Monday, February 24, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY, MARISA MELL - An evening with author André Schneider in Graz-Austria
On
February 24th 2014
Marisa Mell would have celebrated her 75th birthday had she not had an untimely death at the age of 53!
To celebrate the life and movies of Marisa Mell her native city Graz in Austria has taken the initiative of organizing a special once in a life time evening honoring one of her most famous citizens by inviting from Germany
ANDRE SCHNEIDER
the author of the ultimate Marisa Mell book
DIE FEUERBLUME
über Marisa Mell und ihre Filme
at
THE GRAND CAFE KAISERFELD
Kaiserfeldgasse 19-21
8010 GRAZ-Austria
on
MONDAY FEBRUARY 24th 2014 at 20.00 h.
The admission is free!
André Schneider will read excerpts from his book, show clips from some of the best and lesser known Marisa Mell movies, tell inside stories about her life and movies and will gladly answer questions on the life and work of Marisa Mell.
If you are not able to attend this special evening you can still order the book through these online merchants:
Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/3732253252/
Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/dp/3732253252/
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/3732253252
Truely a night to remember!
Highly recommended!
Thanks to Jochen Kulmer from Graz-Austria for this clip
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Marisa Mell: "Die Feuerblume" by André Schneider - An interview with the author
David Del Valle writes about "Die Feuerblume":
"Wonderful book...Wonderful subject...Perfect"
"Marisa Mell would be over the moon with what you have done in her memory!"
Early last summer the Marisa Mell Blog celibrated its fifth anniversary! That was an occassion for me to look back on those wonderful five years from the moment when I started to write almost each and every week an entry about the life and work of Marisa Mell untill the present day. Around that time I got a telephone call from my dear friend André Schneider from Berlin telling me that he finally had found the time and the eagerness to fullfill his long wanted dream to write a biography about our favorite cult actress. From that moment on I lived on pure adrenaline wanting to hold that book in my hands and savouring every moment of it when her life story would enfold before my eyes and being able to admire her beauty once again on the more that 100+ pictures, most of them never seen before. One thing I knew for sure: if there was one person on this planet that would do Marisa Mell justice as a biographer it would be André Schneider. And I wasn't wrong in my assumption. André Schneider has written a book with the utmost respect for his subject, which was not always easy, but in the end succeeded with bravour. So I am very glad that André Schneider found the time to grant me this interview:
For those Marisa Mell
Blog-readers that do not know you, André, tell us about yourself and your
professional background?
To sum it up in one word: I’m a storyteller. In
order to tell my stories, I choose different means of expression: moviemaking,
acting, and writing. I’m in my mid-thirties and based in Berlin, Germany
Did you ever meet Marisa Mell in person, private or professionally?
No, never. I had just turned 14 when she died,
so there was never any connection of any kind in this respect.
What did attract you
to her? Was it her acting, her beauty or her life in general? How did you come
in contact with the movies of Marisa Mell?
I had never even heard of her, even though I’ve
been a cineaste extraordinaire ever
since my childhood and have been watching at least one movie every day since I
was 13. I stumbled across Erika Pluhar’s book in my early twenties and read it
again in my late twenties after my partner had died. It was such an insight
into a true friendship and love. After reading the book – which tells us hardly
anything about the actress Marisa
Mell – I desperately wanted to see some of her work, so I started with Ben and Charlie and Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee. Those were the easy ones to get.
Then came La encadenada, a truly
spellbinding fairy tale that made me fall in love with her. Not just her beauty
– most leading ladies are beautiful –, but her aura. I was absolutely taken by
the way the talked. Senta Berger wrote, “Marisa was chewing each word with
relish”, which is absolutely true.
People often say that
when you are attracted to someone it is because you see yourself in the mirror
and that the other one is your counterpart? Do you have a feeling that this is
also the case between Marisa Mell as a screen actress and yourself as a viewer?
No, not really. While reading Marisa – Rückblenden auf eine Freundschaft,
I actually identified myself more with Erika Pluhar. Marisa was more like a
mystery, a ghost that appeared and disappeared. Maybe that is what had caught
my interest in the first place: a mystery unsolved. And even now, after seven
years of research and writing about her, her mystery remains unsolved. This
means a never-ending fascination.
You admire a lot of
female actresses, you mention in the book, like Tippi Hedren, Romy Schneider,
Christine Kaufmann… Why do you think that is?
I like artists that inspire me. I like strong
people. Those women I mention in the book were really brave women; Capricorns
mostly, very strong-willed and emancipated without being politically aware of
it. Alfred Hitchcock was the director that opened up the world of cinema for
me. I started collecting his films when I was 13, and The Birds was my fourth Hitchcock film. Tippi Hedren – and, in
fact, all the Hitchcock blondes – fascinated me. I loved the way she smoked; a
friend of mine called it “the high art of smoking”, very aware of the visual
effect it has. The way she moved her head and hands was very well
choreographed, highly sophisticated. It was unlike all the women I knew when I
was a child. Unearthly perfection, although not quite perfect in a Hollywood sense: Tippi Hedren had a very big nose, a
rather thin upper lip, and was very short.
Do you think that this
a typical gay issue to admire beautiful and on-screen strong women like Marilyn
Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn… or female singers like Madonna in the
past and now Lady Gaga?
Apparently it is a typical gay issue. I’m not sure why, though.
Was it a difficult
writing process?
Oh yes! It was a struggle as well as a moral
dilemma. During my researches I stumbled across some black spots, and a lot of
white spots; things that Marisa wanted to keep private. And I thought, “I am
not a journalist, I am simply someone who admires this woman. Do I have the right to publish all her secrets in
this book?” ¾ I didn’t want to lie. Marisa spread
a lot of lies herself in Coverlove. I
wanted it to be an honest book, but on the other hand I wanted to “protect” her
privacy. For a long, long time I didn’t quite know how to walk this fine line.
Some chapters of the book – the Broadway debacle, her miscarriages, her “lost
years” between 1982 and 1989 – made me so sad that I thought, “I really don’t
wanna go there.” ¾ It was hard to overcome these
feelings and finally give birth.
How did you tackle the
research on the life of Marisa Mell?
The internet, books, books, books, newspaper
articles, writing Marisa’s friends and co-workers, more internet, more books,
more articles, your blog…
What do you like most:
research or writing? Why?
In this case, it’s impossible to separate these
two aspects. Research is fun because in Marisa’s case it’s almost a task for a
private investigator; if you eventually find that little piece of information
you have spent months searching for, it’s a uniquely cheerful moment. The
writing is the creative process. To me, writing is like being in a trance. I
couldn’t live without it.
Did you know in
advance what direction the book should take or did it shape itself during the
writing process?
No, not at all. Over the years, Die Feuerblume took on many different
shapes and forms. Early in 2013, when I was editing a book of short stories I
wanted to publish for Christmas, I choose to include my Marisa essays as well,
only to discover that they already consisted of almost 200 pages, and I
thought, “Wow, it really is a book of
its own already!”, so I started re-working on it.
Why did you choose not
the write a “classic” structured biography but optioned instead for, what you
call “eine Annäherung”, or in other words getting to know Marisa Mell via her
movies and social life?
I really tried to centre primarily on her movie
and theatre work. This is the area I’m familiar with. I watched all her movies
chronologically – if possible – and focused my attention on her acting. Most of
her movies are almost unknown, so I wanted to shed a little light on them
because some of them deserve to be
discovered. In order to write a structured biography in a classic sense, I
would have needed much more material from her childhood or her marriage, for instance.
More interviews, diving into the television archives in Italy , Austria ,
Germany
Why are you so fascinated
by the movies of the 60s and 70s when Marisa Mell was at the height of her
career?
The shapes, the colors, the music… They’re
simply beautiful to watch, that’s all. But I like movies from all the different
eras. Right now, I’m more and more into the American film noir of the late 1940s and early 1950s; Woman on the Run is a forgotten gem.
Where you surprised
finding out after having done your research that the life and work of Marisa
Mell really pivots around her failed Broadway adventure with the musical Mata
Hari? Before her participation she was the “IT”-girl of her time being
careless, joyful, happy, the whole world at her feet and after the musical
disaster, she lost complete confidence in herself and almost never really
smiled again on the pictures taken of her and choosing movies only for the
money?
Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but if it is,
it’s really odd that everything started to crumble after Mata Hari. First I thought, her career went downhill in the early
1980s, but, matter-of-factly, it really started to disintegrate in the early
1970s. Danger: Diabolik, which she
did directly before heading to New
York
The book about Marisa
Mell is more than just a recounting of her life and work in the movies. It is
also a very in depth study on the course of a professional movie career from
the early steps in theatre school over the first steps in the movie business
over gaining world success until the end of a career ending in poverty and
despair! Was that your intention?
I don’t think I really had an “intention” per
se; I simply chronicled her life from 1939 to 1992, and this was her path: a
lonely childhood in Graz, Vienna, drama school, theatre, Austrian and German
films, international career, and finally unemployment, poverty, cancer. I wish
the book had a different ending. I wish I could have interviewed her in person.
I wish she could celebrate her 75th birthday next year.
Why is it, do you
think, that so many beautiful women from that era as actresses ended up in so
much despair like Karen Schubert, Anita Ekberg, Sylvia Kristel…?
They were, in a way, victims of their time and
fame. They were brand marked as “sexy” or “hot”, but weren’t considered
“serious actresses”. Bardot was clever: she knew that and didn’t depend on
fame. She could easily quit when she was in her late thirties. Once you’re
brand marked in this business, it’s almost impossible to change your path. The Italian
and Spanish movies of that period – the late 60s and early 70s – didn’t have
great character roles to beautiful actresses. It was a bit different in England , France ,
and Germany
Had Marisa Mell not
died so early on in her life, how do you think she would have regained her life
back in overcoming her poverty and despair?
It’s impossible to give a proper answer to this
question. You cannot “plan” success, not really. If you could, there wouldn’t
be any flops anywhere. But her last movie, I
love Vienna , was a remarkable success in Austria
If she was alive today
and you would meet her, what is the most important question you would have
liked to ask her?
“Why are you so afraid of getting to know yourself?”
¾ And I’d let her know that she’d touched many,
many people with her vulnerability and strength, not just her beauty.
Thank you, André, for this interview!
My pleasure!
For more information about the book: see this entry: Die Feuerblume
You can order the book through these venues:
- Amazon DE: http://www.amazon.de/dp/3732253252/
- Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/3732253252
- Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/dp/3732253252/
Highly recommended!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
New Book: "Die Feuerblume - Über Marisa Mell und ihre Filme" by André Schneider
Today is a very special day for the Marisa Mell Blog because I am very honored and proud to announce that the very first biography of Marisa Mell about her life and movies is now available to buy:
"Die Feuerblume"
by
André Schneider
"Die Feuerblume" or "The Fire Flower", written by my dear friend André Schneider from Berlin (Germany), is a 354 page book chronocling Marisa Mell's life path from her early childhood days in Graz (Austria) under her civil name Marlies Moitzi to her international stardom in the sixties and seventies in Rome (Italy) and the eventually the world until her premature sad demise in the early nineties in Vienna (Austria).
After 7 years of intense international research André Schneider has written a wonderful book about the cult movie actress Marisa Mell that not only discussies in depth the merits of her movies, her career and her life as a famous Italian movie star but also maybe more importantly sheds new light on some rather obscure facets of her professional and private life that untill now have never surfaced before or have never been discussed before.
This book is a must read for every true movie fan or professional giving a fascinating insight by way of the life and work of the actress Marisa Mell into the workings of a movie career that can progress from the early steps as an aspiring theatre student at a famous theatre school into the pinacle of a movie career to the trappings of showbizz and the jet set life in cities like Rome, Paris, London and New York untill the downfall into obscurity and poverty.
Finally the book also discusses Marisa Mell's relationschips professionally and privately with other stars like Romy Schneider, Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress, Christine Kaufmann, Claudine Auger, Monica Vitti, John Phillip Law, Tony Curtis, Senta Berger, Ushi Glas, Helmut Berger, Diana Ross, Anthony Perkins, Mario Adorf, Guilliano Gemma, Anthony Steffen, Erika Pluhar... or directors like Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, Vincente Minelli, Mario Monicelli, Sergio Grieco, Aldo Lado...
The book is illustrated with more than 130 pictures from Marisa Mell's professional and private life in color and black and white. Most of them have never been published before and will probably never be published ever again!
The text of the book is German but it has an appendix in English, Spanish and Italian together with a complete extensive filmography and list of her theatre work.
The book can be purchased at:
- Book on Demand: http://www.bod.de/index.php?id=296&objk_id=1130104
- Amazon DE: http://www.amazon.de/dp/3732253252/
- Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/3732253252
- Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/dp/3732253252/
A Kindle or e-book version of the book will also be available in the near future.
André Schneider, an accomplished actor, writer and director, can be reached for all inquiries regarding this book and his work through his own website:
http://vivasvanpictures.wordpress.com/
The Marisa Mell Blog will soon have an interview with André Schneider discussing this important book on the life and work of Marisa Mell.
Stay tuned!
//
Review of the book by film connaisseur and Marisa Mell expert "Prisma" can be found at the Italian Euro Cult Movie site "Dirty Pictures":
http://dirtypictures.phpbb8.de/post146743.html
//
Review of the book by film connaisseur and Marisa Mell expert "Prisma" can be found at the Italian Euro Cult Movie site "Dirty Pictures":
http://dirtypictures.phpbb8.de/post146743.html
Saturday, October 5, 2013
"Danger:Diabolik!" by professional artist James Gilleard
James Gilleard is a 31 year old professional illustrator and animator living and working in London (UK). He has been always interested in art and drawing since he can remember. "The first image" James says "that I ever did that I can remember getting a good grade for was an image from the US television series "Knight Rider".
Marisa Mell Blog (MMB): James, thanks for granting this interview! Can you tell us about your method of working in creating your wonderful art pieces?
James Gilleard (JG): Thank you for having me on the Marisa Mell Blog! My method of working starts with a sketchbook where I sketch characters and tumbnails for layout... This is usually very rough! I then scan the images and draw them with Illustrator - creating a line version of the image before moving to colours. I usually make colour keys for my images depending on the time.
MMB: When you look at you art a lot of pieces are from the 50's, 60's and 70's, often called the "golden era" of modern film making, a time now long gone by in the movies! Why do you like that era so much?
JG: I love the aesthetic of the 1950's, 60's and 70's. This applies to most things like fashion, design, art, architecture, advertising... I focus most of my work within these times. I really like modernism which is in use widely during these periods.
MMB: How did you get to know the movie "Danger: Diabolik!"?
JG: I noticed the existence of the movie for the first time online while researching retro futurism, I think. I came across the poster and photos from the film. I loved the poster of the movie. Marisa Mell looked amazing in her red one piece. She has a very 60's look to her, and her hair looks great too. These were the main reasons I wanted to create the poster that you see above at the beginning of this entry on the MMB. I used the MMB a lot for reference about the movie and the life and work of Marisa Mell. Then I was invited to take part in the "Red Show" with Planet Pulp. Sadly the poster did not sell that well and the reason I was being told was that it is too obscure.
MMB: Had you ever heard of the name "Marisa Mell" or knew the existence of an actress called "Marisa Mell" for the start of your project?
JG: I had never heard of her before this project or seen any pictures with her as an actress. I made a big list of the movies I like to see with her in it!
MMB: What is that you like about her?
JG: Like I said before, I like her hair, wardrobe, make up very much from that era! She is quite a symbol of that era.
MMB: Where can readers of the MMB buy your stunning art pieces?
JG: My art is available through my art agent and also at certain galleries across America like:
Bottleneck Art Gallery: http://www.bottleneckgallery.com/
Hero Complex Gallery: http://www.herocomplexgallery.com/
Ltd Art Gallery: http://www.ltdartgallery.com/
Gallery 1988: http://nineteeneightyeight.com/
Spoke Art Gallery: http://spoke-art.com/
Gallery Nucleus: http://www.gallerynucleus.com/
Gallery 27: http://www.gallery27.com/
Gauntlet Gallery: http://www.gauntletgallery.com/
MMB: Thanks again, James, for this interview, it is highly appreciated and good luck with your creative career.
James Gilleard has a wonderful blog of his own showing all his phantastic art pieces and creations:
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