Veronika Voss
Short description
Veronika Voss is a drama set in Munich in 1955. A former film star, Veronika lives on the edges of the industry that once celebrated her, dependent on morphine supplied by Dr. Marianne Katz, a physician who profits from keeping her patients addicted. When sports journalist Robert Krohn meets her by chance, he is drawn to her and becomes determined to understand her situation and to free her from the doctor's hold. His efforts involve Henriette, a friend who helps him investigate the clinic, while Veronika herself clings to the hope of acting again.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed the film, which he also wrote with Pea Fröhlich and Peter Märthesheimer. It belongs to the later stretch of his career, arriving after The Marriage of Maria Braun, Lola and Lili Marleen and before Querelle in the chronological list of his features. Rosel Zech plays Veronika, with Hilmar Thate as Krohn, Cornelia Froboess as Henriette, Annemarie Düringer as Dr. Katz, Doris Schade as Josefa and Erik Schumann as Dr. Edel among a credited cast of 27. Thomas Schühly and Bertram Vetter produced.
On TMDB the film holds a rating of 7.2 out of 10 based on 161 votes, indicating a modest but steady level of approval from viewers who have sought it out. Running 105 minutes, it was released in May 1982 and remains associated with Fassbinder's examinations of postwar German society and its disappointments.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is dedicated to Gerhard Zwerenz.
- The plot is based on the true story of the German stage and film actress Sibylla Schmitz (1909-1955).
- Sibylla Schmitz, upon whom the character of Veronika Voss was based, committed suicide by taking a large dose of sleeping pills on April 13, 1955, at the age of 45. At the time of her death, she was living in Munich with a certain Ursula Moritz, a doctor who sold her morphine at inflated prices and kept her high, while actively spending the actress's already meager funds. Schmitz's relatives claim that once the actress was no longer useful to Moritz, the doctor facilitated her death. A year after Schmitz's passing, charges of medical malpractice were brought against Moritz. Following the end of World War II, Schmitz was exiled from the German film industry due to her constant collaboration with the Third Reich during the war, and she was offered no roles except for minor ones. The actress drank heavily, abused pills, suffered from constant bouts of depression, attempted suicide several times, and was once admitted to a psychiatric clinic.
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