La passante du Sans-Souci (1982)

Max Baumstein is a reputable businessman, a rich self-made man with a conscience - he founded a highly visible and active international organization fighting against violations of human ... See full summary »

Director:

Jacques Rouffio

Writers:

Jacques Rouffio (scenario and adaptation), Jacques Kirsner (scenario and adaptation),

Stars:

Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, Helmut Griem

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Romy Schneider	...	Elsa Wiener / Lina Baumstein
Michel Piccoli	...	Max Baumstein
Helmut Griem	...	Michel Wiener
Dominique Labourier	...	Charlotte Maupas
Gérard Klein	...	Maurice Bouillard
Mathieu Carrière	...	Ruppert von Leggaert / Federico Logo
Jacques Martin	...	Marcel
Wendelin Werner	...	Max Baumstein jeune
Marcel Bozonnet	...	Mercier
Christiane Cohendy	...	Helene Nolin
Pierre Michaël	...	Me Jouffroy
Véronique Silver	...	La présiidente du tribunal
Maria Schell	...	Anna Helwig
Raymond Aquilon
Béatrice Avoine

Storyline

Max Baumstein is a reputable businessman, a rich self-made man with a conscience - he founded a highly visible and active international organization fighting against violations of human rights. Why would he commit an act that apparently negates the principles he has striven for so long to uphold? Eventually, he reveals a secret about himself that he kept hidden from his younger wife Lina, and that in a roundabout way concerns her as well. It is the conclusion of a struggle that started many decades earlier, when Elsa Wiener, a German singer exiled in Paris, without money or relations, a refugee among many others, faced two daunting problems: surviving in a foreign city, and saving her husband Michel from the clutches of the Nazis.

---

Plot Keywords:

nazi | political prisoner | book editor | flashback | 1930s | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Country:

France West Germany

Language:

French

Release Date:

14 April 1982 (France)

Also Known As:

La passante

Filming Locations:

Hansaviertel, Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Elephant Production, Films A2, CCC-Filmkunst

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

The shooting was postponed because 'Romy Schneider' broke her leg. It began in May 1981, but was interrupted some weeks later. Schneider had a kidney operation and her son David died in July. The remaining scenes were shot from October to December.

---

Connections

Referenced in Romy (2009)

User Reviews

Retro film lacks energy

Joseph Kessel was a pillar of the French literary world. A Jewish writer who often wrote about war and exotic locales, he was elected to the Academy, becoming a sort of Hemingway figure. North Americans know him through The Lion (Cardiff), Night of the Generals (Litvak), and The Horsemen (Frankenheimer). The latter had one of the best performances by Omar Sharif I can recall. L'Armee des ombres (Melville) was one of the most moving resistance stories I've seen. Too, he wrote Belle de Jour, which all Deneuve fans are eternally grateful for.

This film is not on a level with the others. Slow, talky, and with the political themes not fully brought out (although the scene with Maria Schell and the urn containing her husband's ashes is wonderful), I'd be hard pressed to make a case for it as essential viewing. For Romy Schneider completists.