THE QUEEN

Since the age of twelve, Werner Schroeter has cherished a deep admiration for Marianne Hoppe, grande dame of the German cinema. Now he has materialized his admiration in The Queen, a portrait of this living legend. The life of Marianne Hoppe, already past ninety, is not entirely without controversy. From 1936 to 1946 she was married to the actor Gustaf Grudgens and at that time she was an exponent of Nazi cinema. Schroeter allows friends and (ex-) colleagues to sketch a picture of the twentieth-century icon of German film and theater, intercutting these interviews and encounters with excerpts from her most important films. His film is not an exhaustive biography of the legendary actress, but more a dramatic painting of the recalcitrant character of the diva. This time, the drama is found less in the stylized pictures so characteristic of Schroeter, and more in the appearance of the diva herself, for whom every place she goes is instantly turned into a stage.