Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Fresh and Exciting

As Good As It Gets

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

"Gruppenbild mit Dame" or "Portrait de groupe avec dame" or "Group Portrait with a Lady" is a co-production between France and West Germany and both languages can also be heard in the original version, but the dominant language is German, so you may need subtitles for this Romy Schneider movie. The director is Aleksandar Petrovic and it is one of his late career efforts and something different from him at the age of slightly under 50 as he was basically only active in Eastern Europe otherwise. He was also one of the people adapting Heinrich Böll's novel for the screen here and Böll was actually one of them too. That's why I find it especially disappointing that this turned out a fairly weak movies as films with the writer of the base material also adapting his own work are usually better and I am sure the base material here was better than the film. I am also confused by Romy Schneider's German Film Award here. I am not too sure if she was lead and even if she was, then this film is really an ensemble performance as the focus was on a whole lot of characters and to me it feels somewhat wrong to emphasize her performance and ignore the rest (such as Oscar nominee Brad Dourif). According to IMDb, this film runs for 107 minutes, but all the versions I found were roughly 90 minutes long. As a whole, Schneider's youth and magic had gone here already. She was almost 40 and only 5 years away from her death. Sometimes (not only at the very end) she looks like a much older woman here and I find it a bit sad as I remember her wild spirit and youth from the Sissi films oh so well. But back to this one here. My final verdict is that this is just one of very many German films about World War II and also in 1977 people were still trying to come to terms with what happened and the medium film was used frequently for that purpose. Nothing truly stands out about this film from almost 40 years ago. I do not recommend the watch.

Well I didn't get it. nope, nada, nothing. I had to sit thru the dubbed German to English version "Group Portrait With A Lady". Overall sound quality was horrible but even ignoring that it just made no sense?! It begins at what looks like the 1970's but then blink your back in 1940's Nazi Germany then blink your back in the 70's (due to the lead character Lenni's normal hair in one scene and gray in the next?) I think it flashed back and forth the entire film. I was so confused i didn't know what the hell was happening. Big ole'waste of my time. Romy Schnieder was pretty though. I never heard of her so I looked her up - wow she was in a lot of films even Rowen and Martin's Laugh-in. Wonder what she did on that?. Maybe it makes better sense in German? 2 out of 10

Was 1977 all that good a year and they could afford to brush under the carpet this terrific German movie with a major star, the ever imposing Romy Schneider, from a terrific director. See Petrovic's MASTER AND MARGUERITA to make that point.The WW2 subject provides a vivid setting complete with a pre-digital bombing raid that looks very dangerous and very convincing and very expensive, demolishing a real city block. The performances and staging are superior and what a surprise to find a gaunt Brad Dourif fitting right in - is that his voice?Classical music, Romy at her most dignified, rich European Eastmancolor - the whole calamity. Already I'm awash with nostalgia.