Dolly, Lotte and Maria
Dolly, Lotte and Maria (German: Dolly, Lotte und Maria) is a 1987 German documentary film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. The film recounts the lives of Lotte Goslar, Dolly Haas and Maria Ley-Piscator, three German women performers who achieved success in Berlin in the 1930s. All left Nazi Germany for reasons of conscience, and eventually settled in the United States. After the war, all three remained in America and continued actively pursuing their careers, with mixed success. Each discusses her beginnings as a performer, her achievements in Europe, the reasons that motivated her to leave Germany, her decision to move to the U.S., and her current activities.[1]
| Dolly, Lotte und Maria | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Rosa von Praunheim |
| Produced by | Rosa von Praunheim |
| Screenplay by | Rosa von Praunheim |
| Starring | Dolly Haas Lotte Goslar Maria Ley-Piscator |
| Cinematography | Jeff Preiss |
| Edited by | Mike Shephard Rosa von Praunheim |
Production company | Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Rosa von Praunheim Filmproduktion |
Release date | 16 February 1987 |
Running time | 60 minutes |
| Country | West Germany |
| Language | German |
Plot
The first of the three women portrayed in this documentary is the innovative dancer/mime/choreographer Lotte Goslar (1907-1997), who worked with Mary Wigman in pioneering modern dance, and choreographed productions by Bertolt Brecht. She developed her own style of expressive dance. In 1933 she left Germany and toured in Europe. Disgusted with Germany's Nazism she exiled herself in the United States. In one of her most famous solos, Grandma Always Danced, she was seen, first, as a baby, then as a bride, a mother and as an old woman. Goslar became a popular teacher of mime and body movement for actors. In the late 1940s, she taught in Los Angeles, where one of her pupils was Marilyn Monroe.
The second woman, Dolly Haas (1910-1994), was a popular film actress who worked in Dolly macht Karriere (1930) under the direction of Anatole Litvak. The rise of Nazism compelled her to move to England with her first husband, the director Hans Brahm (later John Brahm). In 1936 she signed a contract with Columbia, but after an 18-month wait for the right role, she returned to the stage in New York enjoying a successful Broadway career and thereafter also sporadically appeared on television. Her only major movie role was in the high-profile I Confess (1953) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Her second husband was the Broadway caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
Lastly, Maria Ley-Piscator (1899–1999), who began her career as a dancer in Berlin and Paris and later turned to choreography. She helped stage several productions with Max Reinhardt, including A Midsummer Night's Dream. She immigrated with her third husband, the theatrical director Erwin Piscator, to US, where they founded the Dramatic Workshop at New York's New School for Social Research in New York City. She subsequently directed stage productions off-Broadway and in Europe.[1]
Notes
- Murray, Images in the Dark, p. 109
References
- Murray, Raymond. Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video Guide. TLA Publications, 1994, ISBN 1880707012