Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song

It's far from the first documentary about Dietrich, but as far as I know, this is the first to tell her story from a specifically German point of view. It's how she viewed her homeland, especially during the long years abroad, that is the prism this film uses to look at the familiar material.

However, not all of the material is familiar -- there are a lot of home movies not seen before (the advantage of having your grandson as the film maker), and Dietrich's daughter (mother of the film maker) is by far the most revealing Talking Head.

Dietrich's anti- Nazi efforts during the Second World War, fuelled by her passion for French Freedom Fighter Jean Gabin as much as patriotism, form a central part of the narrative, along with her conflicting emotions over helping the Allied war effort while her mother was still in Berlin.

A new take on a well-known story, and well worth a visit