Once by the gate of the majestic barracks,
She and I both stood by a skylight.
We shyly said goodbye to each other,
Now only the skylight remains.
Favorite, Lily Marlene,
Favorite, Lily Marlene.
You can see both of us everywhere,
The singing of both of us still seemed to flutter.
But when will all the people see again,
How can we meet at that skylight?
Favorite, Lily Marlene!
At the guard outside the door you whistled,
I ran to the skylight where I hadn't seen you for three days.
Although we can only wave goodbye to each other,
But I firmly believe that the love with you will last forever.
Only with you, Lily Marlene,
Only with you, Lily Marlene.
Your familiar and gentle footsteps,
I crave to hear it almost day and night.
Now I know by chance that I am going to the front line,
God knows if he can stand by the skylight again.
No matter what quiet corner of the earth, I want to have your loving lips in my dreams.
When the fog has already enveloped everything faintly, I am still standing quietly by the skylight...
Only with you, Lily Marlene!
The Young Sentinel Song
The above is a very famous German song from the 1930s, "Lily. The lyrics of Marlene are said to have 44 versions of the song in fourteen languages around the world. The lyrics are written by Hans Leip, a German soldier of the First World War, who had just left Lily's arms and stood on the guard post, and under the distant lights came the beautiful female nurse Marlene greeted the young soldier kindly. The young sentry reminisced about the moving scene for a long time, so the lyrics of this song were born. In 1938, composer Norbert Schultze composed the lyrics and gave it to Lale Andersen to sing. But there was no response, and the singer himself did not like it, and even less of the song was the German propaganda minister Goebbel, whose song was heroic and uplifting, not this war-weary melancholy. The song was banned.
But in the European battlefield, far from the empire, the song has a new life. German forces occupied Yugoslavia and established a radio station in Belgrade to publicize the troops. The radio announcer broadcast the song, which was well received by the soldiers and liked by Rommel, the commander of the North African battlefield. At Rommel's suggestion, the song became the ending song for daily broadcasts. The Imperial ban finally gave way to the interests of the Imperial soldiers. Also listening to the radio were Allied troops, especially the British soldiers, who often drunkenly sang the song "LILI MARLEEN" in the bar where they were stationed. Soon, the English version of "Lily Marlene" came out. It was at this time that the funny thing happened: both the Allies and the Germans broadcast the song to each other as an anti-war song. Gradually, the song spread, and almost all the allies had their own language versions.
In fact, the first time I heard this song was in the cinema in the 80s, the British war entertainment film "Escape to Athena", there was a scene of the labor drama team singing in the German army occupying Greece, and it was also mixed with striptease, which was the earliest striptease in the Chinese mainland cinema. Fassbinder made this film, and I believe that the song is just a cover, and its intention is to write about women in war, how strong the viability of a woman who leaves a man can be, in contrast to the female subjects in the previous "Mary Brown's Marriage" who have never been able to get out of male society.
Tell us about the story of this film - in Switzerland in 1938, jewish composer Robert and German singer Willie are in love. Robert's father, who led an underground organization that helped Jews escape from Germany, was worried about his son's German girlfriend, so he took advantage of the two men's trip to Germany to keep Willie in Germany. Willie had no choice but to go to the bar to sell and sing, who knew that a song "Lily Marlene" was very popular among the German generals, and Willy became famous in one fell swoop with the support of high-ranking German officials and even Hitler, and entered german high society. Robert learns of his father's behavior and risks returning to Germany, only to see Willy, who has become a red star. On his way back, Robert is captured by agents spying on Willie and his true identity is discovered. But Robert mistakenly believes that Willie has betrayed him. Robert's father, Toverly, got film from the concentration camp to massacre prisoners of war in exchange for Robert's life. Robert was rescued, but Willy went to the concentration camp. Robert learned the truth and tried in many ways, and the German generals also missed Willie who sang "Lily Marlene", and Willy finally took the stage again. At the end of the war, Willie rushed to Switzerland to look for Robert, only to see that Robert had become an accomplished composer and conductor, and was married. Willie tried her best to restrain her disappointment and left sadly and resolutely.
Through the appearance of this story, I see a story of how a woman is self-reliant, although in a chaotic world, this somewhat humble woman, who is calculated to be abandoned and used, constantly pressured by male society (even if they are at war), but she is still as unscathed as a goddess, only after the war in Switzerland, Robert has just completed a Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony, she went backstage, originally thought that the broken mirror was reunited, but saw robert and his wife's intimacy, so she reflexively left, that kind of no hesitation, It was truly exciting – Fassbinder finally sang the strongest song of German women's self-improvement and self-esteem. But as a film, I have to say it gave me a far weaker impact than Mary Brown's Marriage.
Overnight, the tone of "Lily Marlene" has been echoing in the ears, no matter how to drive away, huh. Incidentally, Fassbinder's royal actress Hannah Shkura, who has played the lead role in 9 French films and even had the power to change the script, her relationship with Law is quite peculiar.