Lili Marleen

Name: Lili Marleen
Genre: Classic, Romance, Drama
Released: 1981
Duration: 121 min
Cast: Hanna Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, Mel Ferrer, Karl-Heinz von Hassel, Erik Schumann

Rainer Werner Fassbinder19812h 1mClassic, Romance, Drama

Why we chose it

In the Second World War “Lili Marleen” won over soldiers on both sides of the front, and Fassbinder turned the song into a melodrama with all the splendour of 1930s Hollywood. Hanna Schygulla plays a singer modelled on Lale Andersen, lost in ambition and intrigue as the world falls apart around her.

Synopsis

In 1938 Willie sings in a Swiss bar and is in love with a young Jewish conductor whose family quietly smuggles people out of Germany. His father sees her as a threat to the whole operation and arranges for her to be sent across the border. In Berlin she records a sentimental tune that soon rings out along the front, and before long a Nazi official comes calling.