Romy, life lived and fiction

EFSP resides in Bologna, Italy, for Il Cinema Ritrovato. For 'the Cinephile's heaven' section, director Volker Schöndorf curated the programme 'Romy, life lived and fiction'. For this post, we selected 25 of our favourite postcards of the enigmatic Romy Schneider. Randomly arranged.


Dutch postcard.


Dutch postcard. Photo: HAFBO. Romy Schneider dressed in Chanel in the episode Il lavoro/The Job (1961) by Luchino Visconti, part of the episode film Boccaccio '70.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg. Photo: Ufa/Film-Foto. Romy Schneider and Magda Schneider in Venice. The photo was made during the shooting of Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin/Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress (Ernst Marischka, 1957).



Dutch postcard by N.V. Int. Filmpers (I.F.P.), Amsterdam, no. 1030. Photo: Erma / Herzog Film. O.E. Hasse and Romy Schneider in Kitty und die grosse Welt/Kitty and the Great Big World (Alfred Weidenmann, 1956).


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht (printed by 't Sticht), no. AX 3879, posted by mail in 1959. Photo: Grimm / C.C.C. / Gloria. Romy Schneider in Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Géza von Radványi, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3175. Photo: Filmex NV. Publicity still for Monpti/Love From Paris (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Vintage postcard, no. 2759.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.


German postcard by Ufa, no. CK-204. Photo: Vogelmann / Ufa.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: Romy Schneider in Les choses de la vie/The Things of Life (Claude Sautet, 1970).

Transparent and mysterious at the same time

From the Cinema Ritrovato website: "She made her debut in the tender colours of Austrian fairytales, alongside her mother Magda who had starred in Max Ophuls’s Liebelei and was a well-known mistress of Nazi officials.

For several years she was Sissi, loved by audiences around the world and enjoying a resounding success that seemed to promise a future in purely commercial cinema.

Instead, Romy Schneider left it all behind – Germany and her sweet youth – and emerged in international cinema with clarity, depth and substance. A new beauty and new talent began to bloom.

Welles wanted her immediately for The Trial, and in Deray’s The Swimming Pool her allure contrasts with Jane Birkin’s adolescent fluttering (and between them Alain Delon – a trio you’ll lose your mind over).

They say that she never recovered from Delon abandoning her, but life had other terrible wounds in store for her. She was directed by Losey, Visconti, Tavernier, Costa-Gavras and Sautet, who was especially able to capture her most authentic aura: transparent and mysterious at the same time.

She passed away too soon and was caught on film just in her prime.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, no. 1062. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Magda Schneider in Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin Sissi/Sissi - Fateful Years of an Empress (Ernst Marischka, 1957). The scene is set on Corfu in Greece.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3572. With Horst Buchholz.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3922. Photo: N.V. Meteor Film, Amsterdam/Spava-Play Art Prod. Alain Delon and Romy Schneider in Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. Star 41. Romy Schneider in Max et les ferrailleurs/Max and the Junkmen (Claude Sautet, 1971).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1204/559. Photo: Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Tempelhof. Caption: "Gay picture of Romy Schneider during her engagement party." With her brother Wolfi.


French postcard by Editions Nugeron in the Star Series, no. 58. Photo: Yves Montand and Romy Schneider in Clair de femme/Womanlight (Costa Gravas, 1979).


Publicity still used in Germany, distributed by Rank, with a mark of the German censor FSK. Thomas Milian & Romy Schneider in Luchino Visconti's episode Il Lavoro in the episode film Boccaccio 70 (1962).


German postcard by ISV, no. 4. Photo: Curd Jürgens and Romy Schneider in Katia/Adorable Sinner (Robert Siodmak, 1959).


French postcard in the Collection Cinéma by Editions Art & Scene, Paris, no. CI 16, 1996. Photo: Mario Tursi. Helmut Berger and Romy Schneider in Ludwig (Luchino Visconti, 1972).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam (Dutch licency holder fot Ufa), no. 1179. Photo: Ufa/Film-foto. Romy Schneider and Carlos Thompson in Die Halbzarte/Eva (Rolf Thiele, 1959).


Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers (IFP), Amsterdam, no. 1091. Photo: Erich Ponto as Daniël Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, and Romy Schneider as Maud in Robinson soll nicht sterben/The Legend of Robinson Crusoe (Josef von Báky, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Photo: Ufa/Film-Foto. Elisabeth Flickenschildt and Romy Schneider in Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1958).


Dutch postcard by DRC Holland, no. 4536. DRC was that year the Dutch licence holder for Ufa/Film-Foto. Photo: Ufa. Probably for the film Ein Engel auf Erden/Mademoiselle Ange/An Angel on Wheels (Géza von Radványi 1959), with Romy Schneider as Henri Vidal's angel custodian camouflaged as a stewardess.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. [061]. Photo: Ufa. Spanjersberg was at the time the Dutch licence holder of Ufa/Film-Foto. Romy Schneider and Karlheinz Böhm in Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin Sissi/Sissi - Fateful Years of an Empress (1957) written and directed by Austrian Ernst Marischka.

For many more Romy Schneider postcards check out our Flickr Album Romy.