Lili Marleen | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
Produced by |
Luggi Waldleitner Enzo Peri Horst Wendlandt |
Written by |
Lale Andersen Rainer Werner Fassbinder Manfred Purzer Joshua Sinclair |
Starring | Hanna Schygulla |
Music by | Peer Raben |
Cinematography | Xaver Schwarzenberger Michael Ballhaus |
Edited by | Rainer Werner Fassbinder Juliane Lorenz |
Release date
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Running time
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120 minutes |
Country | West Germany |
Language | German |
Lili Marleen is a 1981 West German drama film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Hanna Schygulla. The screenplay was produced using the autobiographical novel Der Himmel hat viele Farben (The Heavens Have Many Colors) by Lale Andersen. However, according to Lale Andersen's last husband, Arthur Beul, the film's plot bore little relation to her real life.
The film is set during the Third Reich and is about the forbidden love between the German singer Willie (Hanna Schygulla) and the Swiss Jewish composer Robert Mendelssohn (a character based on Rolf Liebermann), who actively seeks to help an underground group of German Jews.
Of the 23 theatrical films that Fassbinder directed, Lili Marleen was the only one that Germany submitted to the Academy to be considered for a Best Foreign Language Film nomination (the film, while a German production, was one of the few that Fassbinder shot in English). Ultimately, the film was not nominated.