Metrograph

Based on the same drama of budding lesbian romance at an authoritarian boarding school in c. 1910 Potsdam written for the stage (and an all-female cast) by Christa Winsloe and first adapted to the screen in 1931 by Leontine Sagan, von Radványi’s lesser-known but by no means inferior Mädchen stars Romy Schneider as the orphaned Manuela von Meinhardis, a high-spirited young woman who develops an unusually passionate attachment to the lone member of the faculty who deviates from an official policy of rigid Prussian discipline, Lilli Palmer’s Fräulein Elisabeth von Bernburg, with Manuela’s infatuation drawing unwanted attention from brutal headmistress Therese Giehse (the actress was, in fact, openly gay) after a slip of the tongue following a class performance of Romeo & Juliet. One of her earliest post-Sissi roles, in a bold departure from the ingenue template, Schneider embodies the effortless union of vulnerability and command that would come to characterize her screen presence.

Distributor: Kino Lorber