Katia | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Siodmak |
Screenplay by | Georges Neveux Charles Spaak |
Produced by | Michel Safra |
Starring | Romy Schneider Curd Jürgens |
Cinematography | Michel Kelber |
Edited by | Louisette Hautecoeur Henri Taverna |
Music by | Joseph Kosma |
Production company | Spéva Films |
Distributed by | Cinédis |
Release date |
|
Running time | 96 minutes |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Magnificent Sinner (original French title: Katia) is a 1959 French drama historical film by director Robert Siodmak about the romance between Tsar Alexander II of Russia and the then-schoolgirl Catherine Dolgorukova, who later became his mistress and finally his morganatic wife. It stars Romy Schneider as Katia, a schoolgirl who becomes the Tsar's mistress and Curd Jürgens as Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The film, originally released as Katia, was a remake of a 1938 French film of the same name, which starred Danielle Darrieux.
Produced in France, Magnificent Sinner stars Curd Jürgens as Tsar Alexander II, with Romy Schneider as the schoolgirl Katia who first becomes his mistress, before being elevated to the rank of princess. The romance between a married emperor and an aristocrat leads to court intrigue and a weakening of the ties of loyalty between the Tsar's ministers and their ruler, and is instrumental in Alexander's ultimate assassination. [1]
Film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film two out of four stars, describing it as "lackluster." [2] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times equally panned it as "an overstuffed costume picture" and "a hackneyed and ponderous bore." "It would be just as good, if not better," he continued, "if it had been a tractor with which the Tsar fell in love." [3]
Robert Siodmak was a German film director who also worked in the United States. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of films noir he made in the 1940s, such as The Killers (1946).
Romy Schneider was a German-French actress. She is regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time and became a cult figure due to her role as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the hugely popular Sissi trilogy in the mid-1950s. Later reprised the role in a more mature version in Luchino Visconti's Ludwig (1973). She began her career in the German Heimatfilm genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. Schneider moved to France, where she made successful and critically acclaimed films with some of the most notable film directors of that era. Her performance in That Most Important Thing: Love is regarded as one of the greatest in the history of cinema. Coco Chanel called Romy “the ultimate incarnation of the ideal woman”
Horst Werner Buchholz was a German actor who appeared in more than 60 feature films from 1951 to 2002. During his youth, he was sometimes called "the German James Dean". He is perhaps best known in English-speaking countries for his roles as Chico in The Magnificent Seven (1960), as a communist in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961), and as Dr. Lessing in Life Is Beautiful (1997).
Princess Catherine Dolgorukova was a Russian aristocrat and the daughter of Prince Michael Dolgorukov and Vera Vishnevskaya.
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor, singer, filmmaker, and businessman. He was one of Europe's most prominent actors and screen sex symbols in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor for his performance in Notre histoire (1984). In 1991, he became a member of France's Legion of Honour. At the 45th Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Honorary Golden Bear. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, he received the Honorary Palme d'Or.
Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens. He was well known for playing Ernst Udet in Des Teufels General. His English-language roles include James Bond villain Karl Stromberg in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Éric Carradine in And God Created Woman (1956), and Professor Immanuel Rath in The Blue Angel (1959).
Claude Sautet was a French film director and screenwriter.
Tamango is a 1958 French/Italian film directed by John Berry, a blacklisted American director who exiled himself to Europe. The film stars Dorothy Dandridge, Curd Jürgens, Alex Cressan and Jean Servais.
Laura Huguette Smet is a French actress. She is the daughter of rock musician Johnny Hallyday and actress Nathalie Baye. In 1986, Hallyday recorded in her honor the song "Laura", written by Jean-Jacques Goldman.
That Most Important Thing: Love is a French film directed by Polish filmmaker Andrzej Żuławski. It tells the story of a passionate love relationship between Nadine Chevalier, a B-List actress, and Servais Mont, a photographer, in the violent and unforgiving French show business.
Pierre Granier-Deferre was a French film director and screenwriter
Me and the Colonel is a 1958 American comedy film based on the play Jacobowsky und der Oberst by Franz Werfel. It was directed by Peter Glenville and stars Danny Kaye, Curd Jürgens and Nicole Maurey.
César and Rosalie is a 1972 romance film starring Yves Montand and Romy Schneider, directed by Claude Sautet.
Harry Meyen was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 40 films and television productions between 1948 and 1975. In the 1960s he also worked as a theatre director in West Germany.
Géza von Radványi was a Hungarian film director, cinematographer, producer and writer.
Katia is a 1938 French historical drama film starring Danielle Darrieux. The movie was directed by Maurice Tourneur, based on novel Princesse Mathe Bibesco by Marthe Bibesco under the pseudonym Lucile Decaux. It tells the love affair of Russian princess and Czar Alexander II.
Princess Catherine Alexandrovna Yurievskaya was the natural daughter of Alexander II of Russia by his mistress, Princess Catherine Dolgorukova. In 1880, she was legitimated by her parents' morganatic marriage. In her own family, she was known as Katia.
Countess Alexandra Constantinovna von Zarnekau was the eldest daughter of Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg and his Georgian wife, Princess Agrippina Japaridze, Countess von Zarnekau, formerly married to the Georgian Prince Dadiani.
Michel Strogoff is a 1956 historical adventure film directed by Carmine Gallone and starring Curd Jürgens. It is based on 1876 novel of the same title by Jules Verne. Made as a co-production between several European nations, it was shot at the Kosutnjak Studios in Belgrade using CinemaScope.. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Léon Barsacq and Vlastimir Gavrik. Jürgens also appeared in a 1961 follow-up The Triumph of Michael Strogoff.
Michel Safra (1899–1967) was a Russian-born French film producer. He was born in the Ukrainian city of Kiev, then part of the Russian Empire. After working in the German cinema for a decade during the silent era, during the early 1930s he began producing films in the French film industry.