Lili Marleen

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1981 West German drama is freely adapted from Der Himmel hat viele Farben, the memoir of Lale Andersen, the singer who first performed the celebrated wartime song. Beginning in 1938, it follows Willie, a young German singer who falls for Robert Mendelsson, a Jewish composer and conductor from Zurich involved in helping Jews flee the Nazi regime. Willie longs to remain at his side but is compelled to go back to Germany. There her rendition of Lili Marleen turns into a sensation heard by soldiers on both sides of the conflict, making her the idol of the nation while fame and war steadily pull the couple apart. Hanna Schygulla leads the cast, supported by Giancarlo Giannini and Mel Ferrer. Co-written by Fassbinder and Joshua Sinclair, the film builds a largely invented story: Andersen's last husband, Arthur Beul, maintained it had little to do with her actual life.