The Docks of New York

The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)

The story involves an incredibly strong ship stoker named Bill (George Bancroft) and the beautiful prostitute named Mae (Betty Compson), whom he saves from drowning. She was attempting suicide as she had no money, almost no clothes and felt remorse about her life up to then. He steals some clothes for her and invites her out for a "good night".

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.

The Shanghai Gesture

The Shanghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg, 1941)

A young woman, Poppy, out for excitement in Shanghai, enters a gambling house owned by "Mother" Gin Sling, a dragon-lady who worked herself up from poverty to buy the casino. Sir Guy Charteris, wealthy entrepreneur, has purchased a large area of Shanghai, forcing Gin Sling to vacate by the coming Chinese New Year.

Getting into the works of director Josef von Sternberg is something engaging and for some viewers alittle bit exhausting. His visual prowess and richness has never been equalled even compared to a master like Max Ophüls. Sternberg’s films are like a huge snowstorm; it is beautiful to look at but very tiring to try to drive through it. His most distinct work was with star Marlene Dietrich during the 1930’s, most notably with The Blue Angel, Scarlet Empress, and Morocco. With The Shanghai Gesture, Sternberg makes one of his final notable films. Known as a difficult and stubborn director, he fought to keep his artistic vision intact and to stay the only master aboard. Clearly being successful at his craft, he is on the very select list of Pantheon Directors of the late film critic Andrew Sarris.

This extravagant fresco of peculiar characters depicts a young globetrotter called Poppy (Gene Tierney) and her father (Walter Huston) on a business trip in Shanghai. While Poppy wants to enjoy life and meet interesting people, her father purchased a great deal of land in Shanghai and forces its owner to vacate her casino for the Chinese New Year’s Eve. We slowly discover that Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson), the casino owner, is linked with our two other characters. The story passes from Drama to Film noir and never sticks to one genre in particular. This gives a genuine pace to the film and a unique structure.

The Sternbergian signature is at every corner of every frame and every camera movement. The overcrowded frames of opulence and saturation of Sternberg’s touch can’t be denied. It is sometimes very hard to distinguish a film from a director or another when it comes to the films of this era. However, like Orson Welles or the aforementioned Ophüls, we don’t need the credits to recognize him.

As Jeffrey M. Anderson noted, Tierney captures the role Dietrich may have had in real life with Sternberg. The downfall of Poppy recalls how the director felt hard to recover from the split with his long time collaborator.

This being the third Sternberg film I’ve watched and I can say that it is my least favorite; this spot is still held by Scarlet Empress with The Blue Angel not far behind. The Shanghai Gesture is above a whole lot of other movies of its era, and lesser Sternberg is better than any film worth a look. 

A guide to discern Von Sternberg from Von Stroheim

Lately, I’ve been having some sort of growing interest towards Josef von Sternberg’s films. With my recent review of his 1930 masterpiece and cinematic cornerstone The Blue Angel, I’ve decided to take a trip into his oeuvre. However, around the same time in the 1920’s another “von” made his mark into Silent films with grandiose films like Greed, The Wedding March, and The Merry Widow. His name is Erich von Stroheim and coming from Vienna as well as von Sternberg was, in fact the later von was born in New York City but his life was split between Vienna and the Big Apple. Both directors made their mark into American films. With this concise list I will try to bring some light into the differences between both filmmakers for the benefit of every film buff out there who like me likes to know a little more about the creator of the films I like to discover.

Erich von Stroheim

First, Von Stroheim is one of those directors who wore a monocle and only did Silent films as a director. His audacious projects were tragically edited by the studios and his final cuts are for most, almost impossible to recover. His ultimate masterpiece, Greed was 239 minutes long (1999 restored version) when he finished editing. However, the studios cut it down to a 140 minutes into a decent version that only makes the film snob in us cry out loud that the director’s cut should be one of the greatest film ever made. The same thing happened to his Foolish Wives and his The Wedding March, guess who was asked to edit the film? Josef von Sternberg who decided to split the film in two without its director's approuval. 
His strong temper and over budget productions made him loose any credit with the head of the studios. You will recognize him from films like Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion and Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard for his acting credits. Not bad at all.

Josef von Sternberg

Von Sternberg was more of a low profile, physically speaking except for the sexy moustache. His birth name was Jonas Sternberg and he decided to add the "von" for his admiration towards, well you know, Erich von Stroheim. He also frequented Marlene Dietrich when he discovered her for the role of Lola Lola in The Blue Angel. She then became his muse and they collaborated on many films together. It made a huge controversy because when Dietrich came to America to shoot Morocco in 1930, she wasn't accompagned by her husband and her daughter. At the same time Von Sternberg divorced.
While Von Stroheim struggled to get his directorial efforts released the way he intended them to be, Von Sternberg had lots of success and quickly became one of the highest paid director of his time. However, after thirty years as a director he would have to return to assistant-director and take the humiliation of being supervised by studios. His career will be marked by many moments like this and his cocky personality will make him one of the "cinéastes maudits" for his attitude towards the cirtics, the public, and even his fans. His Baroque mise en scène and fluidly beautiful camera movements are two of his most distinctive trademarks.

Here is a comparison of each other’s films with titles, year of release, number by each director:

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.

The Scarlet Empress

The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934)
I impose to myself many obligations or discipline; I want ot see the entire list of Masterpiece of Mediafilm, They Shoot Pictures Don't They? 1000 Greatest films, AFI's 100, Bfi polls, etc. The Scarlet Empress is one of the films that was initially on the first list of films I ever read; Mediafilm's Masterpieces! To me it was like finding the klondike, I had only seen three or four films of this list and I was dreaming of the hundred and thirty others.

With great expectations I sat in front of my television to discover my first von Sternberg film and my third Marlene Dietrich movie. An interesting story about how Catherine II got the power in Russia in the XVIIIth century. Populated with gothic statues and overacting The Scarlet Empress has an unique touch of madness and movement. Madness for the first sequences where Russia is described as near as hell with some female breasts on the screen (remember that you are reading about a 1934 film!) and many scenes of simulated torture. Movement, because all along the film the editing is very fast and there is always something moving on the screen. I was surprised by the freshness the film had, von Sternberg has a vibrant approach. I'm looking forward to see more of his work very soon because I know he is an important filmmaker of the early days of Cinema.

The Scarlet Empress was probably a big spectacle for its time like a Cecil B. De Mille or a David W. Griffith film, not like a James Cameron one... Instead of Cameron; De Mille, Griffith, and von Sternberg have spirit and deepness and it's reflected into their films.