Lili Marleen

original title:
Lili Marleen
country / year of production:
Germany / 1981
original length:
120 min. , color
premiere:
14 January 1981
genre:
melodrama
based on:
Lale Andersen. Der Himmel hat viele Farben. Leben mit einem Lied. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verl.-Anstalt, 1972.
director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
film script:
Lale Andersen , Rainer Werner Fassbinder
producer:
cinematographer:
editor:
composer:
cast (role):
Hanna Schygulla , Giancarlo Giannini , Mel Ferrer
more:
plot synopsis:
The film deals with the German bar singer Wilkie, who lives in Zürich and falls in love with the Jew Robert, who belongs to the upper class. His father, the head of a Jewish relief organization, tries to stop their relation shortly after the outbreak of World War II. During the war the singer earns prestige by singing the popular Song of Lili Marleen. Because of the relation to her Jewish lover she loses her protection. Robert gets married to a woman from his background and with this plunges Wilkie into disaster.
keywords:
women during wartime , based on a true story , fascism , exile , anti-semitism , Holocaust
war:
Second World War (1939-1945)
literature:
Raphael Gross (Hg.). Eine Welt, die ihre Wirklichkeit verloren hatte... Jüdische Überlebende des Holocaust in der Schweiz. Zürich: Limmat-Verlag, 1999.

Norbert Schultze. Mit dir, Lili Marleen. Die Lebenserinnerungen des Komponisten Norbert Schultze. Zürich: Atlantis-Musikbuch-Verlag, 1995.
remarks:
Bases on the life of Lale Andersen (1905-1972), who sang "Lili Marlene", the "most poular war song of all times". The song is said to have been translated into more than 48 languages.
availability:
VHS