The Passerby
(La Passante du Sans-Souci)
Screening on Film
Directed by Jacques Rouffio.
With Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, Helmut Griem.
France/West Germany, 1982, 35mm, color, 110 min.
French with English subtitles.
With Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, Helmut Griem.
France/West Germany, 1982, 35mm, color, 110 min.
French with English subtitles.
When noted human rights activist Max Baumstein (Piccoli) is tried for the murder of a South American politician, he is forced to confront the horrors of his past life in Nazi-occupied France—including the death of his parents in a concentration camp. In Schneider’s final film before her tragic death, she stars in dual roles as both Lina, Baumstein’s wife, and Elsa, the German refugee recalled in the activist’s flashback who helped save him from the Germans. Director Rouffio delicately explores the emotional scars of life in postwar Europe.