Die Halbzarte

This was the last time Magda and Romy Schneider met in a film and was once again complemented by Josef Meinrad... Unfortunately, this otherwise great trio pays the price for Romy's persistent efforts to break free from the cult of Sissi. And at first glance, what could be better than an extravagant modern story? An orderly artistic family suffers from a lack of money - although the father writes crime fiction (his civilian job is as a postman), the mother writes love songs, the younger daughter paints and the son trains artistic tricks. The protagonist, Nicole, tries her hand at poetry writing at first but is unsuccessful. She then devises a plan to write a completely immoral play to help the family financially. In order to give her play a real edge, Nicole takes inspiration from contemporary bestsellers, writes under a pseudonym, and presents her play to the public as an autobiographical work. The play enjoys unprecedented success on the Wiener Hoftheater stage and appeals to the American Broadway producer... After that, nothing prevents the classic cascade of "I am someone else" scenes (in this case, Nicole plays a lady from the half-world) and the result can be nothing other than true love. How could this have gotten through to the Viennese audience of the time? By the end of the 1950s, bringing the ideal back to the US was no longer a problem, but it turned out that filmmakers had little understanding of the world of the youth of the time. The entire film is highly stylized and even the civilian scenes are full of theatrical kitsch. (23/08/2009)