September 1937. The Venice Film Festival has just ended and Germany's two world stars meet for the first time: Hollywood diva Marlene Dietrich and writer Erich Maria Remarque, known around the world for his anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front. And so begins one of the wildest love affairs of the 20th century.
Their amour fou lasts only a few years and pushes both to their emotional brink almost daily. A love story brimming with pleasures and ecstasies, disappointments and new beginnings, against the backdrop of the looming human catastrophe of World War II. Like tens of thousands of others, Dietrich and Remarque are both on the run from the Nazi system of terror in their home country, and both are going through painful creative and professional crises. They commute between Paris, Cap d’Antibes, Ancona, St. Moritz, New York and Beverly Hills – driven by fears about the future and self-doubt, but also constantly in search of fame and recognition for their work.
Based on diaries, correspondence, and the memories of many of their companions and contemporaries, Thomas Hüetlin recounts, in the style of a riveting reportage, the once-in-a-century love story between two luminaries of German culture in the face of impending horror.
