Die Flamme / Montmartre (2006 reconstruction Filmmuseum München)

Ernst Lubitsch: Die Flamme / Montmartre (DE 1923) with Alfred Abel and Pola Negri.

Montmartre (French and English title) / The Flame / Liekki / Kokotten från Caféet Flora.

Ernst Lubitsch / Allemagne / 1923 / 41 min / DCP / INT.FR. deutsche Zwischentitel

Avec Pola Negri, Alfred Abel, Hilde Wörner.

Original length: 2555 m /18 fps/ 123 min

Reconstruction: Stefan Drössler / Filmmuseum München 2006. Of the 5 reels, only reel 2 survives. 80% of the film is missing believed lost, but it has been reconstructed via promotion stills, other photographs, production sketches and text material.

E-sous-titres français n.c.

Grand piano: Sinan Asiyan (classe d'improvisation de Jean-François Zygel)

Vu lundi, le 14 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Ernst Lubitsch, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: " Une modiste parisienne se perd dans une vie dissolue, au grand dam de son cousin. Illuminés par le jeu subtil de Pola Negri, les fragments qui subsistent de ce drame naturaliste offrent un aperçu fascinant du dernier film allemand de Lubitsch. "

AA: Revisited Stefan Drössler's reconstruction of Ernst Lubitsch's last German film. 80% of its original duration of 123 minutes is missing believed lost, but using all available material, a reconstruction was performed with excellent taste, doing justice to Lubitsch and Pola Negri in their last German collaboration.

I had seen and programmed both the earlier available fragment (418 m /18 fps/ 20 min) by Deutsches Institut für Filmkunde and Münchner Filmmuseum in 1988 (it did not make sense) and this restoration in our The Unknown Ernst Lubitsch programme in 2008 (for the first time it made sense, storywise and artistically). 

Lubitsch wanted to do a Kammerspiel between the big productions of The Wife of the Pharaoh and Rosita. Die Flamme is a tender story of true love for Yvette who wants to break free from the life on the street. But when Adolphe, her husband whose baby she expects, is too ashamed to invite Yvette to the Uraufführung of his first symphony, Yvette jumps from the window. "Die Strasse hat mich gerufen".