Romy Schneider: It’s a great director’s tribute to a deceased actor

Home retrospective organized in Cinémathèque française, documentary talk with Romi Schneider, broadcast on Arte on May 31 (and already available on arte.tv); Romy, a femme libre broadcast that will be shown in Cannes and also 3 in France on 20 May; Many films aired on TV channels, including the most recent, exciting and heartwarming Passante du sans-souci, which we have mentioned here …

To say that this huge actor, just as romantic and with an absolutely tragic fate, was represented everywhere for some time. By the way. May 29 marks the fortieth anniversary of his brutal disappearance, which left millions of mournful movie-goers orphaned.

Sun actor and chameleon, very loyal, also broken, tired in the face of many personal dramas. He knew how to attract the attention of many great filmmakers, including the late Bertrand Tavernier, who gave him a title role in a very large film: La Mort en direct.

A story about a man (Harvey Keitel) who has a camera implanted in his brain and has taken everything he watches. And also the story of a woman, Catherine Mortenho, who escaped “free to die.” He wants to escape from the media, in this case from a TV show, he does not know that the person who is filming him is helping to escape …

Filmed in 1979, condemning the excesses of Wi-Fi television, the film was incredibly visually appealing and even more relevant today than ever before. The producers at first did not want to give Rom Schneider, who apparently could not convince them of the role of a dying woman. But Tavernier will be able to make his own choices and the film, a great critical and public success, owes much to its two translators.

Romi Schneider, who was thought to be too “full of life” to play the role of a dying woman, slips perfectly into the skin of Catherine, a young woman who refuses to bother and hides a terrible wound. This role takes on an even more tragic dimension when we know that a year after the release of the film, Romi Schneider loses his son, David, who died in particularly painful circumstances.

When the film was released in cinemas in 2013 with a very beautifully restored copy, Bertrand Tavernier evoked with great emotion his memories of filming with the actor. In an interview with TV5MONDE. The more vivid emotion he had not seen exactly – he had refused to even look at it again for years.

“Shortly before Rome’s death he wanted to shoot with his son” Said the filmmaker, in support of this scene revealed below ..

“He wanted her to be in this little scene where he hugs her; I filmed it and for a very long time I had a hard time re-watching the movie because I was thinking about what happened to it when it died. I was thinking about the wonderful days he spent with us, with the team that he adored. Rome has taught me many things. He really wanted us to respect his freedom … he saw in this film the way he talks about himself, the fight for freedom, this fight, which he also constantly ran with his ghosts. Against the past, against the mother … “