MARLENE DIETRICH: SHE’S FAITHFUL IN HER FASHION
“Marlene,” which has been playing here to good box office since Nov. 7, has become fashionable beyond film circles.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America this year named Marlene Dietrich recipient of its lifetime achievement award for contributions to fashion--in large part because of the film’s influence, said Michaele Vollbracht, designer of the stylish film poster for “Marlene” and a member of the council.
The annual honor, which was presented last year to Katharine Hepburn, is scheduled to be awarded in ceremonies here Jan. 12, although the reclusive Dietrich is not expected to come here from her home in Paris.
In five daily showings at the 200-seat Plaza Theater, Maximilian Schell’s 96-minute study of and audio interview with the legendary star has brought in $100,000 to date, considered excellent for a documentary, according to the theater’s management. (The film has opened in both San Francisco and Los Angeles and will do so in other cities across the country next month.)
Completed in 1983, “Marlene” premiered in 1984 at Filmex in Los Angeles. The film received an Oscar nomination as best documentary the same year. However, it wasn’t picked up for distribution by Alive Films until the spring of 1986. After its showing at the September, 1986, New York Film Festival it generated a good deal of excitement, which has led to its current release.
“I thought (the film) was a unique approach to film making and to making a documentary about a legendary actor,” said Mike Kaplan, president of marketing of Alive Films. “I thought it had an audience in film buffs, but also in Jewish audiences, who remember Marlene’s stand against Nazism during the war; gays, because of her great glamour; and, perhaps a younger generation intrigued by what they have heard about her.”
Dietrich, who initiated the project herself and who is contracted to share in any profits from the film, has seen the documentary “many times,” her longtime press representative, John Springer, said this week. “She had a mixed response at first, but she has grown to like it,” he said.
