels she was in were flops.

^^ fair enough, but the snobs in the French film industry also resented Capucine for making it big in Hollywood. The French loath Hollywood This was probably the bigger issue IMO.

Another big suicide in the 80s was Dalida. Not known for her film work, but her death was huge in the public psyche.

R50 I don't think Capucine "made it big in Hollywood." Certainly not like Claudia Cardinale (who got okay work in French films) or even Romy herself did, let's be honest. Capucine had supporting roles in ensemble pieces, only The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat? (with Romy, and Romy was higher billed than her) were popular.

And there were French actresses who didn't do many films outside of France but were hugely popular worldwide - Brigitte Bardot is the best example, but Jeanne Moreau and Catherine Deneuve also count, among many others. Capucine was simply a tragic model with a campy name who dabbled in film.

Schneider was considered for "A Shot in the Dark" after Peter Sellers' first choice, Sophia Loren, declined. Schneider had a scheduling conflict, so Elke Sommer got to play Maria Gambrelli.

[quote] Capucine could not act for xxxx.

She was created by Charles K Feldman.

Charles K Feldman liked 'knock-off' stars. Mansfield instead of Monroe.

He wanted a 'knock-off Audrey Hepburn' so he found a skinny Frenchwoman with a big nose and flogged her to an early grave forcing to appear in his products

And French loathing of Hollywood isn't really true and wasn't back then. Alain Delon and Yves Montand remained big draws following brushes with Hollywood, and Simone Signoret was lauded for winning an Oscar. There are certain French actors who don't like Hollywood (Jean-Paul Belmondo is probably the most popular French actor who never did a Hollywood film) but it's not a universal blight in the industry.

How about North to Alaska? The Honey Pot? The Pink Panther? Walk on the Wild Side? WNPC? Etc. The gurl made it big.

Cardinale who I adore didn't even speak English

Deneuve did one film and vamoosed.

Others put their toe in Hollywood. Capucine made her name there, not in France like the others.

Plus she lived in Switzerland not France which also made her seem apart. The French can be cunts.

I bet Feldman was another Weinstein.

You can see pictures inline of Feldman schmoozing with Marilyn and Rita and he also had arrangements with Hedy.

[quote] How about North to Alaska? The Honey Pot? The Pink Panther? Walk on the Wild Side? WNPC? Etc. The gurl made it big.

The "gurl" made it big because she was employed by and being bedded by Charles K Feldman,

R55 I strongly doubt moviegoers could name who Capucine was. The movies you listed were all flops except for Pink Panther and WNP, and she was window dressing in both.

Call me a troll if you like. We're talking about Euro actresses who offed themselves. Capucine qualifies. Plus those films were not flops. Plus she played the lead with John Wayne, the lead with Stanwyck. Are you perhaps the Anti-Capucine Troll?

R59 I like the tragic old carpet muncher too, but she was not a hugely popular foreign actress in the States. Anyway, it wouldn't be the excuse for why French roles dried up for her since so many French actors and actresses had popularity in America and were still able to score roles.

Also, Jane Fonda was featured much more prominently in all the promotional material for WOTWS, despite being lower billed. She was fifth billed in North to Alaska (the Wayne film which did well, but not a huge box office smash hit).

Romy had a charmed life. Until she did not. Her 14 year old son—her only child—was playing and had an accident: he fell and was impaled on a wrought iron fence. He died a horrible, painful death. It ruined her marriage to her husband, Daniel Biasini. Biasini was not the father, but the son was playing at Biasini’s family home under the care of Biasini’s parents. It ruined her life. She never recovered. Her life was very French: filled with love and romance and, finally, epic tragedy. I prefer to think of the playful, glamorous Romy of Inferno.

r61

I think he wasn't playing, but simply trying to climb the fence when it happened.

His father, Romy's ex-husband, who was also an addict, had hung himself a few years before, by the way. So the entire family died within 3 years.

Wardrobe test for Inferno

R61 ACTUALLY, Romy Schneider also had a daughter, Sarah Biasini. She was about 5 when Romy Died.

R64 Interesting, I had no idea. I wonder if she was raised by her grandparents?

Capucine was flawless in North To Alaska. Fabian was also perfect as the lovestruck little brother. The director, Henry Hathaway, may have had a lot to do with both.

Capucine was a clothes-horse.