Christine (1958 film)

Christine is a 1958 French period drama film, based on the 1894 play Liebelei (Flirtation) by Arthur Schnitzler. The film was directed by Pierre Gaspard-Huit and the title character was played by Romy Schneider. The cast included Alain Delon as a young lieutenant.

Schnitzler's play had been filmed in 1933 by Max Ophüls as Liebelei, starring Romy Schneider's mother, Magda Schneider.

Synopsis
In 1906 Vienna, a young lieutenant Franz (Alain Delon) has an affair with a married baroness, Lena. He decides to put an end to it when he meets Christine (Romy Schneider, Delon's fiancée in real life), a musician's daughter.

Christine is almost engaged to a composer, Binder, but falls in love with Franz. Franz breaks it off with Lena, but her husband the Baron Eggesdorf has already discovered the affair.

While Christine and Franz plan their wedding, the Baron challenges Franz to a duel, and Franz is killed, leading to Christine commits suicide.

Production
Charles Spaak was reported as working on the screenplay.

At the time of filming, Schneider was one of the most popular stars in Europe, having enjoyed success starring in the Sissi film trilogy. Christine was an attempt to duplicate this, being aimed more at the French market.

Delon had only just begun his career when he was cast. He and Schneider began a romantic affair that continued on and off for a number of years.

Reception
In France, the film had 2,848,858 theatre admissions, making it the seventeenth most popular film at the French box office in 1958. Number one in France that year was an American film, The Ten Commandments; number four was another film starring Schneider, the Austrian production Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress.