3 Tage in Quiberon (3 Days in Quiberon) press conference with director Emily Atef and actress Marie Bäumer

Has there ever been a German-speaking actress as revered as Romy Schneider? Perhaps her mystique was firmly established due to her shockingly young death back in 1982 at the age of 43. In her lifetime she was both an applauded actress and a permanent inhabitant of the gossip magazine’s respective front pages. 3 Days in Quiberon is a semi-fictional retelling of one of Schneider’s last interviews, remarkable for both its bluntness and sincerity, given in the French seaside resort of Quiberon. Director Emily Atef and Marie Bäumer (who plays Schneider) spoke at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival ahead of the film’s official world premiere, a film that according to Atef, depicts a woman “who is broken but still wants to live”.

When speaking about the making a project that must touch upon the myth of Romy Schneider, Atef said that the film is quite clearly not a documentary, adding, “It’s a work of fiction. It’s based on true events, it’s based upon real people – one of the greatest actresses of Europe”. She continued: “I was never afraid to make a film about a myth. I didn’t feel any fear. The images and the interview [that the film is based upon] weren’t about Romy Schneider the myth. They were about Romy Schneider as a human being, about the woman Romy Schneider.”

During the real life three days in Quiberon that serve as the basis for this near-docudrama, Schneider was extensively photographed by her friend Robert Lebeck, and the aesthetics of this series served as the visual inspiration for the film, namely the decision to shoot in black and white. Atef said: “I found it very moving – those black and white old photos. My director of photography asked if I was quite sure, since these harsh contrasts aren’t always so flattering for men and women of a certain age. But I was so inspired by Robert Lebeck’s images, that when I started reading the screenplay, I just saw all the scenes in black and white. I simply couldn’t envisage them in colour.”

Bäumer said that she was fascinated to make a story that zooms in on the end of Schneider’s life. She stated that she wanted to make “a description of her being, of her situation at the end of the life of an icon”.

Oliver Johnston

3 Tage in Quiberon (3 Days in Quiberon) does not have a UK release date yet. Read our review here.

Read more reviews and interviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2018 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival 2018.