Obsession: Marlene Dietrich

Journalist Henry-Jean Servat worked successively at the French daily newspapers Midi Libre and Libération and at Paris Match for twenty-five years; he appears regularly on several French television channels, including France 2 and France 3. He wrote Brigitte Bardot: My Life in Fashion (Flammarion, 2016).

Featuring rare images from Pierre Passebons personal collection, this volume celebrates Marlene Dietrich, Hollywoods iconic femme fatale, as immortalized by master photographers including Edward Steichen, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Milton Greene, George Hurrell, Antony Armstrong-Jones, and others. An active participant in her photo sessions, she constructed her own unique image of charm and seduction.

Dietrichs life was devoted to glamour for over forty years: in stage performances, on screen, and in concert. The public loved her. A modern and transgressive woman, she didnt hesitate to break the rules by dressing in menswear (she was Yves Saint Laurents muse for his iconic tuxedos) or by being seen in public with her husband and her lovers (both male and female). Dietrich also refused to bend to Hollywood conventions around motherhood by raising her daughter in the limelight.

Her beauty, style, and elegance made her the archetypal femme fatale, but it was Dietrichs unwavering confidence, gender fluidity, and firm stand against Nazism that made her a revolutionary and an icon. This volume reveals how her fascination lies not only in the way she inspired the greatest photographers and fashion designers of her time, but in how she continues to embody the essence of glamour and female independence today.