That Important Thing: Love

In 1957, Romy Schneider devoted herself to a completely different project. Together with Herbert von Karajan she made the record production “Peter and the Wolf” after Sergei Prokofiev. Romy Schneider acted as narrator, Herbert von Karajan provided the music with the Vienna Philharmonic. Then followed again several film works, among them the romantic comedy “Scampolo“, which brought her much recognition. With great reluctance she fulfilled her contract for the third part of the Sissi trilogy, “Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress“.

When she learned that her stepfather Herbert Blatzheim had turned down several film offers, including the remakes “The Three from the Filling Station“, ” The Congress Dances” as well as a film offer from the famous Spanish-Mexican film director Luis Buñuel, Romy Schneider became furious. Moreover, an offer from Hollywood failed because of the conditions set by Blatzheim. Romy Schneider now took her acting future into her own hands. Her next film, “Mädchen in Uniform“, with many great actresses like Lilli Palmer, Therese Giehse, Sabine Sinjen and Christine Kaufmann brought her the longed for recognition as a character actress. With the film “Christine” came the complete turnaround in her life.

After the end of the shooting she left Germany together with her film partner Alain Delon and went to Paris. There she shot three more movies in 1959, “Mademoiselle Ange“, “Die schöne Lügnerin” and “Magnificent Sinner“. In the next years Romy Schneider acted mainly in Paris. One of her theatre directors was Luchino Visconti, from whom she learned a lot. In 1962, also under Visconti‘s direction, she took on another film role in “Boccaccio 70“. Now followed several roles in blockbusters such as “The Trial“, “The Victors“, “The Cardinal“.

In the 60s and 70s Romy Schneider was at the height of her career. In 1963 she made the comedy “Good Neighbor Sam” in Hollywood alongside Jack Lemmon. Privately, however, 1963 was a bad year. Her relationship with Alain Delon fell apart. When she returned from the USA, he had already moved out of the flat they shared. She then attempted suicide. Romy Schneider then took time off. It was not until a year later that she shot the film “L’Enfer” with the old master Henry-Georges Clouzot. But bad luck stayed with her, the film was never finished. First her film partner Serge Reggiani fell seriously ill, then director Clouzot suffered a heart attack. In 1965 followed one of her most successful films, “What’s New, Pussycat?“, based on a script by Woody Allen. During a visit to Germany she met the actor and director Harry Meyen, they became a couple. During the filming of the movie “Triple Cross” in 1966, Romy Schneider und Harry Meyen married. Their son David was born in December of the same year.

In the following two years Romy Schneider devoted herself exclusively to her duties as a wife and mother. It was not until 1968 that Romy Schneider began filming again. In 1969 she acted again in the film “The Swimming Pool” at the side of her ex-lover Alain Delon. The film became one of her greatest successes. A series of films followed in the 70s, including such well-known and successful ones as “Love at the Top“, “The Infernal Trio“, “The Old Gun” and “That Most Important Thing: Love“. In 1975, Romy Schneider divorced Harry Meyen. At this time Romy Schneider was already in a relationship with Daniel Biasini, her private secretary, whom she married the same year. After the birth of her daughter Sarah, she made one of her most successful films ever in 1978 with the film “A Simple Story“. From then on, however, her life only went downhill. Her ex-husband Harry Meyen hanged himself in 1979. Romy Schneider lost many of her fans’ sympathies with the film “Death Watch“, the story of a sick, doomed woman who sold the rights to her death to a television company for broadcast. This film won some awards but failed with the audience. During the shooting of three other films there were repeated problems because of Romy Schneider‘s excessive alcohol consumption. She appeared drunk on the set several times or did not appear at all.

On 5 July 1981, her son David was killed in an accident. This event threw her completely off course. Her second marriage with Daniel Biasini was at an end and she divorced him. Romy Schneider also had to undergo a serious kidney operation. Her complete downfall was prevented by her new lover Laurent Petin. He gave her some stability again. Director Jacques Rouffio persuaded her to make another film, “The Passerby“. It was to be her last film. On the night of 29 May 1982, she died as a result of excessive tablet consumption. The death was not a suicide, but a consequence of her tablet and alcohol addiction. Romy Schneider was buried in the cemetery of the small village of Boissy-sans-Avoir, her last place of residence. Alain Delon had organised her funeral.

About Fabio Testi

In the 1980s he worked mainly for Italian television. Fabio Testi is also known in Italy as a singer. As a duet partner of Raffaella Cara he had several hits in Italy.

About Jacques Dutronc

Since 1981, Jacques Dutronc has been married to the French chanson singer Françoise Hardy, with whom he has a son, actor and musician Thomas Dutronc, born in 1973, but they have been living separately for many years – he with his new partner in Monticello on Corsica, she in Paris.

About Klaus Kinski

Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski, his civil name, was born on 18 October 1926 in the free city of Danzig. In 1930 he moved with his family to Berlin. In 1944, he was drafted into a paratrooper unit during the war and soon fell into British captivity. He was interned near the English port town of Colchester. It was in the prison camp that he played theatre for the first time. In 1946 he was released from imprisonment, went to Berlin and joined the theatre there.In 1947 he met the film producer Artur Brauner, who hired him for his first film role in “Morituri” by director Eugen York. In 1950 he assaulted a female doctor and ended up in the closed ward of a mental hospital for a few days. From 1952 he toured Germany as a “one-man traveling show”. He recited from works by German literary greats such as Schiller, Goethe, Nietzsche and Tucholsky as well as from the New Testament. His performances attracted some media attention and made his name known.

His affairs and his three marriages were as eccentric as his other life. When he returned to Germany from British captivity in 1946, he spent a short time in Heidelberg. There, by his own admission, he had a wild liaison with a 16-year-old girl for several weeks. In 1952 he married Gislinde Kühbeck. Daughter Pola was born of this marriage, which was divorced again in 1955. In 1955 he had a short affair with the actress Erika Remberg, after the end of the relationship he tried to commit suicide. In 1960 he married Brigitte Ruth Tocki, who was only 20 years old, in Berlin. Their daughter Nastassja was born of this marriage. From 1964 to 1975 Klaus Kinski lived in Rome. After divorcing Brigitte Tocki in 1969, he married the 19-year-old Vietnamese model Minhoï Loanic in Rome in 1971. This marriage produced the now very famous and busy actor Nanhoï Nikolai Kinski. This marriage was also divorced in 1979. From 1987 to 1989 he had a relationship with the Italian actress Debora Caprioglio, who was also only 19. So Klaus Kinski always liked very young women. The rumours that arose at the time that he had sexually abused his two daughters Pola and Nastassja were later confirmed by both of them. In 1981, Klaus Kinski himself is said to have said to director Werner Herzog: “For what I did to my two daughters, I would spend 20 years behind bars in the USA!”

Scandals also accompanied his life in other ways. In 1971, he had a recitation evening in the Berlin Sportpalast with his own texts and Bible quotations from the New Testament under the title “Jesus Christ Redeemer”. The lecture was not well received by the audience and more and more heckling ensued. After heated discussions, Kinski went completely berserk and insulted the audience as “fucking riffraff”, “You stupid pig” or “Stupid asshole”. The event had to be broken off. At a talk show in 1977, he did not respond to a single question from the presenter Reinhard Münchenhagen and constantly addressed him as “Mr. Münchhausen”.

But Klaus Kinski was also a good actor. He became famous above all for his 16 roles in the film adaptations of the Edgar Wallace novels, which were very popular in Germany in the 1960s. Klaus Kinski played an internationally acclaimed role in the 1965 adaptation of the novel “Doctor Zhivago“, directed by David Lean. As an actor Klaus Kinski was always very disciplined, professional and diligent. He learned all his roles thoroughly and the directors had few problems on the set – Klaus Kinski almost always mastered his roles perfectly. Especially director Werner Herzog, who had met him as a teenager in Munich, appreciated this. With him as director, Klaus Kinski‘s best films were made, such as “Aguirre, the Wrath of God“, “Nosferatu the Vampyre“, “Fitzcarraldo“, “Woyzeck” and “Cobra Verde“. Werner Herzog, who never found working with Klaus Kinski easy, was, however, able to deal with this “enfant terrible”.

In 1981 Klaus Kinski bought a plot of land in California, near Los Angeles, and built a house. After its completion in 1983, he moved in. After his last film, “Kinski Paganini“, in which he himself directed, wrote the screenplay, played the leading role and provided the film editing, he retired to his new country estate. He died of a heart attack on 23 November 1991. The autopsy showed a completely scarred heart. Klaus Kinski must have had several heart attacks which he never had treated. This fact also shows his extreme, idiosyncratic character. At his request, his body was cremated and the ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco Bay.

Material processing 

Walter Potganski was able to realize the “Elaborate Digitization” together with Cristos Pateludis, an expert in film restoration who himself developed some tools for the respective processing stages. Together with Reno Bornkamm, he is the owner of the company Pateludis Video Transfer and was responsible, among other things, for the 4K scan, light determination and color correction. Usually, these steps are done in the presence of the cinematographer and the director, which of course was no longer possible in this case. The experience in the technical field of film restoration goes back over 40 years and so in this case Walter Potganski and Cristos Pateludis were now themselves responsible for what is called the “film look”.

Additional information

The film was shot mainly in Paris. The film was released in West Germany on February 21, 1975, distributed by Cinerama Filmverleih. May 29, 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of Romy Schneider‘s death. She died in Paris on May 29, 1982.

Teaser [2022] (German) ᴴᴰ

Trailer [2022] (German) ᴴᴰ

Comments about the film

“That Important Thing: Love” is a scandalous film. Brutal, naked, obsessive and intense. A cinematic delight of the more complicated kind.” (mitternachtskino.de)

“Mixture of attempted psychogram and melodrama, staged in a baroque, garish manner. In the depiction of existential extreme situations speculative in places, but not infrequently unintentionally funny.” (Encyclopedia of International Film)

“Director Zulawski thus tells a story in which two principles not only diametrically oppose each other, but are intertwined: the principle of money and the principle of love (filmstarts.com)

“That Important Thing: Love” is without question a great film by Andrzej Żuławski, distinguished by its actors, as well as by its image of an amoral society.” (film-reviews.com)

“There is crying, screaming and suffering, for some beyond the limits of good taste. Our conclusion: an exceedingly successful drama about human passions and abysses.” (filmreporter.com)

“Zulawski confronted the characters with their own wretchedness, the author with his own superficiality, the actors with their own fragility and distilled from them pure authenticity, pure expression.” (escalating-dreams.com)

“A star hour of French cinema !” (Prisma-italo-cinema.com)

“The successful mixture of psychogram and melodrama scores with an overwhelming Romy Schneider… (filmreporter.de)

“That Important Thing: Love” is a destructive love story on the brink of madness; grueling, dreary poetry between overdrawn grotesquerie, provocative, artificial expressionism with a penchant for narrative dead ends…” (moviebreak.com)

“Zulawski’s film is intelligent cinema. A manifesto against superficiality, created for liberal and unprejudiced people who are ready to dive into the shallows and dark sides of human emotions and actions.” (shadow-lights.blogspot.com)

On April 29, 2022, UCM.ONE and moviemax will release “That Important Thing: Love“, one of the great highlights of French auteur cinema from Polish director Andrzej Żuławski and produced by Albina du Boisrouvray, as a limited Mediabook in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

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