Feature film
Marie-Louise
Leopold Lindtberg · 1944
Synopsis
A little French girl, Marie-Louise Fleury, escapes the bombing: the Red Cross selects her for a convoy of undernourished children who will spend three months with Swiss families. In Zurich, the family that was to take her in does not come to collect her. Heidi Rüegg, a Red Cross auxiliary, then takes her to her father, a gruff factory director who at first disapproves of his daughter, then grows attached to the child. The weeks pass, and the end of the stay draws near.
Context
Lindtberg and the screenwriter Richard Schweizer launched the project in 1943; Lazar Wechsler's Praesens-Film produced it, Emil Berna handled the camera, Hermann Haller edited, Robert Blum wrote the music. Josiane Hegg, thirteen years old, plays the title role alongside Heinrich Gretler and Anne-Marie Blanc, and the film, shot mostly on location, was released in Zurich on 19 February 1944; it drew about one million admissions in Switzerland. From 1940 to 1944, some sixty thousand children from the countries at war thus found refuge in Switzerland for a few weeks. The restored copy was presented in Zurich in 2015.
Who it is for
One hundred and two minutes, in Swiss German and French. It helps to know that the welcome is limited: three months, then the return.
Prizes and reception
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1946 for Richard Schweizer, the first awarded to a film that was not in English.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.