Gruppenbild mit Dame
1977 History / Drama   
 
Credits
  • Director: Aleksandar Petrovic
  • Script: Heinrich Böll (novel), Aleksandar Petrovic
  • Photo: Pierre-William Glenn
  • Cast: Romy Schneider (Leni Gruyten), Brad Dourif (Boris Koltowski), Michel Galabru (Walter Pelzer), Vadim Glowna (Erhard Schweigert), Richard Münch (Hubert Gruyten), Vitus Zeplichal (Heinrich Gruyten), Milena Dravic (Schwester Klementine), Rüdiger Vogler (Boldig), Fritz Lichtenhahn (Dr. Scholsdorff), Rudolf Schündler (Otto Hoyser)
  • Country: France / West Germany
  • Language: German
  • Runtime: 100 min
  • Aka: Group Portrait with a Lady; Portrait de groupe avec dame
 
 
 
Summary
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...

Review
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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