3 Tage in Quiberon

By the time I write this text, I've already seen the film six times. Yes, all voluntarily. I just can't get enough. 3 days in Quiberon is a journey I want to go on over and over again. I forget everything during these two hours. I suffer with Romy. I feel her fear, her courage, her defiance, I am troubled, anxious, barefaced, tipsy, lost, found, trapped and set free. I live through all this in my red velveted cinema chair in the dimmed theatre. Even if Romy Schneider is always surrounded by other people, the loneliness of this woman breaks my heart.

I get angry hearing the arrogant journalist asking shameless questions. I become desperate feeling Hilde's urge to protect her friend and the pain caused by rejection. I would like to lean my head against the shoulder of Robert Lebeck, hide in his strong arms, the small camera in his big hands. I hear the click it makes when he takes a picture, the sea, the music, the silence... This is how I find myself sitting in my red cinema chair and every time, this movie takes it out of me. 3 days in Quiberon is a close-up view that comes this close it nearly hurts. But as soon as on screen Romy smiles, I'm infected with happiness. Her happiness is so pure, just like her calamity. But in between seconds, a moment, a glimpse, there's hope. And that also hurts, somehow, a fugitive prick in my stomach. During the last scenes, I'm overwhelmed by my emotions. I can barely take to leave this woman alone with her sad destiny. Neither does Romy Schneider leave me, she follows me around in my thoughts for some more days... This year she'd have celebrated her 80th birthday.

Special fact about the premiere of a film is that the audience can meet the cast & crew. And you know that you're 'fan nr. 1' when the director recognizes you from the other premiere you where attending in another city just one week ago. I'm such a lucky girl I could meet Emily Atef again and tell her by person how I feel about her movie. It's such a masterpiece and I am so thankful they made it. Emily Atef is a woman I admire and not only is she incredibly talented, she's also a very gentle, interested and humble person. If a director puts so much passion and empathy into a film like she does, the result can only be a movie that is incredibly touching from the very first. 3 days in Quiberon definitely is such a movie.

Followed the premiere at Düsseldorf, this time also Marie Bäumer, who plays Romy Schneider, came. Yes, she looks quite alike the famous Austrian actress, but first of all, it's her role in this film. Like Romy Schneider wasn't Sissi, Marie Bäumer isn't Romy Schneider. But that's a fact I completely forget during these 155 minutes. And that pretty much says it all. It's not about what you see on the outside, on screen she might really look like Romy, but it's more about what you feel inside when seeing her play. It takes some things for an actress to make the spectators feel something, for that they're touched. But it's all there when Marie Bäumer plays. I witness her become this fragile, tormented human being and I feel my own human flaws and that is more than I could wish from a movie: it makes me feel. I see humanity in a hundred different ways - some hurt, some heal. I think emotions can be a blessing. Marie Bäumer has that special talent and with her interpretation of Romy Schneider she deeply touches me. I admire her since I first saw her in a german comedy, 18 years ago, and I admire her even more now. To meet her in person was a dream come true. She's such a strong personality, natural and friendly, humble and, in opposition to her film character, well-balanced.

3 days in Quiberon is clearly one of the most touching movies I've ever seen. When I first saw it, I thought: this might be one of the best films I've ever seen (and I go to the movies a lot!). By now I think: this actually is the one best movie I've ever seen. It's beautiful, it's painful, it is perfection. It left me sad and happy and a million things in between. And that's what films are for: emotions. But what am I telling you. Go see it, you'll understand me.

A biopic of Romy Schneider during her last weeks of her life. The film portrays the very emotional and radical last interview she has given while she was on holidays and cure in Quiberon. She gets confronted with her past and life in general which turns into another crisis of the troubled legendary european actress. Marie Bäumer is absolutely phenomenal in the leading role. And if that had been an american film, she surely would be a strong contender for the Oscar. Bäumer not only perfectly captures the mannerisms of Schneider, no she allows us a very deep look into her soul and there is not one scene where she is now shining! Absolutely breathtaking performance. The rest of the cast is also great. Charly Hübner is extremely sympathetic and lovable. Birgit Minichmayr is as great as always and turns into a warm and brilliant supporting performance as Romy's best friend Hilde. The choice to direct the film in black and white was absolutely perfect because on that way the close ups worked even better and more effective. Great score, great direction and a fantastic screenplay makes this an absolutely worthy biopic of Romy Schneider. Highly recommended not only for fans of the actress but to everyone because it perfectly describes a woman on the edgiest edge of breakdown.

It should be pointed out that neither Sara Biasini ,Romy Schneider's daughter ,nor her ex-husband approved of this movie ,which they accused of giving the audience the portrait of a woman hooked to alcohol and pills.

So one has to consider this movie ONE vision of Romy Schneider 's last days (she was to die the following year);and Marie Bäumer's performance is absolutely mind-boggling,stunning,an amazing true-to-life portrait .And anyway ,the film does not spare the reporter,an intruder in a woman's private life ,his sole concern is to dwell on sordid details :the only movies he mentions are the Sissi trilogy : no hints at Welles, Tavernier,Sautet, Losey ,Costa-Gavras, Visconti (with whom she played Sissi for the fourth time : in her memoirs she wrote that the Italian director was the only one to paint a historically accurate picture of Elisabeth aka Sissi),Deray (who ,pushed by Alain Delon ,recharged her career) ; the journalist , a German one ,is a cynical go-getter whose main concern is to get scandalous stories about a suffering star .If another movie is mooted , it is by Schneider herself who talks about what would be her final movie "LA PASSANTE DU SANS SOUCI" from Joseph Kessel 's novel , a work she was anxious to get made (by Jacques Rouffio) .She complains that German directors (and the seventies spawned a whole generation of great directors in that country)never called on her for interesting parts ,thus a career which essentially took place in France where she was one of the biggest stars of those years .But her interviewer is only interested in his nice empress, the money she makes (which was squandered by her mother and her stepfather) ,and the relationship with her mother (who played her mother in the Marischka trilogy and who was a supporting actress is some other of her movies of the fifties) ; her moving to France ("not an escape" ,she points out)was necessary to live her life at last .

The second part of the movie is not really given over to her career ,but shows her sincere friendships (the friend who comes to cheer her ,the photographer in love with her), her kindness (the autograph) ,her joie de vivre which survived through the pain (the last scene will move you to tears,a fabulous rainbow:unfortunately there won't be any crock of gold at the end of it).

Filmed in stark black and white , half documentary,half fiction ,it's not a facile work ,it is nevertheless a must for the actress's numerous fans,in spite of her daughter's legitimate reserves.

You don't have to know or be a fan of Romy Schneider to appreciate this film! It is a human, emotional and strong portrait of a woman, which has a universal appeal. Anyone who has felt lonely, experienced pain, felt lost will connect with this story. I really hope many many more will take the journey of this film.