Der blaue Engel
I learned about this film for the first time in “The Dreamers” when Théo gets caught masturbating in front of a picture of Marlene Dietrich, one of the more famous stills from the film. After seeing the film, I would say that visuals are definitely triumphing over everything else in the film, much like other German films at the same time (oh God Metropolis ahahaha). Emil Jannings was Josef von Sternberg’s breakthrough entry into the film business, but Marlene Dietrich is the one who he truly set his eyes onto. He made movies written for Marlene Dietrich, basically to just show off her sultry looks, and one can easily see how “Der blaue Engel” is the perfect beginning for that. Some of the best scenes from the film are indeed her musical numbers – everything looks impeccable there.
So what about the story? Well, at least it was not boring. The pacing was good, and it’s a fluent descent into despair and ultimately death for our main character here, masterfully played by Emil Jannings. However, the story itself was not all that interesting. I read that Heinrich Mann’s book shows a completely different demise for the professor, one which is a much stronger social satire. The way the story is written in “Der blaue Engel” is indeed rather superficial and almost pointless in comparison. Throughout the entire film, we are basically shown what was obviously going to happen, and none of the characters had any depth whatsoever, not even the professor whose inner thoughts we are not really partaking in (very much unlike “Der letzte Mann”, which Murnau practically wrote as a monologue without words for Emil Janning’s character). The most interesting aspect is perhaps Marlene Dietrich’s charms, and the way she lures the professor into her “trap”. She is quite a great femme fatale, and I can totally see how they chose her to be the aforementioned picture in “The Dreamers”.
I wouldn’t say that I liked the movie, but it was on my list of classics I wanted to see for a very long time, and it was… interesting. After nightmares in German class about “Der Untertan”, I don’t think I am ever going to read “Professor Unrat” though, no matter how well written it might have been.