In this fascinating documentary, international filmmaker and actor Maximilian Schell takes a close and difficult look at the life of his sister, Maria Schell, the once legendary actress (The Last Bridge) now living in recluse in the hills of Austria, broke, nearly alone and "in another place."

Schell employs a wealth of film clips from Maria's prolific career, then connects them to current, new footage shot at Maria's Austrian country home, some obviously staged, some of it candid and unscripted, all of it pretty terrific.

What's best about My Sister Maria - besides the amazing Maria herself - is that the film is not the fawning familial tribute one might expect from one aging star to another. Schell has made a film that is a sobering look at the decline of a fabulous life, complete with the highest of highs and the unflattering lows. Schell, the filmmaker and Schell, the brother, expertly combine the present and the past to create a rich portrait.

There's a provocative use of staged material here, including scenes of photographers attempting to snap candid shots of Maria in her home, amazingly photographed examples of her now mental incompetence, the sadness of a woman once so vital who can now barely trudge a few yards down a snowy path. Indeed, My Sister Maria is an atypical documentary much in the way Schell's previous foray into documentaries, "Marlene", was created. Marlene Dietrich, of course, refused to be photographed for that documentary, though she lent her voice to the project, and Schell creatively worked around her actual presence, taking his film into an almost experimental realm, looping back around to the mystique of Dietrich and creating an aura of palpable mystery.

My Sister Maria doesn't take that route, as Maria herself is a willing participant in the project. But it does create the same spell - in that the subject matter - the chronicle and decline of a legendary actress, complete with footage that vividly explores her heyday as an international screen sensation, as well as modern-day scenes of her present reality and its trappings, including some curious scenes of Maria with multiple televisions surrounding her bed, her many films on display for her to view.

My Sister Maria is a surprisingly cinematic and well-made documentary, illuminating a woman who was loved by millions as one of cinema's most promising stars, and still loved by one man as a remarkable sister.