"Monpti" is a West German German-language film from 1957 and like the other Romy Schneider works, it is in color too. It is a much more modern tale compared to the films she usually starred in. It is uncompromising, in your face and there are authentically dramatic events taking place here. A lot may have to do with the talented Horst Buchholz being the male lead. And these two worked very well together as a young couple where both have personal struggles, especially Schneider's character. The chemistry was good and the plot (development) felt plausible. It is novel-based and one of the people who adapted the material is Helmut Käutner, who is also the director who made this film and was among the most successful German filmmakers from his time. And with "Monpti" (the name Schneider's character gives Buchholz'), he adds another pretty good movie to his resumée. I also liked the city setting here. it was just so refreshing to see Schneider in entirely different surroundings than usual and it worked very well with the story too. My reference in the title has to do with the Hawke/Delpy "Before" films and if they had existed already when "Monpti" was made, then this may have been what it looked like. These over 90 minutes are certainly one of the better German film efforts from the 1950s. I recommend the watch.

And yet another Romy Schneider movie, but more importantly my 6th film by Helmut Käutner, one of the world's best directors. Saw this as a part of a small ongoing Romy Schneider homage at my cinema of choice in a good 35mm print with most of the color-palette still intact. The film is completely dazzling, and as some say this is Käutner's biggest coup de main, though I'm not so sure myself, I definitely cannot disagree. Monpti left me a bit dumbfounded, gasping for air, as it's as fast as seemingly innocent while going through the motions in a nether-land somewhere between Andrzej Zulawski's Possession (1981) and Ernst Marischka's Sissi (1955). Definitely one-of-its-kind, this is a testament to the 50s as a disjointed decade stuck between the 40s and 60s, on a planet of its own.Currently the film is difficult to pin down or accurately describe for me, and I hope to see it a second time on the big screen today. All I can say is: magnificent, enchanting, disturbing, full of surprises and definitely a film that is as iconic for Romy Schneider as any other she ever made. I am clearly running out of fitting adjectives to describe this exuberance of a film that is successfully masquerading as yet another German 50s romantic comedy. Käutner seems the personified understatement.

This film could be a real gem if it would not be a fake; it is largely sustained by the great performance of the 2 actors, also there is a pleasant and fortunate choice of characters around them, the screen play has wonderful passages but ... the whole is incredibly wasted under a ton of moralistic non sense mainly anti sexual: the lovers go around spending their passion in thousands of kisses but never are able to complete it with what you are expecting they must do; instead here is the punishment; after the last stupid, unbelievable and meaningless misunderstanding the girl run away and is knocked down by a car; he visits her at the hospital all seems OK but when he comes again the doctor says she is dead; what do you expect him to do, perhaps bursting into tears? Not at all, he's chilly, calm and serene as it was exactly what he was hoping from the romance. Pure Christian style: the woman who thinks to sex dies.

Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz had teamed up the year before in "Robinson Soll nicht sterben" which dealt with Daniel Defoe's childhood.They were Germany's then biggest stars ,particularly Romy who grew in popularity in the wake of the Sissi saga.Horst Buchholz had also been the hero of the German version of Julien Duvivier's "Marianne de Ma Jeunesse" and Helmut Kautner was certainly influenced by the French director whose "Sous le Ciel de Paris" (and other movies)revolved around the whims of fate ,with a voice over and lots of pessimism.Actually it was the first time Schneider had left the schmaltzy stuff and a French critic wrote that "Monpti" was the movie which explained her further evolution.It was not yet Welles or Visconti but it was a step in the right direction.Filmed on location in Paris ,it often takes place in the Luxembourg gardens in the Latin Quarter.