Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

gavin6942 An elderly professor (Emil Jannings)'s ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer (Marlene Dietrich).How do you beat the combination of Emil Jannings, one of the greatest actors of German cinema, and Marlene Dietrich, who is something of a legend? I mean, is any other German-American actress of her generation even close to being as famous? (I could say Lil Dagover, but many would say "who?") The film was released in both German and English versions. I only watched the English one (so far), so the difference is unclear. One thing can be said: Dietrich was much more natural in English than Jannings, who seems out of place. When she tells him to speak "in her language", it is quite believable that English is her native tongue.

SnoopyStyle Immanuel Rath is an older bachelor strict professor at the local college. He finds a student with a picture Lola-Lola (Marlene Dietrich) who is singing at local cabaret "The Blue Angel". He goes to the club to stop the corruption of his pupils. Instead he falls for the enticing entertainer. He resigns from the school to marry Lola. His limited savings are wasted and he's forced to perform as the clown. His dignity is lost. He grows jealous. He is ridiculed by everybody as he becomes a pathetic shadow of what he once was.It's one of the first sound German movies. It's most notable for introducing Marlene Dietrich to the world. She catches the attention of the modern world and would become an international star. Lola is an icon of uninhibited sexuality. This is a little slow compared to modern movies in spots around the middle after Rath's decline sets in. His destruction is inevitable. It is still compelling and Dietrich is magnetic.

tnrcooper Seems like director Von Sternberg had an axe to grind with men or the middle class. Emil Janning's Professor is staid and repressed but seems like a decent person and I don't know why he must be seen to lose it so much, if, as the director said, this was not a political allegory. That is either disingenuous or the Professor is not the stable person he seems the first 2/3 of the film. The only other explanation is that Von Sternberg sees Lola (the amazing Marlene Dietrich) as a very destructive person. I found this an overly melodramatic film which makes a cartoonish depiction of a middle-class German. The acting is fantastic from Dietrich and Jannings but I found this a baffling film. I had expected that the Professor would fall in love and they would have a more stable relationship, but their relationship falls apart when the Professor is completely irrational at the attention his wife is getting. While this isn't unreasonable, that he becomes SO unhinged seems really unlikely. I don't understand why his seemingly sweet wife and also someone who seemed deeply in love with him turns away from him so quickly. If Von Sternberg wanted to make that storyline, they should have made the Professor a bit more unlikable. This was really a disappointing film. I hoped for a more nuanced, thoughtful depiction of a man learning to see the beauty in things he had previously looked down on. Von Sternberg makes the Professor a baffling character through which there is no throughline from his character before and after marrying Lola.

kurosawakira Von Sternberg's film is a wonderfully constructed piece of succulent and mellifluous tragicomedy. The fluently moving camera offers a beautiful sense of place, and especially the crooked pebble-stoned streets and leaning houses are the unforgettable epitomes of this film in my memory.Just as with Vigo's "L'Atalante" (1934), much of the film's power depends on us, as the audience, being able to fall in love with the lead actress. It certainly helps that the director did, and for once some knowledge of production enhances the experience: Umrat/Jennings as the jealous and passionate star, Dietrich as the object of desire not only of the boys but of the camera. I also really like the use of stairs, which clearly separate the differing worlds. I could definitely see this influencing "Zéro de conduite" (1933) and "Hets" (1944). The slow movement of the camera in the empty classroom after the crucial confrontation reveals one of the most touching visual moments I can think of (this is repeated later in an equally heart-breaking scene).I remember I was very young when I saw this for the first time. It made a lasting impression then, and I count it as one of the three films that ultimately made me fall in love with films to the extent that my thirst will never be quenched.