The Blue Angel (B- or 2.5/4 stars)
'The Blue Angel' (directed by Josef von Sternberg) is a landmark early "talkie" that launched the career of then 28 yr. old Marlene Dietrich & was a big hit at the time (1930). Dietrich's mercurial portrayal of sexy cabaret singer Lola Lola is something to behold; what with her suggestively sitting on a chair in her top hat, wearing her shabby stockings, with her bare thighs shimmering, all while singing in her famously husky voice -- she became THE image of that cynical, decadent age of the German Reich. This film was shot - amazingly so - in both German & English versions so as to appeal to as wide an audience back then as they could. English literature Prof. Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings, recent Academy Award winner) works in all boys' high school.
He is an old fogey-type who is fairly unpopular with his students because of his puritanical mentality & stern ways. During class, he finds photos of uninhibited torch singer Lola Lola & decides to save 'them' from Hell by attending the tawdry Blue Angel cabaret to see for himself how sinful it all is. Wandering into her dressing room, he becomes taken with her voluptuous physique. He is spotted by his ruffian students, who steal Lola's panties & put them in their teacher's coat pocket. This prompts him to return them the next evening. Lola Lola has great ease seducing the sapheaded teacher. He sleeps with her ... & is bowled over by happiness. Meanwhile, her cruel enchantress ways fall on the proverbial blind eyes & deaf ears of poor Immanuel.
Though mocked by his students & warned by the principal to forget her or else ... he decides to marry her, anyway. He loses his job & becomes a cabaret clown traveling with his adulterous wife. It all becomes unbearable when he must come back home to perform as the clown at the dingy 'ole Blue Angel tavern. Once onstage, he is embarrassed in front of students/colleagues, not just by a magician who makes him crow like a cock & breaks eggs on his head ... but also by seeing Lola Lola kiss the cabaret strongman, Mazeppa. He becomes enraged to the point of insanity. Later that night, after 5 yrs. of marriage & a life lived in humiliation, Immanuel goes to his old classroom. Rejected, dejected & destitute ... one can only imagine what follows next.
This pitch dark comedy acts as a melancholic fable about the downfall of the German intellectuals after WWI & existing under a failed government. It signals change {students no longer respect their elders}, & that even bigger change is near {Nazi Germany banned this film in 1933}. There is something captivating & transfixing about this film. Dietrich's hypnotizing, sexual performance. Emil Janning's tragic, empathetic performance. The chilly German filmmaking techniques. The decadent, atmospheric set design. The odd songs that Lola bizarrely sings. I could go on & on. And yet, this film does feel quite static & dated. And it's a very mean-spirited movie that I admire, but simply didn't 'enjoy' watching. It is a classic, but it is hard for me to love.
He is an old fogey-type who is fairly unpopular with his students because of his puritanical mentality & stern ways. During class, he finds photos of uninhibited torch singer Lola Lola & decides to save 'them' from Hell by attending the tawdry Blue Angel cabaret to see for himself how sinful it all is. Wandering into her dressing room, he becomes taken with her voluptuous physique. He is spotted by his ruffian students, who steal Lola's panties & put them in their teacher's coat pocket. This prompts him to return them the next evening. Lola Lola has great ease seducing the sapheaded teacher. He sleeps with her ... & is bowled over by happiness. Meanwhile, her cruel enchantress ways fall on the proverbial blind eyes & deaf ears of poor Immanuel.
Though mocked by his students & warned by the principal to forget her or else ... he decides to marry her, anyway. He loses his job & becomes a cabaret clown traveling with his adulterous wife. It all becomes unbearable when he must come back home to perform as the clown at the dingy 'ole Blue Angel tavern. Once onstage, he is embarrassed in front of students/colleagues, not just by a magician who makes him crow like a cock & breaks eggs on his head ... but also by seeing Lola Lola kiss the cabaret strongman, Mazeppa. He becomes enraged to the point of insanity. Later that night, after 5 yrs. of marriage & a life lived in humiliation, Immanuel goes to his old classroom. Rejected, dejected & destitute ... one can only imagine what follows next.
This pitch dark comedy acts as a melancholic fable about the downfall of the German intellectuals after WWI & existing under a failed government. It signals change {students no longer respect their elders}, & that even bigger change is near {Nazi Germany banned this film in 1933}. There is something captivating & transfixing about this film. Dietrich's hypnotizing, sexual performance. Emil Janning's tragic, empathetic performance. The chilly German filmmaking techniques. The decadent, atmospheric set design. The odd songs that Lola bizarrely sings. I could go on & on. And yet, this film does feel quite static & dated. And it's a very mean-spirited movie that I admire, but simply didn't 'enjoy' watching. It is a classic, but it is hard for me to love.