Built-in sea view

"We actually wanted to shoot at the IFA, but the rooms were too small. Arne Jacobsen's empty glass pavilion with its large interior was perfect for us," says production designer Silke Fischer, who most recently worked on the cinema filmsToni Erdmann andBefore the dawn was responsible for the production design. "This building in Südstrand was an absolute stroke of luck for us," says Executive Producer Karsten Stöter fromRaw Film Factory from Dresden. "However, you have to have a lot of imagination to visualise a lobby in an empty space. But Silke Fischer is a true artist in that respect".

An initially planned shoot on location became a studio shoot with three to four different sets that could be used and prepared in parallel, including the large hotel lobby, a hotel room with a sea view, a hotel suite, two other rooms and a bathroom. All of the sets were equipped with movable walls so that they could be shot and lit from different directions with a quick and short changeover. "For the sea view, we had a four by ten metre backdrop printed with an original photo of the Atlantic," says Silke Fischer.

The film is based on true events and tells the story of three days in the life of Romy Schneider. In 1981, the famous actress, played by Marie Bäumer, spends some time in Brittany to regenerate for her next film. She is visited by her long-time friend Hilde (Birgit Minichmayr), but also by STERN journalist Michael Jürgs (Robert Gwisdek) and star photographer Robert Lebeck (Charly Hübner). Three unforgettable days follow. The epoch-making interview, in which Romy wants to settle accounts with the German press, becomes an inventory of her life.

While the exterior shots were filmed at the original locations, the intense hotel scenes were shot in the "Haus des Gastes", which was set up especially for the shoot. An old restaurant on the Süssauer Promenade was transformed by Silke Fischer into a fish restaurant, into the harbour bar where Romy Schneider and her companions spent their evenings. Here she was also asked by an oddball man if she wasn't Sissi. The film star would have been flattered and danced with the stranger, much to the astonishment of her companions.