The Blue Angel | Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich

The Blue Angel | Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich | great value for the money

DVDs:

The Blue Angel

	The Blue Angel Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich Kino Video, 2001 average customer review:based on 41 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The crowning achievement of the Weimar cinema, The Blue Angel is an exquisite parable of one man's fall from respectability, presented in both the newly-restored German and English-language versions.
Emil Jannings, the quintessential German expressionist actor, stars as Professor Rath, the sexually-repressed instructor of a boys' prep school. After learning of the pupils' infatuation with French postcards depicting a local nightclub songstress, he decides to personally investigate the source of such indecency. But as soon as he enters the shadowy Blue Angel nightclub and steals one glimpse of the smoldering Lola-Lola (Marlene Dietrich), commanding the stage in a top hat, stockings and bare thighs, Rath's self-righteous piety is crushed. He finds himself fatefully seduced by the throaty voice of the vulgar siren, singing, "Falling in Love Again." Consumed by desire and tormented by his rigid propriety, Professor Rath allows himself to be dragged down a path of personal degradation. Lola's unrestrained sexuality was a revelation to turn-of-the-decade moviegoers, thrusting Dietrich to the forefront of the sultry international leading ladies, such as Greta Garbor, who were challenging the limits of screen sexuality.

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Death disguised as love

I have owned and watched several versions of this film. I even have the film script. I would say that the Kino two DVD versions is the best presentation so far. I watched both the English and German versions I find the story depressing but the telling of it and the acting fascinating.

A real added plus is the commentary by German Film Historian Werner Sedendorf. He brought up information directly relating to the film at the time it was relevant. Then he left some berating room so you could absorb and experience the information. To many commentaries turn into soap-box discussions or rill in slow times with useful information that however is irrelevant to the film at the time. The film has so much hidden death and lost culture that after the commentary you will have to watch it again.

The English version is not really entirely English. Enough English is presented that the German in-between is clear enough to follow the story. However the German version is spoken clear without mumbling and lacks any slang that would force the casual follower to rush for a dictionary.

The basic story is as Federico Garcia Lorca describes in his play, "The butterfly's Evil Spell", death in disguise of love. Prof. Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings), a person afraid of life, starts out to save his students, who want to embrace life, from a fate worse than death. In the process he meats an entertainer, Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich). She inadvertently is the instrument of the Professors downfall from grace.

The magic of the film is more in the telling of the story through acting, sound, and symbolism than the story its self.

The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company 1918-1945

Blue Angel, The (Class. Film Scripts S)

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great value for the money

Here you get both the German language and English language versions. What a perfect role for Marlene, great music. A great classic at a good price!

A rare gem

The plot is simple enough: Conservative, well-respected Gymnasium professor(Emil Jannings)falls for tawdry showgirl(Marlene Dietrich) who has become the latest sensation of his(all male)students, which in short order ends up becoming his undoing. Jannings and Dietrich are both fantastic in their roles in this wonderfully pathos-laden film of humiliation and downfall. It is worth noting that the DVD package consists of 2 discs, both the English-language version and the(superior) German version. Editing seems this film's only considerable flaw, so you might want to watch both versions to fill in any gaps. Also, it's been recently remastered, and the German version's subtitles -- albeit in white not yellow -- are much easier to read. In all, this classic from 1930 must be counted as one of the best films of the 20th century.

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One of the great German films

The Blue Angel is one of the most complex movies I have ever seen... It plays very well as an intellectual story line as well as hitting you as a fine visual treat.. this is combined with the fine acting of emil jannings and marlene dietrich in her first sternberg film...
It is the story of two completely different ways of life coming together... The professor 'unrat', played marvelously by Jannings, enters the world of his students' fantasy the Blue Angel nightclub at first to find and scold the kids.. Then somehow he comes under the spell of the main attraction - Lola Lola (dietrich).. and the story takes off from there...
To me it is not so much the story of a woman destroying a man as a man destroying himself... Jannings enters into this strange relationship like a charmed sleepwalker and loses touch with himself in the same way his students did.. However analysis and interpretation can lead you in many directions with this film..
All I know is von Sternberg's world he created particularly the dicotomy of the quaint looking village and classroom to the smokey nightclub is one of the greatest accomplishments of his career.. and the great performances once again can't be overstated..
Note - it could be argued that Sternberg was American and therefore this is an American film... but I think anyone who watches this movie will catch the truly German flavor..

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WOW

The film like Citizen Kane, way ahead of its time.
To get an idea of Dietrich's performance, think
Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, but it's 1930!!
Truly an unforgetable piece.
Millenia will come, yet this piece of art will still
shine with fresh luster.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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