Following the September tribute to Delon, the Mario Gromo Library/Mediatheque will be presenting the Romy Schneider. Cinema in her eyes showcase. The film cycle will be opened with La piscine by Jacques Deray.

Following the success of the Alain Delon tribute showcase, Monday afternoon films during the month of October are being dedicated to Romy Schneider. This showcase, titled Romy Schneider. Cinema in her eyes, is offering five films selected from this Austrian-French actress’s long filmography. The showcase will be inaugurated by the screening of La piscine by Jacques Deray.

The luminous figure of Rosemarie Magdalena Albach-Retty (1938-1982), acting as Romy Schneider, is linked in collective imagination to her role as Sissi, which the actress performed in the trilogy by Ernst Marischka dedicated to empress Elisabeth of Austria. A much beloved character on the part of audiences, which left its mark on the first part of the Austrian actress’s career, as she acted for a good part of the Fifties as the protagonist in films that were more or less evident variations on that role, which created the risk for her of being sentenced to a certain type of luxuriant and elegant cinema in costume, but distant from her own  inner sensitivity. A restless and tormented sensitivity, which made Schneider one of the most ductile female performers in European cinema in the Sixties and Seventies, at her ease both in comedy and in drama as well as distinctly auteur cinema (it is sufficient to recall her work with Welles, Visconti and Losey). Her work as an actress, always carried out with an intimate adherence to her characters, capable of bringing out the most fragile and personal human feelings, is all balanced between controlled, almost remote emotions and concrete physical aspects, in a bittersweet decadence.

The five titles making up the Romy Schneider. Cinema in her eyes showcase wish to offer a multiform and faceted portrait of this actress, with roles that bring forward the anxieties, fears and obsessions of a modern woman, continually on the brink between the roles which society imposes upon her and an exasperating and almost destructive need to love and to be loved.

All screenings are admission free until full seating capacity is reached, subject to free membership registration to the Library/Mediatheque and presenting an identity document.

Screenings calendar

Monday 2 October, 3.30 p.m.

Jacques Deray

La piscine

(France-Italy, 1969, 120’)

Jean-Paul and Marianne are a couple spending their summer holidays on the southern coast of France as guests in a lovely villa, where they pass most of their time on the edge of a swimming-pool. Their daily routine is suddenly upset by the arrival of Harry (who had been one of Marianne’s suitors in the past) and of Penelope, presented by the man as his daughter. The delicate balance within this quartet is soon shaken up by increasing jealousy and by the resentment rising between the two men. One night Harry tries to punch Jean-Paul in an impulse of rage, but he falls into the pool. Allowing himself to be carried away by jealousy, Jean-Paul does not permit him to get out of the pool and drowns him. He stages a fake accident to cover up the murder, but neither the police nor Marianne truly seem to believe this.

With Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, Jane Birkin, Paul Crauchet

Monday 9 October, 3.30 p.m.

Alberto Bevilacqua

La Califfa

(Italy-France, 1970, 112’)

Irene Corsini, called the Califfa, is the widow of a blue-collar worker who died during some protest demonstrations to obtain better working conditions: The woman becomes the lover of the most powerful businessman in town: Annibale Doberdò, who discovers a new life and his freedom thanks to this love. Indeed, thanks to the Califfa, Doberdò abandons his role as a soulless entrepreneur and tends to put an end to labourer revolts through a series of investments, and thus reopening a factory that had previously gone bankrupt. The affair between Annibale Doberdò and the Califfa, and particularly the effect she has on the entrepreneur‘s life and on his choices, causes strong enmities against him within powerful local circles, and antipathies which will lead to a tragic ending.

With Romy Schneider, Ugo Tognazzi, Marina Berti, Massimo Serato, Gigi Ballista

Monday 16 October, 3.30 p.m.

Claude Sautet

Les choses de la vie

(France-Italy-Switzerland, 1970, 89’)

While married with Catherine, Pierre has been living in Paris with his lover, Hélène, for some time. A work trip abroad might be an opportunity for consolidating their relationship. But Pierre is not capable of denying his teenager son a promise for a holiday together and once again postpones the trip with Hélène, who feels intolerant and cannot stand the man still feeling tied to his family. Following a quarrel, Pierre, who had an appointment in Rennes the next morning, decides to leave at once, travelling all night. He writes a goodbye letter to Hélène, but as he is about to post it he thinks again. He gets back into the car and loses his life in a terrible accident. During the useless rush to hospital, Catherine arrives before Hélène, and on finding the goodbye letter, she destroys it.

With Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, Lea Massari, Gérard Lartigau, Jean Bousie

Monday 23 October, 3.30 p.m.

Andrej Zulawski

L’important c’est d’aimer

(Italy-France-Germany, 1975, 109’)

During a film shoot, photographer Servais Mont meets Nadine Chevalier, an erstwhile actress who is obliged to perform in abysmal level films. Servais remains struck by the woman’s charm and personality and begins to frequent her, also meeting her husband Jacques, a jobless actor who gets his wife to support him. Wishing to better Nadine’s career, Servais decides to finance a theatre show for her, going so far as to fall into debt with Mazelli, a merciless usurer. The show – an experimental ad extreme version of Richard III -  gets staged, but turns out to be an utter fiasco and is heavily reviled by critics, spoiling Servais’s life and his relationship with Nadine.

With Romy Schneider, Fabio Testi, Klaus Kinski, Jacques Dutronc, Claude Daupin

Monday 30 October, 3.30 p.m.

Dino Risi

Fantasma d’amore

(Italy-Germany-France, 1981, 96’)

Nino Monti, an accountant from Pavia, meets a woman on a bus, Anna Brigatti, whom he loved in his youth, now faded and with the years marking her and person face heavily. He sees the woman again on the occasion of a violent crime that takes place in the streets of the city. In the meantime he learns from a doctor friend that in reality Anna died of cancer about three years earlier, after marrying count Zighi and moving to Sondrio. Nino has an opportunity for going to Sondrio and sees Anna, still comely and beautiful, there again. The both organise a rendez-vous on the banks of the Ticino river, the place of their youthful love; but Anna drowns in a banal accident. Nino sees her again, old and knackered, in Pavia, where she loses herself once more in the waters if the Ticino.

With Romy Schneider, Marcello Mastroianni, Eva Maria Meineke, Wolfgang Preiss, Paolo Baroni