Marlene

Back-tracking from her farewell appearance at the Carnegie Hall in 1975, this handsome and largely balanced biopic starts in Berlin in the late-twenties, when Marie Magdalene Dietrich was discovered by her Svengali, Josef von Sternberg. Revelling in both the Weimar decadence and the glamour of Golden Age Hollywood, this is a work of meticulous re-creations. But director Joseph Vilsmaer never succumbs to simple film buffery and avoids sensationalism in his discussion of Dietrich's political and sexual preferences. Seizing upon this near-impossible role, Katja Flint captures the mix of insecurity and egomania that made Marlene both a star and an enigma.