Marlene Dietrich by Maria Riva Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Marlene Dietrich
Book Review: Great Biography with Credibility
Summary: 5 Stars
I personally think this book is excellent not only for Dietrich fans, but also for those who would wish to read an amazing life story of an amazing woman, who happened to have become a Hollywood legend. Mrs. Riva, the only daughter of Dietrich, writes very objectively about what she has witnessed as a daughter of Marlene Dietrich over 50 years. I do not think it is a revenge/telltale book;Mrs.Riva is a true admirer of Dietrich especially from a professional perspective,and I believe that she only wanted to tell the truth to the world. I sincerely appreciate Mrs. Riva to have written this book with incredible details after a pains-taking research, and showed us unknown aspects of the one of the biggest Hollywood stars ever. Even if you are a great fan of Dietrich, who is picky about what is written and said about Dietrich,you would enjoy this book --- after all, Marlene Dietrich had a remarkable life. Dietrich introduced the true elegance to the US. It was very enjoyable to learn European high-society culture before the WWII, her fashion secrets, her friendship/relationship with other legendary figures, and her true professionalism towards movies and stages. If you ever think its a telltale/gossipy book, please consider this: anyone who is mentioned in this book in connection with Dietrich, truth or false, would probably be jubilant!Book Review: Incredible book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read this book many times over the years and never cease to be appreciative for such an interesting and insightful and witty biography (and in essence, autobiography)!You really get a sense of the 'fascination' of Marlene Dietrich - or I suppose you could say her sense of 'self-fascination' and how she projected her image and mystique onto others and how easy it must have been for people to succumb to it.
Maria Riva provides such a full-out and well-rounded accounting of her mother's life and personality - that it's practically intoxicating.
Tho' certainly, it is also provides a great 'warning' in terms of how to view this most 'celebrated' figure - and how dangerous it could be to your heart and soul and psyche to become too deeply involved or fall under the sway of this beguiling, selfish, suffocating, nurturing, romantic and ultimately, unknowable woman.
Still, after reading this book, who would not have liked to meet and spend time with this woman, this icon?
Just an incredible book!
And as noted in a prior review, Maria Riva certainly has an incredible memory for events and a gift for giving you the 'feeling' of a life so grandly lived.
Book Review: MARIA ON DIETRICH
Summary: 4 Stars
The trouble with this book is twofold,one is how riva herself comes across,no fault of hers, but i suspect that of the writer,who ghosted this for her,sending her across as so irritatingly,soppy, and gormless, that no sympathy is gained from even revelations,such as a rape at the hands of one of mothers "friends",at the age of eleven,this angle was important for the balance of the book,deprived daughter,world famous egomanical filmstar mother,without this,this does not work! even tragic tammy grates eventually.A pity becauce after seeing riva, on a documentary about dietrich she was anything but soppy,actually coming across as gruff and sincere.Of her recall,although i dont accuse her of lying,she seems to set a formula of what dietrich would have done,and said in certain situtations(some of the qouted conversations sound ludicrous) and procceded from there.To describe your eighty seven year old mothers toilet habits is bad enough, but to describe them in such curcumstances, is vicious in the extreme, whitch leads me to the most baffling aspect of this tome,it is impossible to trace the actual root of her anger.She dosent just pin it on her on her rape "it abounds everywhere"
The book itself is no different in formula, to the usual hollywood biography of an actress (ie born, discovered,films,love affairs,more films,more love affairs,death!)except this actress was no ordinary indivdual,her films have cult status,yet she couldnt really act,she filled concert halls the world over her well into her seventies,and yet she couldnt really sing!problem number two creeps in here,Riva seems to be as much in the dark as to her appeal as the reader she offers a lot of question marks but no answers,so sadly,it dosent work on any level,strange though,with dietrich this makes her even more of an enigma,perhaps this is why i read it twice,on second thoughts she is better, not analysed perhaps this is her magic.
Book Review: Maria Riva's
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the juiciest and the best Hollywood biography I've ever read. It's an awesome accomplishment. Dietrich's daughter obviously has a prodigious memory because she brings not just her mother, but an entire vanished age of moviemaking to life. I was expecting to read about Dietrich the great heroine, instead I learned about a woman whose narcissism was truly monstrous but who remained fascinating despite that.
Riva writes brilliantly about the early days of moviemaking, the personalities with whom she came into contact and who were part of her mother's world, from the legendary directer Von Sternberg to Noel Coward, the pre-war days of Hollywood, the fascinating days of train travel and the gorgeous oceanliners of yesteryear in the days before airline travel, her own extremely bizarre upbringing by a mother who thought she existed only to be her handmaiden and a father who had his own major issues, her own attempts (and ultimate success) in breaking free, self-indulgence and addiction on a grand scale, politics, heroism, cowardice, human cruelty and selfishness, glamour, beauty, the arts of design, stagecraft, lighting and the endless, almost dizzying parade of Dietrich's lovers and victims.
A tremendous achievement not just as psychological portraits of a disfunctional family with a queen egotist at its head but of an entire lost world.
Riva clearly admires her mother's enormous gifts, her warrior-like discipline, her tenaciousness, her ferocious appetite for learning about her craft, her attention to the image, her great aesthetic eye, her heroism and physical bravery ---while deploring the way she used and discarded other people and was such a monster of selfishness and dishonesty, ultimately destroying herself in the process. Literally, this is one of the best books I've ever read. I could NOT put it down. I've recommended it many times -- no one has EVER been disappointed--and everyone has always LOVED this book!!!!
Book Review: Maria and her Mother
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a book of 780 pages. Maria seemed quite sarcastic about her mother through the first 200 pages. I keep on reading....I still wonder about the first 200 pages. What Maria was thinking of? She gives dimensions to her mother I would never have known. I was sorry Maria became an alcohoic when her mother was entertaining American Troops overseas in WW 11 and I admire her courage I think Maria is an intelligent woman. She was careful not to say too much about herself. she should write a book about herself alone.She did splendid work! Sometimes bitter sweet as life often is A must for a Marlene Dietrich admirer!