Liebelei is one of the last artifacts of pre-Hitler Germany; it was Ophuls's first big hit, despite its anti-militaristic theme and the fact that both director and author's Jewish names were erased from the credits when the film opened in Germany. The story, set in turn-of-the-century Vienna, tells of the doomed love between Christine and a young lieutenant, Fritz, whose lives are sacrificed to a militaristic code of honor. The musical comedienne Magda Schneider (Romy Schneider's mother) plays the tragic role of Christine. "I love Liebelei. Here we encounter a linguistic obstacle in describing spiritual transports in terms of visual dynamics. How precisely do we describe love (though not life) after death in terms of the visual echo of a camera movement? We can only speak of a cinematic tradition of obsessive style to which Liebelei pertains, a tradition that embraces both Sunrise and Ugetsu..."(Andrew Sarris)