Der Blaue Engel

[The title appears on screen as: Der blaue Engel. But Der Blaue Engel is the name of the bar.] Sininen Enkeli / Blå Ängeln. DE 1930. PC: Ufa. P: Erich Pommer. D: Josef von Sternberg. SC: Robert Liebmann, Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmoller – based on the novel Professor Unrat (1905) by Heinrich Mann. DP: Günther Rittau, Hans Schneeberger. AD: Otto Hunte, Emil Hasler. ED: Sam Winston. M: Friedrich Hollaender. CAST: Emil Jannings (Immanuel Rath), Marlene Dietrich (Lola Fröhlich), Kurt Gerron (Kiepert), Rosa Valetti (his wife Guste), Hans Albers (Mazeppa), Eduard von Winterstein (headmaster), Reinhold Bernt (clown), Rolf Müller (Angst), Gerhard Bienert (policeman), Ilse Fürstenberg (Rath's maid). 106 min. A Transit Film / FWMS print with e-subtitles by AA operated by Lena Talvio. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 24 Sep 2009. - The print has an obviously digi-mastered look. Probably there are no brilliant prints of this film. Paramount burned the negative in ca 1960. The English-language version looks better visually, but is otherwise inferior. - Sternberg's masterpiece revisited (the first 30 minutes). This is my favourite Sternberg film, an ideal combination of style and substance, Marlene Dietrich's ironic, motherly, earthy charm always fascinating. - The most profound film based on the clown themes that were among the obsessions of the cinema in the 1910s and in the 1920s.

The Last Command

Viimeinen määräys / Sista kommandot. US (c) 1928 Paramount Famous Lasky Corp. Pres: Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky. Supervisor: J.G. Bachmann. Associate P: B.P. Schulberg. D: Josef von Sternberg. SC and Adaptation: John F. Goodrich - from a story by Lajos Biró - intertitles: Herman J. Mankiewicz. DP: Bert Glennon. AD: Hans Dreier. CAST: Emil Jannings (Grand Duke Sergius Alexander), Evelyn Brent (Natacha Dabrova), William Powell (Leo Andreyev). 2410 m /22 fps/ 96 min. A DFI print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 17 Sep 2009. - A soft print with low contrast. - A favourite Sternberg masterpiece of mine revisited (30 minutes from the beginning). Sternberg is in brilliant command of the means of expression in late silent cinema. The breadlines of Hollywood. The circumstances of the extras. The eve of revolution in Russia. - The moving camera, the montage, the expressive close-up. - Emil Jannings had had great directors before, notably Ernst Lubitsch and F.W. Murnau, but his greatest director was Sternberg in The Last Command and Der Blaue Engel. Sternberg dared to expose his extremes as the mighty man at the height of his prestige, and the crushed man who descends into madness, degradation and the gutter. - There is a connection between this concept and Orson Welles (his favourite theme of the mighty man who is bound to perish), and a direct link is Herman J. Mankiewicz.

Das Weib des Pharao

Faaraon vaimo / Faraos hustru. DE 1921. PC: Ernst Lubitsch-Film / EFA. P: Paul Davidson. D: Ernst Lubitsch. SC: Norbert Falk, Hanns Kräly. DP: Theodor Sparkuhl, Alfred Hansen. AD: Ernst Stern, Kurt Richter. COST: Ernst Stern, Ali Hubert, Ernö Metzner. Starring: Emil Jannings (Amenes the Pharaon of Egypt), Dagny Servaes (Theonis, a Greek slave girl), Paul Wegener (Samlak, king of Ethiopia), Lyda Salmonova (Makeda, his daughter), Albert Bassermann (Sothis, the king's building master) Harry Liedtke (Ramphis, his son). Originally 2976 m /16 fps/ 162 min. 2005 reconstructed version via 2K digital intermediate from Adoram, /16 fps/ 124 min. E-subtitles AA. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 13 Feb 2008. A colossal epic lost in its original form, painstakingly reconstructed via all available materials. The German Lubitsch ensemble together once again, working at full speed. Historically and psychologically unconvincing, yet a breathtakingly impressive Egyptian fantasy with top actors, designers, etc. Cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl and Alfred Hansen is brilliant. Scenes with mothers and children on the Pharaoh's steps are as powerful as the Odessa steps in Battleship Potyomkin. Once again history is reduced to a consequence of private passions: humiliation over a girl, jealousy, unrequited love. This is an early (first?) example of the classic Emil Jannings performance: the tyrant at the height of his power perishes utterly. He descends into madness, is stripped of the external emblems of his might, falls into the gutter and dies. A magnificent reconstruction with a loss of visual quality via the digital intermediate.

Kohlhiesels Töchter

Kohlhieselin tyttäret / Krögarens döttrar. DE 1920. PC: Messter. D: Ernst Lubitsch. SC: Hanns Kräly, Lubitsch. DP: Theodor Sparkuhl. Starring: Henny Porten (Gretel and Liesel), Emil Jannings (Peter Xaver), Gustav von Wangeheim (Paul Seppl), Jacob Tiedtke (Mathias Kohlhiesel). 1129 m /19 fps/ 52 min. Print from Münchner Filmmuseum, /19 fps/ 61 min. E-subtitles AA. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 12 Feb 2008. This is one of Lubitsch's most relaxed films, simple fun roughly based on The Taming of the Shrew, with Henny Porten in a double role, both as the shrew and the lovely sister. Lubitsch clearly loved winter and the mountains. It is nice to see this after Anna Boleyn, with its co-stars, Jannings and Porten, in completely different roles. Here there is another lovely dancing sequence. As for the intertitles, there are two completely different versions of this film. I was familiar with the DIF print, but this Munich print is better.

Anna Boleyn

Anna Boleyn / Anna Boleyn. DE 1920. PC: Messter-Film / Union. D: Ernst Lubitsch. SC: Norbert Falk, Hanns Kräly. DP: Theodor Sparkuhl. Technical Director: Kurt Waschneck. AD: Kurt Richter. COST: Ali Hubert. Starring: Emil Jannings (Henry VIII), Henny Porten (Anne Boleyn), Hedwig Pauli (Queen Catherine), Hilde Müller (Princess Mary), Ludwig Hartau (Duke of Norfolk), Paul Hartmann (Henry Norris), Aud Egede Nissen (Johanna Seymour), Ferdinand von Alten (Marc Smeton), Adolf Klein (Cardinal Wolsey), Paul Biensfeld (the court jester). Originally 2793 m /19 fps/ 128 min. Restored Transit Film / FWMS version based on the tinted and toned print from Milan, /19 fps/ 124 min. E-subtitles by AA. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 7 Feb 2008. This is the greatest Lubitsch spectacle, a strong historical tragedy. The tinting and toning is subtle, the print is superb, the best I have seen of this film, could hardly be better. As always with the Lubitsch spectacles, this is a woman's story. Certainly it is no great historical drama, the epochal events (the break with Rome, the English Reformation, the creation of the Church of England, the dissolution of the monasteries, the union of England and Wales, the creation of many national buildings, the story of Thomas More) are ignored or reduced to a background of the private story, Henry the Renaissance Man is reduced to a lecher, and Anne Boleyn elevated to a saint. Jannings does look the part, very much like the Holbein painting. His brutality as the most fearsome English absolute monarch feels close to the reality. This is another German tyrant film from the Weimar era, and one of the best. The final sequences with confessions elicited in torture chambers are chilling, and the abrupt ending is very effective. Henny Porten at her best, Theodor Sparkuhl at his best. - Among the related films I kept thinking of A Man for All Seasons (Robert Shaw as Henry VIII, Vanessa Redgrave as Anne Boleyn, Paul Scofield as Thomas More, Orson Welles as Cardinal Wolsey) and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Bette Davis as Elizabeth I, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, her birth depicted so movingly by Lubitsch).

Madame Dubarry (Lubitsch 1919)

Madame Dubarry (1919) poster by Theo Matejko.

Madame Dubarry / Madame Dubarry. DE 1919. PC: Union. D: Ernst Lubitsch. SC: Norbert Falk, Hanns Kräly. DP: Theodor Sparkuhl. PD: Kurt Richter. COST: Ali Hubert. Starring: Pola Negri (Jeanne Vaubernier>Madame Dubarry), Emil Jannings (Louis XIV), Reinhold Schünzel (Duke von Choiseul, Minister), Harry Liedtke (Armand de Foix). 2280 m /18 fps/ 110 min.

Restored version from tinted and toned, French/German titled material, print from Transit Film / FWMS, /18 fps/ 127 min. It is longer than the original because of the double titles. E-subtitles by AA.

Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 Jan 2008.

Observations on revisiting a familiar film in a version I had not seen before: 1) it is great to see this in authentic colours, 2) the titles take slightly too much time in this bilingual version, 3) there are small things missing (nothing important), 4) this is a frivolous version of the French Revolution, 5) the crowd scenes are powerful, and there is true frenzy in the revolutionary crowd, 6) the film is visually first-rate, 7) the theme of the formal marriage and the irrepressible libido is central to Lubitsch, and there is a link to Renoir (Nana, Toni, La Règle du jeu, etc.), 8) it is nice to see the familiar trio Negri-Liedtke-Jannings playing variations of some eternal patterns in Egypt... in Carmen... and here, 9) the atmosphere is lively, 10) although the film trivializes the chain of events leading to the Revolution, it conveys its seriousness and some of the background. This is tragedy.

Die Augen der Mumie Mâ

[Muumion silmät] / Orientens dotter, DE 1918. PC: Union. P: Paul Davidson. D: Ernst Lubitsch. SC: Hanns Kräly, Emil Rameau. DP: Theodor Sparkuhl, Alfred Hansen. PD: Kurt Richter. LOC: Kalkberge Rüdersdorf, Freigelände Berlin-Tempelhof. Starring. Pola Negri (Ma), Emil Jannings (Radu), Harry Liedtke (Alfred Wendland, painter), Max Laurence (Prince Hohenfels). Print: Transit Film / Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung /18 fps/ 57 min. E-subtitles in Finnish by AA. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 22 Jan 2008. Lubitsch's first attempt at great, exotic drama, has some nice touches, and it is interesting to see the familiar Lubitsch team working together here, especially Pola Negri in her first Lubitsch role, but this one is mostly for the completists.

Tartüff

013393 / G / DE / 1925 / Murnau, F.W. / / drama
Tartüff / Herr Tartüff / Tartuffe / Tartuffe - tekopyhä. PC: Ufa. P: Erich Pommer. D: F.W. Murnau. SC: Carl Mayer - based on the play Le Tartuffe ou l’imposteur by Molière. DP: Karl Freund. PD: Robert Herlth, Walter Röhrig. CAST: Emil Jannings (Tartuffe), Werner Krauss (Orgon), Lil Dagover (Elmire). Framing story: André Mattoni (The Grandson), Hermann Picha (The Grandfather), Rosa Valetti (The Housekeeper). Music for live accompaniment composed by Giuseppe Becce. 1876 m /24 fps/ 68’. Silent b&w. Yleisradio TV2 PAL transmission at midnight on 13 April 1998 of a ZDF reconstruction (1973?) by Gerd Luft and Jürgen Labenski, with the score by Giuseppe Becce arranged by Rolf Unkel, with Finnish subtitles by Pirkko Vikkula. Caught on Easter Monday on VHS. ** The print was shown through a wrong gate, cutting people’s heads. The original music was somewhat lethargically interpreted. - ”Vielfach ist die Zahl der Heuchler auf Erden! Vielfach die Maske, unter denen sie uns begegnen!” The Grandfather sees through the wily schemes of his housekeeper as his grandson projects for him a film of Tartuffe. Murnau’s meeting with Molière is like the elephant storming the porcelain shop. The first rate actors save what they can from the pedestrian direction of the story. Murnau as a storyteller is here at his worst. But the visual composition is immaculate. As a photo album Tartuffe would be marvellous. Using the freeze-frame on video one can cherish the best effects. - Having written this I notice the harsh judgement of Kracauer: Tartuffe is an example of ”all-pervading paralysis”, ”itself Tartuffish”.

Der letzte Mann

013059 / G / DE / 1924 / Murnau, F.W. / / drama
Letzte Mann, Der / Viimeinen mies. PC: Ufa. EX: Erich Pommer. D: F.W. Murnau. SC: Carl Mayer. DP: Karl Freund. PD: Robert Herlth, Walter Röhrig. CAST: Emil Jannings (The Hotel Porter), Maly Delschaft (His Niece), Hans Unterkircher (The Hotel Manager). Music for live accompaniment composed by Giuseppe Becce. 2315 m /20 fps/ 101’. Silent b&w. There are several original versions of this film. - Yleisradio TV2 PAL transmission at midnight on 22 March 1998 of a ZDF reconstruction from 1983 by Gerd Luft and Jürgen Labenski, with a score by Giuseppe Becce and Werner Schmidt-Boelcke, based on a print from Münchner Filmmuseum, with Finnish subtitles by Pirkko Vikkula. Caught on Easter Sunday on VHS. **** This was the first viewing of this film for the general audience in Finland since its premiere. In the meantime, it has been a part of the basic film archive programming. - The ZDF version is complete, nothing is missing. Probably the pictorial quality has been enhanced in later restorations. The music was not bad, but I was happy to quickly turn it off. - ”All the tenants, in particular the female ones, are awed by his uniform, which, through its mere presence, seems to confer a mystic glamour upon their modest existence. They revere it as a symbol of supreme authority and are happy to be allowed to revere it” to quote Kracauer. As a storyteller Murnau is crude: he hammers home every point, overstating the obvious. As a creator of visions he still reigns supreme. His sense of composition is startling, and the space is kept alive with rain, steam, smoke, and moving reflections. The mobile camera, introduced in Scherben and Sylvester, was perfected here. The roving camera creates a sense of vertigo, which fits the theme of rise and fall - downfall and resurrection.

Madame Dubarry (1919)

Madame Dubarry poster by Theo Matejko.

010590 / 08 / DE / 1919 / Lubitsch, Ernst / / historical drama
Madame Dubarry / Madame Dubarry [cinema] / Madame Dubarry - kuninkaan jalkavaimo [this TV transmission]. © Projektions-AG Union. EX: Paul Davidson. D: Ernst Lubitsch. SC: Fred Orbing [Norbert Falk], Hanns Kräly. DP: Theodor Sparkuhl. CAST: Pola Negri (Madame Dubarry), Emil Jannings (Louis XV), Reinhold Schünzel (Count von Choiseul). B&w silent. Original length 2280 m /18 fps/ 110’. The TV transmission took ca 120’, probably due to stretching. This was the ZDF 1977 reconstruction by Gerd Luft / Jürgen Labenski, with music by Hans Jönsson. Finnish subtitles by Arja Kataja. Yleisradio TV2 PAL telecast on 1 February 1998, later caught by me on VHS. *** Overrated spectacle, not up to Lubitsch’s best comedies of the same time. And the version to show would be the Enno Patalas restoration from Munich Film Museum. For instance, from this TV version, the famous final shock image - the mob playing ball with Dubarry’s severed head - was missing. Also, the interesting use of vignettes could not be appreciated in this version.