Gruppenbild mit Dame (1977) - film review

Leni Gruyten’s life has been as turbulent and unpredictable as her own wayward character.  To save her from the Nazis, Leni, a bourgeois Jew living in Germany, is placed in the care of a convent of nuns.  During the war, she has an affair with her cousin, who is later shot for refusing to join the German army.   She then meets Boris, a Russian prisoner-of-war who works in a cemetery -  another affair that is destined to end badly...

Aleksandar Petrovic directed this accurate but pretty bloodless adaptation of Heinrich Böll’s well-known novel.  The sombre, grey-tinted mood of the film is more evocative of Cold War Russia than Germany during the war, but an engaging performance from Romy Schneider at least gives the drama some emotional bite.

© James Travers 2007

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