Marlene. New York 1943

Marlene Dietrich, the famous German diva known for the film 'The Blue Angel' and the song 'Lili Marlene,' walks thoughtfully through 1940s New York. Marlene was known for her strong political convictions and the courage to express them. In the late 1930s, she established a fund with Austrian director Billy Wilder and other exiles to help Jews and dissidents leave Germany. In 1939, she became an American citizen and renounced her German citizenship. In this rainy day in Times Square, we can see the unmistakable signs of this challenging historical period: in the background, the old New York Times building displays the inscription 'Buy War Bonds,' and a bit lower, the sign 'WAAC' indicates a recruitment station for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. I wanted to portray an era that fascinated me for its distance and yet closeness to ours: precisely in those years, a 'mass society' was born, with its film industry, advertising, and increasingly crowded and cosmopolitan cities. But above all, I wanted to portray a great woman of the time, significant in the world of art and courageous in her choices, which led her to a difficult detachment from her beloved homeland in the face of a morally unacceptable regime.