Lotte Lenya — Warum bin ich nicht froh?

About the Film

Lotte Lenya is one of the most important interpreters of Brecht/Weill music theater. She was the wife of German composer Kurt Weill and fled with him to the USA in 1935. Songs such as “Surabaya Johnny”, “Seeräuber-Jenny”, “Speak Low” and “September Song” only became classics through her performance. Lenya was an irreplaceable part of her husband’s work. After Weills early death in 1950, she dedicated herself to preserving his work and made songs such as “Mackie Messer” world-famous. She played “Pirate Jenny” in the premiere of The Threepenny Opera in Berlin in 1928, in the 1931 film version and again in the 1950s Broadway production. She plays the lesbian KGB agent Rosa Klebb in the James Bond film “Love Greetings from Moscow” and she coined the song “So What” by Fräulein Schneider in the musical “Cabaret” on Broadway. The documentary gives Lotte Lenya herself a chance to speak about her life – in television interviews and letters that bear witness to her wit, tenderness and urge to live and are read by the German actress and singer Meret Becker.

Credits