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The Blue Angel

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Product Description

Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel is one of the most provocative, risqué and taboo-sexual oriented German films of the early 30s. Not only is the film known for being the first major German sound film but also the film that brought the beautiful and legendary actress Marlene Dietrich into international stardom. The Blue Angel portrays all the formulas that made up most of the German Expressionism films of the early 30's which included nightclubs, champagne, cabaret dancers, sex, and perversion; and yet The Blue Angel includes much deeper themes of sadness, shame, loss and humiliation.

Manufacturer Description

The crowning achievement of 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 Immanuel 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 Garbo, who were challenging the limits of screen sexuality.

Product Information

Marlene Dietrich's character Lola-Lola is the iconic femme-fatale, a sadomasochist gold-digger that seems to embody the exciting characteristics all men fantasize and lust about, but would never want to have. She is a manipulative and seductive predator who tends to jump from partner to partner to only fulfill her personal needs and sexual desires. Immanuel Rath is one of many men who gets sexually infatuated with Lola-Lola, naïvely getting caught under her seductive spell, and soon enough he is lost. The Blue Angel broke several new taboos for its time and yet the story itself is still as timeless as ever, portraying the tragic downfall of a respected and distinguished professor, and of his shameless transformation into a pathetic cabaret clown, which ultimately descents him into madness.

Key Product Details

  • Director: Josef von Sternberg
  • Number Of Discs: 1
  • Run Time: 106 (Minutes)
  • UPC: 073832902262