Blue Angel: Amazon.ca: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti, Hans Albers, Reinhold Bernt, Eduard von Winterstein, Hans Roth, Rolf M�ller, Roland Varno, Carl Balhaus, Robert Klein-L�rk, G�nther Rittau, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Pommer, Carl Zuckmayer, Heinrich Mann, Karl Vollm�ller, Robert Liebmann: DVD

Product Description

Additional features

Kino's two-disc set features both the restored 106-minute German-language version and the trimmed 94-minute English-language version, which was shot simultaneously for the American market (with the actors clumsily performing in English). Historian Werner Sudendorf of the Berlin Film Museum provides an informative and well-researched commentary track (on the German version) steeped in production history and background detail, and he contributes "The Blue Angel Chronicles," a historical timeline illustrated with production stills. Marlene Dietrich fans will love the concert clips of Dietrich revisiting three songs from the film in that smoky, throaty nightclub voice of her mature years. Other features are Dietrich's 1929 screen test, a two-minute interview clip from 1963 in which she discusses The Blue Angel, a stills gallery with behind-the- scenes photos, costume illustrations and posters, bios of 41 key cast and production staff members, and original and reissue trailers. --Sean Axmaker

Amazon.com essential video

For director Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich it all began with The Blue Angel, one of the masterpieces of Germany's Weimar cinema. This landmark film thrust the sultry and unrestrained Dietrich on an unsuspecting international film audience. She plays the prototypical role of Lola, the singer who tempts repressed professor Emil Jannings (the king of expressionist actors) into complete submission night after night at the Blue Angel nightclub. The film perfectly captures the masochism and degradation of the Weimar Republic, just before the rise of Adolf Hitler. And yet the moral confusion exhibited by Jannings is really due to his own torment. Dietrich is merely an instrument of his innermost desires, standing on stage in top hat, stockings, and bare thighs singing "Falling in Love Again." This is the original German version, newly remastered and subtitled. --Bill Desowitz

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent movie, very good DVD, Dec 15 2010

By

ysi. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Angel (DVD)

This movie (the German version) is one of my favourite films of all time, and I can't say enough good things about it. Simply put, it's very well directed, acted, shot, and edited, it is both humorous and tragic, and it does a good job of walking the fine line between realism and morality play (though it leans more toward the latter). It also makes excellent use of sound for a relatively early "talkie".

Kino's 2-disc set is fantastic. The film has been remastered, so it looks and sounds great, and the Kino release has both versions of the film plus tons of supplementary material. I highly recommend this film, and this product.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Death disguised as love, Sep 20 2008

By

bernie "webviator" (Arlington, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Blue Angel (DVD)

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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5.0 out of 5 stars Falling Too Hard, July 1 2004

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Polkadotty (Mountains of Western North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Angel (DVD)

This memorable, iconic film stars Marlene Dietrich as the showgirl Lola Lola, Emil Jannings as the Professor, and is directed by Josef von Sternberg. Stodgy, upright Herr Professor enters the cabaret after following some of his pupils, whom he's discovered with postcards of the singer Lola. He is shocked by the degradation of the place, but then catches sight of Lola and finds himself fascinated. In spite of himself, he returns again and again to the nightclub, driven by his feelings for Lola, a mixture of blatant lust and intense curiousity. Through a series of dressing room encounters, the Professor becomes acquainted with Lola, who views him as an amusing distraction, a relic with his gentlemanly ways and old-fashioned manners. The Professor proves useful in his way, serving as a foil between her and unwanted advances from customers and unwelcomed suitors. With the best of intentions the Professor offers Lola his hand in marriage, offering her his protection, and his good name. This is meaningless at the cabaret, no one plays by his rules. The befuddled Professor tries to fit in, but cannot, and in the process loses himself entirely. He can't change himself, just as he can't change Lola ~ to change Lola would be to destroy her, just as the Professor, through the change he endures, destroys himself. There is a sort of backhanded morality here: Lola cannot help for what she is, she is a product of what she has seen in her life, what she has been forced to do in order to survive, just as the Professor can't help for what he is, the product of his own background, mores, and values. He might have survived had he realised that what a person portrays on stage is not necessarily what that person truly must be, once the curtain is wrung down. The film arrives to its inevitable tragic end, climaxing with a scene of devastating humiliation. Many underlying psycho-sexual themes run through this film, the most obvious being repression vs freedom, and at what cost 'liberation' is achieved. To view the film in the context of the era in which it was made ~ a time portending many social and moralistic upheavals ~ makes for some interesting discussion. Marlene Dietrich, in her role, is in turns cold and unbending, charming and vexing, wise and vulnerable, and always, always absolutely luminously beautiful. Jannings is heartbreaking as the Professor. A must-see for anyone interested in cinema.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Kino's best packages. A must for Marlene Fans!!!!!!!!
I like most the DVDs that Kino makes but I must say that this is their most impressive package. A two disk set, the features are marvelous, including both versions of the film... Read more

Published on April 21 2004 by J. A. Stankunas

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic of world cinema
A German cinema classic from the late Weimar-era, and the film debut of super-sexy Marlene Dietrich, who is stunning in her role as a flirtatious, heartless cabaret singer whose... Read more

Published on Sep 21 2003 by DJ Joe Sixpack