''Sweetheart of the Gods'' (german: Liebling der Götter) is a 1960 West German

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docud ...

directed by Gottfried Reinhardt and starring Ruth Leuwerik, Peter van Eyck, and Harry Meyen. The film portrays the life of

Renate Müller Renate Müller (26 April 1906 – 7 October 1937) was a German singer and actress in both silent films and sound films, as well as on stage. One of the most successful actresses in German films from the early 1930s, she was courted by the ...

, a German film actress who died in 1937 in mysterious circumstances. A variety of rumours about Müller's death had developed, but the filmmakers chose to portray it as

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

following

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

pressure over her relationship with a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

. Following legal objections from Müller's family, the ending was toned down to make her final fate more vague. Leuwerik recreates scenes and songs from several of Müller's films. However their star personae were very different, with Müller famous as a

girl-next-door The girl next door is a young female stock character who is often used in romantic stories. She is so named because she often lives next door to the protagonist or is a childhood friend. They start out with a mutual friendship that later ofte ...

while Leuwerik played the role in her more usual refined fashion. Although set in the 1930s, stylistically the film often resembles the late 1950s. Willy Fritsch, a German star of the 1930s who had acted alongside Müller in two films, appears in a small role. It was shot at the

Spandau Studios The Spandau Studios or CCC Studios were film and television studios located in Spandau, a suburb of Berlin. They were established in 1949 following the Second World War by the producer Artur Brauner controller of CCC Films, on the site of a former ...

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

with sets designed by the art directors Paul Markwitz and Fritz Maurischat. The film was moderately successful commercially on its release in West Germany.

Cast

References

Bibliography

External links

* 1960 films 1960s musical drama films 1960s biographical drama films German biographical drama films German musical drama films West German films 1960s German-language films Films directed by Gottfried Reinhardt Films set in the 1930s Films about Nazi Germany Films set in Berlin Films about filmmaking Biographical films about actors Bavaria Film films 1960 drama films Films shot at Spandau Studios 1960s German films {{bio-film-stub