The award-winning "Meine Schwester Maria" or "My Sister Maria" is a 1.5-hour documentary movie from 2002, so this one has its 15th anniversary this year. The director is Oscar winner Maximilian Schell and here he gives us an insight into the life of his older sister Maria, not an Oscar winner, but still a huge star and we find out about her glory days, but also about her life as an old woman suffering from dementia. I would say overall it was competently executed here I guess. You get a good insight most of the time, sometimes even a great one. Still it felt to me to be honest as if the documentary was good, but nowhere near as good as it could have been. This has to do with strange, almost pointless, supporting players here and forgettable plots you could almost say that cost the film quite a bit in the authenticity department. I personally believe that Max Schell would have had a great deal more and more interesting anecdotes to tell about his sister that certainly also would not have been too personal and could have turned the film into something truly special. So it is a success, but not a great success I would say. But maybe you also need to be a bigger Maria Schell fan than I am to really get the love in these 90 minutes. I like her, but I would not say she is anywhere near my personal favorites. That description actually would fit better when it comes to describing how I see Max Schell. Shame there is nobody out the to make a similar documentary about the late actor sadly, he was truly tremendous during his peak. But back to this one here, I think there are some flaws with the execution and concept in terms of the approach and general idea overall, but also many good moments and I believe the positive in here is more frequent than the negative. Go check it out.

Maria Schell a famous Austrian actress is filmed at the age of 75 having suffered possibly a stroke living in her ancestral home.This is a semi staged documentary highlighting problems in the last years of her life--her mental dementia foremost--but also her being broke and spending her time ordering expensive items advertised on television---she has 11 television sets on which at least according to the documentary she watches her old movies.Her brother apparently wealthy and also a famous actor steps in and manages her life as creditors close in.There are lots of film clips.This is clearly a movie for fans of the actress. I had never heard of her and her very limited mental abilities allow nothing but the shallowest conversation. But it is still touching and sad.Don't Recommend unless you know this actress

A most affecting film by actor and director Maximilian Schell of his extremely talented and beautiful sister, Maria. Contains a large number of wonderful clips from her German and American films with actors such as Gary Cooper (her favorite leading man), Marlon Brando, Oscar Werner, and others. These excerpts clearly demonstrate why Maria Schell was such an internationally acclaimed actress, especially during the period from the 1940s to the 1960s. Interwoven throughout the film are scenes from her childhood including those from private home movies. Most revealing and perhaps of most interest are scenes of her in the last years of her life in which she comments on important influences on her life and the many struggles she endured.

One of the hardest tasks in filming any plot is to keep dignity when it comes to taboo subjects.One of those is "getting old". This film offers a close perspective to the come-into-years Maria Schell. Old-time-stories alternate with the difficulty of coping with everyday problems. After all, the film is about anyone...it is our own future. The film's words and pictures are poetry of a very special kind. Its tenderness - which only a brother can film - is without compare: 10!