Romy Schneider exhibition at Caermersklooster as part of Ghent Film Festival

The thirtieth anniversary of Romy Schneider's death is being suitably commemorated by the Ghent Film Festival with a large exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the actress, who was born in Vienna and became the biggest female star of French cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, following a film career in Germany and a short foray into the international scene. The exhibition "Romy Schneider" takes a unique look at the icon Romy Schneider, touched by success and tragedy in both her professional and private life. Curator Daniela Sannwald achieves this with the help of archive documents, photos, original film posters, old magazines, papers, jewellery, personal recollections of directors, partners and admirers, unpublished letters, screenplays, costumes, collector's items, film clips etc. Tickets are already available to order via this link. Tickets booked in advance include a 10% discount in the exhibition shop. The life of Romy Schneider (born on 23 September 1938, died in Paris on 29 May 1982) is one big succession of triumphs and catastrophes. She achieved global success as the fairy-tale princess Sissi and found it extremely difficult to break away from this saccharine image. Then, after moving to France, she interpreted one brilliant character role after another. Her relationships with men were problematic and, during her life, she was confronted with a series of setbacks and tragedies, the lowest point being the unfortunate death of her son David, impaled on some railings he was trying to climb over. She had almost sixty films to her name when she was found dead in her Paris apartment. Almost all the headlines suggested suicide, but the coroner determined that it was a "natural death, caused by heart failure". Natural death? Alain Delon, who had to say goodbye to the actress with whom he had once formed "the most beautiful couple in French cinema", claimed "c'est le coeur d'une mère qui a laché" ("this is a mother's heart that simply gave up"). Besides the Sissi trilogy (1954-1956, Ernst Marischka), her best-known films are Boccaccio '70 (1960; her episode Il Lavoro was directed by Luchino Visconti); The Trial (1962, Orson Welles); The Cardinal (1963, Otto Preminger); The Swimming Pool (1968, Jacques Deray); Ludwig II (1972, Luchino Visconti); The Train (1973, Pierre Granier-Deferre); The Most Important Thing: Love (1974, Andrzej Zulawski); The Old Gun (1975, Robert Enrico); Group Portrait with a Lady (1977, Aleksandar Petrovic); Death Watch (1979, Bertrand Tavernier); Garde à vue (1981, Claude Miller); La Passante du Sans-Souci (1982, Jacques Rouffio). However, according to artistic director Patrick Duynslaegher, Romy Schneider is most captivating, and at her most beautiful, in the five films of her "house director" Claude Sautet: The Things of Life (1969), Max and the Junkmen (1970), César and Rosalie (1972), Mado (1976) and A Simple Story (1978). "The five films she made with Sautet were simple stories about the everyday things of life. Here, Schneider does what makes her so great as an actress: she elevates everyday emotions and actions to something noble, transforms the ordinary into something unique, the banal into something vivid, the plain and common into something of supreme importance." Practical information Dates: 12/10/2012 - 13/01/2013 Location: Caermersklooster - Provincial Cultural Centre Vrouwebroersstraat 6, 9000 Ghent Tel.: +32 (0) 9 269 29 10. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last entry 4.30 p.m.), except Mondays. Closed on 25 December and 1 January. Tickets: Tickets cost €8, €6 (concessions), €4 for groups of 20 or more and for children between 6 and 12 years old or €0 for children under 6 and Museum Pass holders. Discounted rate for people under 26, job seekers, Knack Club members, over 60s, holders of a teacher's card. Tickets are already available to order via this link. Tickets booked in advance include a 10% discount in the exhibition shop. Reservations for guided tours and groups can be made via the non-profit organisation Gandante (www.gandante.be, +32 (0) 9 375 31 61). The curator of the exhibition is Daniela Sannwald. The Province of East Flanders is thus continuing its tradition of highlighting a significant body of work each year during the Ghent Film Festival. Organised by Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen in Berlin, in collaboration with the Caermersklooster - Provincial Cultural Centre and the Ghent Film Festival.