Lou Andreas-Salomé (2016)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lou Andreas-Salomé: 

The Audacity to Be Free

 

This historical and biographical drama, which premiered in 2016, is about the life and work of the Russian-born psychoanalyst and author Louise von Salomé, who is also known as Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861-1937).

 

Here is some basic information about this drama:

 

** Director: Cordula Kablitz-Post

** Writers: Cordula Kablitz-Post and Susanne Hertel

** Language: German

** Subtitles: German

** Run time: 112 minutes

 

The cast includes the following:

 

** Helena Pieske as Louise von Salomé as a young girl – six years old

** Liv Lisa Fries as Lou von Salomé as a teenager – 16 years old

** Katharina Lorenz as Lou Salomé (and Lou Andreas-Salomé) – as a woman aged 21-50

** Nicole Heesters as Lou Andreas-Salomé – as an old woman aged 72

 

** Marcel Hensema as Hendrik Gillot (1836-1916) – a Dutch priest who works as Louise’s teacher while she is a teenager

** Katharina Schüttler as Mariechen (Maria) (1905-1994) - Lou’s housekeeper in the 1930s

** Matthias Lier as Ernst Pfeiffer (1893-1986) – a publisher

** Philipp Hauss as Paul Rée (1849-1901) – a philosopher and a friend

 

** Alexander Sheer as Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) – a philosopher and a friend

** Julius Feldmeier as René (later Rainer) Maria Rilke (1875-1926) – a poet and a friend

** Merab Ninidze as Friedrich Carl Andreas (1846-1930) – an orientalist – Lou’s husband 1887-1930

** Harald Schrott as Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) – a psychoanalyst

 

Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. This is why I feel free to mention some of them here.

 

While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here.

 

Some details may have been added, altered or excluded for dramatic reasons or practical purposes. But the basic story is true.

 

Louise von Salomé was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1861. Her parents were German ex-patriates. When she was a teenager, her first name Louise was shortened to Lou. When she married Friedrich Carl Andreas in 1887, she became Lou Andreas-Salomé. While she was born in Russia, she lived and worked in Germany for most of her life. She died in Germany in 1937.

 

When this drama begins, we are in 1933. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party have taken power in Germany. Lou, who is 72, suffers from diabetes. Her vision is impaired. She has to use a magnifying glass for reading and writing.

 

A young man comes to her house to visit her. At first, he is sent away by the housekeeper Mariechen, but when he knocks on the door a second time and hands her a letter, Lou tells her to let him in.

 

The young man is Ernst Pfeiffer, a bookseller and a publisher. Lou and Ernst become friends. She tells him the story of his life and he writes it on his typewriter. From this point, the story of her life is told in a series of flashbacks, beginning with her childhood in Russia in 1867.

 

In this drama we follow her life, as she leaves Russia and moves to Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. She studies philosophy. Several men fall for her, but she does not want to marry anyone, because she is an independent spirit. If she marries a man, the law will give her husband the right to control her. She cannot accept that.

 

We see her when she meets Paul Rée and Friedrich Nietzsche, both of whom want to marry her. She turns them both down. She wants to live with them in an academic commune. They try to make it work, but they do not succeed.

 

In 1887, Lou agrees to marry Carl Friedrich Andreas, on the condition that the marriage is never consummated. They remain married until his death in 1930.

 

While married to Carl, Lou has several lovers, perhaps the most famous is the poet René Maria Wilke. Lou tells him to change his first name to Rainer, which he does. This is why he is known as Rainer Maria Rilke. They are together for three years (1897-1900).

 

In 1899 and in 1900, they travel to Russia where they meet the famous Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy. But even this passionate relationship cannot last. Lou must have her independence.

 

When Lou meets Sigmund Freud, she decides to study with him. This is how she becomes the first female psychoanalyst. Now there is a new passion in her life.

 

What do reviewers say about this drama?

Here are some answers:

 

60 percent = Meta

64 per cent = Allo Ciné

65 per cent = IMDb

66 percent = Letterboxd

70 per cent = KINO Check

 

In my opinion, all these ratings are too low. I like this drama and I want to give it a good rating, but I cannot go all the way to the top, because it has at least two flaws:

 

# 1. Only one language is spoken here. Except for a brief Russian conversation between Lou and Carl, all dialogue is in German. This is not quite realistic. When we see Louise as a child and Lou as a teenager, she is in Saint Petersburg. At least some conversations should be in Russian. But this is not the case. All characters speak German. This is a flaw.

 

# 2. Lou Salomé moves from place to place and meets a lot of people. But these places and these people are not always identified. I think the director should help the viewer understand where we are in time and place and who the people around Lou are. There is an easy way to do this:

 

An on-screen message can tell us the time and the place whenever Lou begins a new chapter of her life.

 

An on-screen message can identify each character the first time he or she appears in the movie.

 

Sadly, this was not done. This means that the viewer is not always sure where we are in time or place. When Lou meets a new character, we do not always know who this character is, which is annoying. This is a flaw.

 

I have to remove one star because of these flaws. This drama deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).

 

PS. Here is a brief chronology:

 

1861 – Louise is born in St. Petersburg, Russia

1877-1879 – Lou studies with the Dutch priest Hendrik Gillot

1879 – Lou’s father dies

1880 – Lou travels to Switzerland to study philosophy

1882 – Lou travels to Italy where she meets Paul Rée and Friedrich Nietzsche

1882 – Lou moves to Germany where she lives with Paul Rée – she writes her first book (which is published in 1885)

1885 - Lou and Paul Rée split up

1887 - Lou marries Friedrich Carl Andreas

1897 – Lou meets the poet René Maria Rilke

1900 – Nietzsche dies – Lou and Rilke separate

1901 – Paul Rée dies

1911 – Lou meets Sigmund Freud

1913 – Lou’s mother dies

1926 – Rilke dies

1930 – Lou’s husband dies

1933 – Lou and Ernst Pfeiffer work on her memoirs

1937 – Lou dies in Göttingen

1951 – Lou’s memoirs are published in German – edited by Ernst Pfeiffer

1991 – Lou’s memoirs Looking Back are published in English – translated by Breon Mitchell

 

REFERENCES

 

My Sister, My Spouse:

A Biography of Lou Andreas-Salomé

By H. F. Peters

(1963 = hardcover)

(1974 = paperback)

 

Salomé: Her Life and Work

By Angela Livingstone

(1984)

 

Lou von Salomé: A Biography of the Woman who inspired Freud, Nietzsche and Rilke

By Julia Vickers

(2008)

 

*****

 The Russian-born writer 

Lou Andreas-Salomé 

(1861-1937)

*****

 

 

Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keine Kompromisse! 

Paula Modersohn-Becker

 

This docudrama is about the pioneering German expressionist Paula Modersohn-Becker. It covers her life and work in great detail.

 

In February 2026, it was shown on French and German television (arte) - marking the 150th anniversary of her birth in February 1876. It was also shown in German movie theatres, with a different title:

 

Wer weiss schon, was ein Leben ist?

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Writers and directors: Annelie Boros & Vera Brückner

** Language: German

** Subtitles: German

** Run time: 52 minutes

 

Several persons are interviewed in this film. 

Here are the names of the participants:

 

** Beate C. Arnold

** Dr. Henrike Hans

** Dr. Ingrid Pfeiffer

** Diane Radycki

 

** Dr. Frank Schmidt

** Julia Voss

** Marie Darrieussecq

** Vivian Greven

 

** Inès Longevial

** Ngozi Schommers

** Sibylle Springer

 

Four actors portray four characters:

 

** Katharina Stark plays Paula Modersohn-Becker

(1876-1907)

** Dominique Devenport plays Clara Westhoff

(1878-1954)

** Enno Trebs plays Otto Modersohn

(1865-1943)

** Merlin Rose plays Rainer Maria Rilke

(1875-1926)

 

During a short but intense life, Paula Modersohn-Becker created more than 700 oil paintings and more than 1,000 drawings on paper.

 

During a short but intense life, she wrote many letters. Many of them have been preserved. She also wrote several diaries. Many of them have been preserved.

 

Her letters and her diaries are an important source of information about her life and her work as an artist. This film is partially based on her letters and her diaries.

 

Paula Becker was born in Dresden (Germany) in February 1876. As a young woman, she wanted to become an artist, more precisely a painter. But her parents did not accept this unusual ambition. They said she had to do a teacher training course, so she had a way to support herself later in life.

 

Having completed a teacher training course in Bremen in 1893, her parents allowed her to attend the Berlin School of Art for Women.

 

While she attended this school, she felt that her life was moving in the right direction. Having completed an art class in Berlin, she broke free. Her life was no longer controlled by her parents.

 

While in Berlin, she heard about an artist colony located at Worpswede in the northwest corner of Germany, which had been founded in 1889.

 

In 1897, she made a brief visit to this place to see what it was like. She had a good feeling about the place.

 

In 1898, she joined the artist colony at Worpswede. This place became her base during the rest of her life.

 

At Worpswede, she met several persons who came to play an important role in her life:

 

** She met Clara Westhoff, who was a sculptor. They became good friends.

 

** She met the painter Otto Modersohn, who was one of the founders of the artist colony

 

** She met the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who arrived at Worpswede in 1900

 

In 1901, Rainer and Clara were married. They were married until his death in 1926. Clara lived much longer than her husband. She died in 1954.

 

A conventional marriage in which they lived together did not last long. After one year, they separated, but they never divorced. Technically, they were married until his death in 1926.

 

In 1901, Paula and Otto were also married. They were married until her death in 1907. Otto lived much longer than his wife. He died in 1943.

 

While Paula had a good life at Worpswede, she could not stay there the whole time. She wanted to visit Paris to meet other artists and to get some inspiration for her work. She visited the French capital four times:

 

The first visit

She left home on 31 December 1899 and arrived in Paris on 01 January 1900. She wanted this visit to be a new chapter of her life.

 

The second visit

She spent a few weeks in Paris in 1903. During this visit, she had a meeting with the famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

 

The third visit

She visited Paris in 1905. During this visit, she attended a school for the fine arts: Ecole des Beaux-Arts

 

The fourth and final visit

This visit began in 1906 and ended in 1907. She left her husband behind. She had to be alone in order to focus on her work as an artist.

 

She did not tell her husband where she stayed. But he found out and he wrote a letter to her. He wanted to join her in Paris. He begged her to allow him to join her.

 

After a while, she said yes. He travelled to Paris. They were together for a while. The feeling was good. After some time in Paris. They returned to Worpswede.

 

When Paula returned to Worpswede, she was pregnant. On 02 November 1907, she gave birth to a daughter who was named Mathilde Modersohn (1907-1998).

 

It was a long a difficult birth. The doctor ordered bed rest for several days. Eighteen days later, on 20 November 1907, when she was allowed to get up, she died.

 

Her death was probably caused by a blood clot in her lungs (known as a pulmonary embolism). She was only 31 years old.

 

When Rainer Maria Rilke learned that his close friend Paula had died, he composed a long poem dedicated to her. The English title of the poem is Requiem for a Friend (1908).

 

Paula was not forgotten. Ten years after her death, in 1927, a museum dedicated to her was opened in Bremen. It was the first museum in the world which was dedicated entirely to the life and work of a female painter.

 

What was so special about her?

Why was she important?

Because she was a trailblazer:

 

** She was the first female artist in the history of western art to paint herself completely nude

** She was probably the first female artist who painted herself pregnant

** She focused on ordinary people, such as local children, poor farmers, and elderly women

 

I cannot describe her as forgotten, because she is known and remembered, but perhaps mostly known and remembered by other artists? She cannot be described as well-known by the general public.

 

The directors of this film wanted to tell the story of the life and work of a pioneering female artist and they have, in my opinion, done a very good job.

 

PS. Paula suspected that her life might be quite short. On 26 July 1900, when she was 24 years old, she made the following entry in her diary:

 

“I know that I shall not live very long. But I wonder, is that sad? Is a celebration more beautiful because it is longer? And my life is a celebration, a short, intense celebration.”

 

REFERENCES

 

# 1. Books

 

Paula Modersohn-Becker:

The Letters and Journals

Translated into English and edited by Günter Busch and Liselotte von Reinken

(1983)

 

Paula Modersohn-Becker:

The First Modern Woman Artist

By Diane Radycki

(2013)

  

Being Here Is Everything:

The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker

By Marie Darrieussecq

(2017)

 

# 2. Film and video

 

Paula

This film, which premiered in 2016, is available on YouTube

** Director: Christian Schwochow

** Languages: English, French, and German

** Run time: 123 minutes

 

# 3. Items available online

 

Ainslinn Hunter,

“Lost Classics: Paula Modersohn-Becker, The Letters and Journals,”

Brick

Issue # 73

Summer 2004

 

Olivia Laing,

“Being Here. The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker Review. The Story of Women’s Art.”

The Guardian

04 November 2017

 

“Paula Modersohn-Becker:

An Icon of Classic Modernism,”

ARS Mundi

March 2023

 

Emily,

“Ich bin ich: The Quandary of the Female Artist,”

Substack

08 February 2025

 

*****

Wer weiss schon, was ein Leben ist?

Paula Modersohn-Becker

(2026)

 

*****

The German painter

Paula Modersohn-Becker

(1876-1907) 

 

*****