In 1981 at a spa in Quiberon, the celebrated actress Romy Schneider is undergoing a cure. Ignoring the strict regime, she largely exists on tobacco, alcohol, and tranquillisers. Hilde, an old friend from Vienna, comes to spend a couple of days with her and she is also visited by another old friend, the photographer Robert Lebeck. He brings a journalist, Michael Jürgs [de], to whom Romy has agreed to give an in-depth interview for the German magazine Stern.
Emily Atef and Marie Bäumer at the Berlinale 2018
Michael does not attempt to ingratiate himself or first win her confidence but in a clinical way probes with continually penetrating questions. Their sessions take on the air of a Catholic confessional or a psychiatrist's consulting room, for Romy seems ready to be open and to put on record much about of her life. Indeed, both Hilde and Robert at different times try to protect her from going too far.
Romy says her main worry is the constant pressure of film work and her resulting absence from the lives of her children. After the interviews are over, she dances for joy on the rocks and breaks her ankle. Unable to work, she is confined to her Paris flat with her little daughter when Robert brings the proofs of the interview for her to approve. She makes virtually no changes, accepting that Michael had captured a true picture of her.
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