Morocco

Morocco (Josef Von Sternberg, 1930)

Often considered as the peak of the Josef Von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich collaboration, Morocco is perhaps one of the most important films of the 1930’s. The so-called peak of the duo of actress director fueled by their love relationship is in this critics’ mind The Scarlet Empress. Just like their previous film together, The Blue Angel,  Dietrich plays a cabaret singer called Amy Jolly that seduces more than one man. An important fact to know about this is that Dietrich used to be a cabaret singer and her appeal on goes beneath the screen. It is obvious that at twenty nine years old she fully understands the motives of her character and the musical numbers are so well acted that it is no guess to stipulate that it is herself and not the character that we witness on the screen.

M (1930)

M (Fritz Lang, 1930)

This article is part of a series of self- imposed movie reviews set in the participation of this film critic to the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Club. It is an attempt at catching up the reviews that I’ve missed in my recent period of inactivity in the blogosphere.

Films from Germany made prior to the Second World War are a bliss for any film lover. So much of the influence and themes of German Expressionism aesthetics has been imported by Hollywood especially its greatest directors : F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. In the case of Lang, he escaped Nazi Germany in an anecdote Lang himself contradicted many times while telling it. However, before he flew to America, Lang made a name of himself by directing some of the most influential films of all-time with his Metropolis, Spione, Dr. Mabuse, Die Nibelungen, and M amongst many others. With M, Lang tells the story of a serial killer pedophile who infuriated the public opinion, the police, and the underground gangsters. It creates a race between the policemen and the gangsters because the police was thinking that it was the underground that was responsible for those horrible crimes.

The Blue Angel

The Blue Angel aka Der blaue Engel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)

The first sound film of the Weimar Republic picture two of the most famous actors of their time Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich. This is the film that made Dietrich became the sex symbol she represented for years. It also was the last English spoken film of Jannings who had a too prominent German accent for the American audiences. Behind the camera was one of the most talented filmmaker of his time Josef von Sternberg who actually discovered Dietrich in a cabaret and eventually became her lover for a while. The explicit sexuality of Dietrich transcends the images and time, and I am sure von Sternberg felt this at first sight just like the Professor Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) when he saw Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich) singing Falling in love again.