Review of Meine Schwester Maria

But wonderful nonetheless. Max Schell recreates, with the help of many family members, scenes from his sister Maria's last days. (The film if from 2002 and Maria died in 2005.) The famous movie star is living on the family homestead in Austria in a lucid but irresponsible state, following a stroke. Scenes of her daily life are interspersed with medical commentaries, a discussion of her financial problems and film excerpts from her long list of international hits, films she keeps watching on the many television sets installed in her bedroom. I suspect some of the scenes are reenactments and recreations, some of them consciously involving Maria Schell herself. If that is the case, this is the last instance of Maria Schell's acting and one of the very few DVDs featuring her work on this side of the Atlantic. Because it is a very sad fact that very few of her films (in English, French, Italian or German) are available in that format today. As this documentary is already three years old and has just made it to DVD, there is little hope this situation will ever change. But you never know...