Synopses & Reviews
Marlene Dietrich lived and loved with unconventional passion, enthralling men and women alike. Her Prussian bourgeois background shaped her, but so did the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Berlin in the 'Roaring Twenties'. Hollywood of the Depression years was shocked by her. America at war with Germany adored her. And Marlene in turn craved the adoration. When she saw her homeland again, it was no longer the country she remembered. The Germany she knew had died, killed by the Nazis and destroyed by Allied bombs. She only returned permanently after her death: she is buried in a cemetery in her native Berlin. For the last years of her life, she was the 'floating Dietrich', living her life from day to day, in Paris or New York, in pursuit of money and her career, driven not by ambition, but perfectionism. Her public legend became so important to her that she spent her last decade in total seclusion, rather than allow her audiences to witness her decline. 'It makes no difference how she breaks your heart, ' wrote her friend Ernest Hemingway, one of the few men with whom she didn't have an affair, 'if she is there to mend it'.
Synopsis
Marlene Dietrich lived and loved with unconventional passion. Of her allure, Kenneth Tynan wrote: "She has sex, but no particular gender. Her masculinity appeals to women, and her sexuality to men." In life, on stage, and on film, her roles ranged widely, from the promiscuous temptress to the loving mother and innocent girl. An icon of the 20th century, her public legend became so important to her that she spent her last decade in total seclusion, rather than allow her audience to witness her decline. The Life & Times series tells the stories of those who have shaped our present and our past, from Beethoven to Curie, Dietrich to Wilde. Offering expert, eminently readable texts by distinguished authors, these handsomely designed books feature chronologies, full indices, and striking color photos and illustrations. Together, they form a superb modern library of biography.
Synopsis
The fascinating life of one of the great entertainment icons of the 20th century.
About the Author
Malene Sheppard Skaerved teaches screenwriting at Birkbeck College, London. She has collaborated on an opera with the British composer Paul Archbold and won many prizes for her short films.