{"id":1372,"date":"2008-09-24T01:00:47","date_gmt":"2008-09-24T06:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/?p=1372"},"modified":"2008-09-24T01:52:22","modified_gmt":"2008-09-24T06:52:22","slug":"fbtop100-93-the-blue-angel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/fbtop100-93-the-blue-angel\/","title":{"rendered":"FBTop100 #93: The Blue Angel"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of a project<\/a> to watch the Film Bloggers’ 100 Favorite Non-English Films<\/a>.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

\"blueangel\"<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel<\/strong>)
\n<\/strong>Germany 1931; dir: Josef von Sternberg
\nstarring: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich
\n<\/em>screened 7\/5\/08; New Beverly Cinema<\/em><\/p>\n

Previous Viewing Experience<\/strong>: Never seen it, nor anything else directed by von Sternberg or starring Jannings, though I’ve seen several later Dietrich films.<\/p>\n

Knowledge Before Viewing<\/strong>: In a meta sense, I’m aware that von Sternberg and Dietrich are a well-known actress-director team, and that Dietrich made waves for her masculin costuming in this and\/or her other films with him. More specifically, I know the basic story has something to do with a straight-laced professor who gets angry at his students for lusting after a sexy showgirl, but then he feels a bit differently once he actually sees said showgirl. I’m not looking forward to this one too terribly much. It sounds like an offputting combination of dirty old man lechery and moralizing. Add in early sound era awkwardness, and yeah. Sorta ambivalent. Hopefully seeing it in a theatre (fortuitous timing on the New Beverly’s part!) will help.<\/p>\n

Brief Synopsis<\/strong>: My pre-viewing synopsis is fairly close, actually. The Professor (Jannings) finds his students sneaking off to the local cabaret, but when he goes there to catch them at it, he ends up falling for Lola Lola (Dietrich) himself. She encourages him and eventually they marry. But when the show goes back on the road, he’s reduced to performing clown parts to earn his keep and stay with her.<\/p>\n

Response<\/strong>: I wound up liking this a lot more than I initially expected to. One of my favorite films it probably won’t ever be, but it was definitely worthwhile at least seeing once to experience such a young Marlene Dietrich. She’s absolutely delightful from start to finish (outside of, perhaps, a few scenes near the end where she gets to be quite the little bitch). The story is far more focused on the Professor, though, and his fall from esteemed academic and community leader to pathetic joke after he marries Lola. And this being to some degree a Gemran Expressionist film, his decline gets a little on the overwrought side at times. I did particularly like the recurring bird imagery – both the Professor and Lola keep birds, linking them before they’re, um, linked, and an early shot of a dead bird provides a foreshadowing glimpse of how this is all going to work out. In terms of moralizing, the message is apparently “don’t marry flighty showgirls much younger than you because it’ll ruin your life.” Which, actually, is probably good advice.<\/p>\n

Overall Rating: Above Average<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part of a project to watch the Film Bloggers’ 100 Favorite Non-English Films. Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) Germany 1931; dir: Josef von Sternberg starring: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich screened 7\/5\/08; New Beverly Cinema Previous Viewing Experience: Never seen it, nor anything else directed by von Sternberg or starring Jannings, though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[1004,724,1002,1003,1001],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36387,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/challenge-week-39-the-docks-of-new-york\/","url_meta":{"origin":1372,"position":0},"title":"Challenge Week 39: The Docks of New York","author":"Jandy","date":"October 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've actually had this on my media server for quite a while unwatched, so I was really glad that Jeremy gave me the boost to go ahead and watch it. Unfortunately, I've had it for long enough that I have no idea if it had the score he recommended (Gaylord\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/tf-feat-docks.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29308,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/scorecard-november-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":1372,"position":1},"title":"Scorecard: November 2011","author":"Jandy","date":"December 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"[At the end of every month I post a rundown of the movies I saw that month, tallying them according to how much I did or didn't like them. You can always see my recent watches here and my ongoing list of bests for the whole year here.] Even though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/le-cercle-rouge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20606,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/tcm-film-festival-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":1372,"position":2},"title":"TCM Film Festival 2011","author":"Jandy","date":"April 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Once again I am heading to the TCM Classic Film Festival, and I couldn't be more excited. It's such a great opportunity to see classic films the best way possible - on the big screen with audiences who love them. The overall theme of this year's festival is Music in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/TCM-Classic-Film-Festival-featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1396,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/fb100-92-amelie\/","url_meta":{"origin":1372,"position":3},"title":"FBTop100 #92: Amelie","author":"Jandy","date":"September 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is part of a project to watch the Film Bloggers' 100 Favorite Non-English Films. Am\u00c3\u00a9lie France 2001; dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet starring: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz screened 4\/6\/08; DVD Previous Viewing Experience: I've seen this at least four times, but most of them were pretty soon after it came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"AMELIE-20","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/images\/FB100title_106B\/AMELIE20_thumb.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":958,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/fb100-96-the-exterminating-angel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1372,"position":4},"title":"FB100: #96 – The Exterminating Angel","author":"Jandy","date":"January 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is part of a project to watch the Film Bloggers' 100 Favorite Non-English Films. See my progress here. Note: I have skipped #97 on the list, Satantango, because I have been unable to get it to watch and decided to move on. When I have the opportunity to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34549,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/stream-it-witness-for-the-prosecution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1372,"position":5},"title":"Stream It!: Witness for the Prosecution","author":"Jandy","date":"November 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"[Showcasing the best and highlighting the newest additions to the various streaming services, including but not limited to Netflix Instant, HuluPlus, Amazon Prime, and Warner Archive Instant.] Stream on Netflix: Witness for the Prosecution I really want to start doing these more often, since a ton of great stuff is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Witness-for-the-Prosecution-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}