Liebelei: dir Max Ophuls (1933)

Based on a story by Artur Schnitzler, Liebelei is a touching love story and one of cinema’s most memorable romances:in pre WWI Vienna, two army officers meet a pair of pretty girls (one of them played by Magda Schneider, mother of Romy). A love affair develops between cavalry Lieutenant Fritz and Christine, the daughter of an opera violinist. … but there’s a tragic ending. The film is a cut above the costume-based tearjerkers common to the era, though; Ophuls demonstrated a lightness of touch in his filming, and the plot is surprisingly nuanced (for instance, Christine’s father is prepared to allow her an exceptional degree of freedom for her age because he feels remorse about being overly protective of her older sister and forcing her into spinsterhood).

Liebelei screens in a double bill with (1948), Ophuls’ Hollywood vehicle for Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan. It’s also a bittersweet story, albeit without the same catastrophic ending …

The films show in Goethe-Institut’s CineKlub programme; all films are introduced by film scholar Peter Scarlet, who curated the series. It kicks movies made by German émigré filmmakers who had successful careers in Hollywood, and each movie night is a double feature. There will be a Q&A and discussion with food and drink after the screenings.