Marthe Keller

Marthe Keller was born in Basel, Switzerland, on January 28, 1945. The excellent political thrillers that she chained in the United States in the 70s call attention, but what promised a wonderful career beyond the borders of her country did not materialize.

Although Marthe studied ballet throughout her childhood, a skiing accident at the age of 16 prevented her from directing her career down that path, but instead she dove into preparing to be an actress. For this she went to Berlin, and studied at the Schiller Theater and the Berlin Ensemble. Precisely after several minor television forays, her first job, a fleeting appearance without credit, was in the spy film Funeral in Berlin (1966). The following year she also had a presence in a German film, Wilder Reiter GmbH . As the possibilities in Germany were not exciting, and he spoke French well, he tried his luck in the French country, taking part in several series and films such as Un cave and Arsène Lupine (series) , both from 1971. Two years before he had managedPhilippe de Broca in The Devil by the Tail. She would start a sentimental relationship with this director, from which his only son, Alexandre, was born.

With You by day, me by night (1973), he showed that he could perfectly assume a leading role. Impression that she confirmed with Toda una vida ( Claude Lelouch , 1974), where she gave life to Sarah, her mother and her grandmother. Then would come Marthe’s five years of glory in the United States, which got off to a wonderful start with roles in which her German accent fit well, such as Marathon Man ( John Schlesinger , 1976), which gave her a Golden Globe nomination as a supporting role, and Domingo black ( John Frankenheimer , 1977), where she was a terrorist planning a massive attack on the stadium where the Superbowl final is played. With Al Pacino, with whom it seems that he had an affair, and under the orders of Sidney Pollack, he shot the automobile competition film An Instant, a Life (1977).

Working under the orders of a European like her, Billy Wilder , legendary filmmaker, should have been a joy, but it seems that the director and actress did not understand each other in Fedora (1978), where she was the protagonist as a young woman. Somehow the responsibility for the film’s failure was loaded on the back of the actress, and her fall from grace in Hollywood would come along with it, although she would still shoot a spy movie with Marlon Brando and George C. Scott , The Formula ( John G. Avildsen , 1980). The truth is that Keller had been typecast, as shown by her intervention in Parallel Secret Services ( Charles Jarrott , 1981).

A parenthesis opens in the actress’s career, who returns to Europe, where she takes part in the miniseries Wagner (1983). She must have felt comfortable in this production about the brilliant composer, since she herself has a good musical training, and has taken part in or directed productions such as the oratorio “Jean d’Arch au Bûcher” by Arthur Honegger -of which there is a television version-, where she was the maid of Orléans; she has also made Igor Stravinsky ‘s “Persephone” , and as an opera director she debuted with an ad hoc version of “Dialogue of the Carmelites”. She has also done theater, and achieved a deserving Tony nomination for her role as Mrs. Berholt in “The Nuremberg Trial”, the same one that Marlene Dietrich did inWinners or losers .

In cinema, it is clear that his career declined, but he still had time to make Black Eyes ( Nikita Mikhalkov , 1987), a great adaptation of Chekhov’s text, with Marcello Mastroianni and Silvana Mangano . From the 1990s, Sostiene Pereira ( Roberto Faenza , 199) stands out, according to the novel by Antonio Tabucchi , where he repeated with Mastroianni. He has never stopped working, but his movies and television series have not stood out too much. For this reason, it was a great joy for the fan that Clint Eastwood came to her to give her a small role in Beyond Life (2010), where she is a doctor who goes toCécile de France to consult her on her near-death case.