The blue Angel
The Blue Angel is a German feature film . It was created in 1929 and 1930 under the direction of Josef von Sternberg for UFA . The screenplay for the film was written by Carl Zuckmayer and Karl Gustav Vollmoeller as well as Robert Liebmann with the help of the author based on the novel Professor Unrat by Heinrich Mann . The film shows Emil Jannings as Professor Immanuel Rath, an older teacher who falls in love with the vaudeville singer Lola Lola played by Marlene Dietrich and perishes as a result.
The premiere of the film took place on April 1, 1930 in Berlin's Gloria Palast . The English version, The Blue Angel , which was created simultaneously with the same actors, premiered on July 4th in London.
action
Immanuel Rath is a high school professor in a small German town - a pedantic and eccentric man who is only called rubbish among his students and throughout the city . One day during class with one of his students, he discovered a photo card of a Tingeltangel singer who was giving a guest performance in the Hafen-Varieté “Der Blaue Engel”. Rath immediately senses fornication and - for purely educational reasons, as he tries to convince himself - on the way to take a look at the disreputable restaurant.
Lola Lola - the singer's stage name - is busy moving when the teacher confronts her. Rath, to his own astonishment, cannot take his eyes off the lascivious but ordinary beauty. A lingerie that the completely confused professor finds in his coat pocket at home gives him a reason to visit Lola again. He follows one of her singing numbers, spends the night with her - and is so addicted to her dubious charm that he quits the service to marry her.
For her part, the singer seems to be primarily interested in Rath's money. After his small fortune is used up, the already strange connection goes downhill. Rath is deteriorating noticeably, but cannot manage to part with his wife. When the troupe returns to his hometown and Rath is forced by the singer and the magician Kiepert to perform a degrading clown act, he watches Lola tinker with the artist Mazeppa. Furious and addicted to rage, he tries to strangle Lola, but fellow artists and volunteers hold him back and Mazeppa even puts him in a straitjacket.
After he is released some time later, he is drawn to his former school in his classroom, where he clawed at the catheter is killed.
production
Preparatory work, costs, success
The film started with an idea from Ufa producer Erich Pommer and actor Emil Jannings. They set out to make a big, impressive film that would attract worldwide attention. After Fritz Lang's monumental film Metropolis from 1927 became a financial disaster, Ufa found itself in trouble. You needed a prestigious project. Jannings had returned in May 1929 after spending almost three years in the United States and urged that Josef von Sternberg, with whom he had worked so successfully in the United States, be appointed as director, as he was bound to make his first sound film with this one wanted to turn. When he arrived in Berlin in August 1929, it was an event, also because Ufa had successfully hit the advertising drum. The playwright Carl Zuckmayer had already been announced as a scriptwriter by Ufa, although it was not yet clear which material should be filmed. However , Sternberg was not interested in the proposed film material about Rasputin . At some point it became clear that it was supposed to be a subject by Heinrich Mann . They then agreed on his 1905 novel Professor Unrat , a novel that was "a single attack against the corrupt and hypocritical German petty bourgeoisie". When the film was being planned, times were bad in Germany: the economic crisis and high unemployment as well as political extremism from right and left heralded the downfall of the Weimar Republic . Although the final end for democracy did not come until 1933 when Hitler came to power , Ufa was already "firmly in German national hands" in 1927. She belonged to the Scherl group, "headed by the press czar Alfred Hugenberg , an arch - conservative German national industrialist and a declared enemy of the republic," who did not particularly like the subject. Since the influence of certain groups on Ufa was not yet given, the Jewish producer Erich Pommer, a Jewish director as well as a Jewish composer and Jewish actor such as Kurt Gerron could be hired and the material of an avowed republican, Heinrich Manns, could be enforced. In order to create an artistic masterpiece that at the same time had to be successful due to the precarious situation at Ufa, you needed the first guard for this film, "whether Jewish or not". That was the reason that the Ufa management signaled approval for the given constellation despite political concerns. In addition to a dramatic story, the material offered a role tailor-made for Emil Jannings in the semi-silky milieu of the Tingeltangels, because even then it was known that sex would bring visitors to the cinema.
Sternberg was considered complicated and not very popular with his colleagues. His dominant personality paired with his urge for independence repeatedly brought him trouble with the producers. The novel was reworked into film material that had little to do with Heinrich Mann's original. It was a matter of dispute that Emil Jannings should play the male lead, who should play Lola Lola. Trude Hesterberg , Lucie Mannheim and Brigitte Helm were shortlisted, but did not meet Sternberg's ideas. The director said that none of them had the “eternally feminine” that he was looking for. When Sternberg was leafing through a cast catalog, he came across a picture of Fraulein Dietrich. When he showed the picture to his assistant, he said the bottom wasn't bad, but don't you need a face too? Sternberg then looked at the revue Zwei Krawatten , in which Hans Albers played, who was intended for the role of Mazeppa and which Sternberg agreed with. His gaze fell on a young woman, "who was not particularly slim, but knew how to move perfectly" and was fascinated by her and sure that she had found her star in Marlene. When he offered Dietrich the role, she had doubts. She said she wasn't really photogenic and didn't have any talent for the film, and she didn't trust herself to play the role. Sternberg did not give up, however. She appeared on the date agreed with the director, but let it be known that she was not entirely comfortable with the role: "A Miss von Losch in this whore role - her family would not be happy about it." She warned Sternberg again that she was in Filming terribly with her "duck nose". Sternberg's brilliant idea was to free her from this "duck nose trauma" by putting a dark line of make-up on the bridge of her nose. He saw Sternberg's idea of the female archetype confirmed in Dietrich. He was completely convinced of his choice and got Dietrich to sign a contract. Neither Pommer nor Jannings were enthusiastic about Marlene's participation. Sternberg was determined to get Marlene Dietrich a Hollywood contract because it was clear to him that he had made the discovery of his life.
Despite the tense economic situation, no savings were made on this prestigious project. At two million Reichsmarks, the film became Ufa's most expensive Pommer production. Emil Janning's fee of 200,000 Reichsmarks was a record fee at the time, whereas Marlene Dietrich had to be satisfied with 25,000 Reichsmarks because she was not a star at the time. Director Josef von Sternberg received 40,000 Reichsmarks, Heinrich Mann for the film rights to his novel 25,000 Reichsmarks plus a further 10,000 Reichsmarks after the US premiere of the English version on December 5, 1930 in New York.
The size of the production budget was not only due to the top fees. At that time, sound films meant increased technical effort and thus also higher costs. “The film was shot in what is known as the Ton-Kreuz, which was only completed in September on the Ufa film site in Neubabelsberg: It was a cross-shaped building that looked like a bunker because of its sound insulation and housed four modern soundproofing studios . “The shooting time of almost three months was extremely long for the time. After the film started in the cinema, however, it quickly became clear that the effort had been worth it, because The Blue Angel was the success with the audience that they had hoped for.
Filming, production notes
The shooting took place from November 4, 1929 to January 22, 1930 in the Ufa studios in Neubabelsberg , today's Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam .
The collaboration between Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich turned out to be very close, although it was noticeable that Dietrich had unlimited trust and respect for Sternberg's artistic abilities and, believing in his creativity, completely submitted to his will. Jannings, on the other hand, was not very happy with the development, after all it was his first sound film, but Marlene Dietrich seemed to play first violin. He suffered from the fact that the lockpick was given an unusual amount of attention. Heinrich Mann, who was upset that his girlfriend Trude Hesterberg had not got the role of Lola, also joined the filming. When Jannings watched some wacky movie scenes with the author, and looked at the man with praise, he said: "Mr. Jannings, the success of this film will primarily make the bare thighs of Mrs. Dietrich!" Jannings is said to have been very angry about this statement.
Otto Hunte and Emil Hasler were responsible for the buildings and Fritz Thiery for the sound . The role of femme fatale enabled Dietrich to embark on a worldwide career. She received the role instead of the originally planned Maly Delschaft , which could not be achieved. The film was shot with the same actors in a German and an English version . It is one of the few world successes of the German sound film. In 1936 Marlene Dietrich was "the only German world star in the film business". The National Socialists would have liked to bring them back from Hollywood, but Dietrich “categorically refused” even the most “seductive offers”. She hated the Nazis . "
Thanks to the participation of Weintraubs Syncopators , it is the first feature film from Germany in which a jazz band can be heard and seen. Various scenes in the film, such as B. the English lesson, break and lesson situations and the set-up of the classroom were later used in a very similar form in the popular feature film Die Feuerzangenbowle from 1944.
Soundtrack
In this film, Marlene Dietrich sings her famous song
- I am set to love from head to toe by Friedrich Hollaender and the following songs by Hollaender:
- I am the dashing Lola
- Beware of blonde women
- Children, tonight, I'll choose something
The aria also sounds
- Papageno wants a girl or a female! from the Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
De Agostini wrote that the “sensational success of the film” was also due to the “songs” “with which Lola brought the predominantly male audience in the 'Blue Angel' out of control”. Its composer, Friedrich Hollaender, was one of the most popular and busiest film composers in Hollywood after fleeing the Nazi regime in the USA .
publication
The film was released in Hungary on April 19, 1930, in Vienna on April 22, 1930, in Paris on July 22, 1930, in Denmark on August 18, 1930, in Slovenia on September 10, 1930, in Croatia on September 26 1930, in Prague and in Sweden in November 1930, in the United States and Spain (Barcelona) in December 1930. In 1931 there was a publication in the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Japan and Mexico, 1952 in Finland, im April 2008 a re-release in Poland and 2011 in Greece. The film was presented on January 19, 2009 at the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival in San Francisco, USA, on November 11, 2014 at the Leeds International Film Festival and in February 2016 at the Greek Film Archive.
The film was also released in Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Serbia, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
The German working title was Professor Unrat , the English title is The Blue Angel .
The film was released on DVD by Universum Film GmbH on September 14, 2018. It is also included with three other films in the film collection "German film classics Weimarer Kino 1920–1931", provider: Universum Film GmbH, released: December 4, 2015. At De Agostini, The Blue Angel is part of the film series "The great German film Classic". The DVD was released as number 3 in the series together with a 16-page booklet containing information and pictures about the film and its stars.
Film versus novel
Heinrich Mann provided the novel for the film with Professor Unrat or The End of a Tyrant from 1905. With this novel he wrote a satire about the German bourgeoisie at the turn of the century and their weaknesses and mistakes. Mann was friends with the actress and singer Trude Hesterberg , who asked him to release his novel for filming because she was interested in the role of Rosa Fröhlich. After Mann had agreed to a film adaptation, he also affirmed the changes that von Sternberg made to the novel. The script was developed with the help of Robert Liebmann and Carl Zuckmayer . In his biography von Sternberg wrote that one wanted to use these names to counter German sensitivities towards oneself as well as the politically unpopular person of Mann. Mann is regarded as the literary representative of the left, which stood in opposition to the political line of the German national Ufa. This raised concerns about Mann's submission on the Ufa board at an early stage, so that everyone involved paid attention to the political correctness of the script from the start.
The original novel and the film ultimately produced are very different from each other. Only the first part up to the wedding with Lola is the same. The message of the novel is reversed in the further course of the film. In the film, the professor violates the rules of society and ultimately breaks down because of their circumstances. In the novel, however, his development after leaving school is different. Here he thinks about the social function of custom and morality. The professor himself changes out of his own will. While he has subjected himself to the virtues all his life and has acted out his own aggression about them in the form of strict and authoritarian rule over his students, he becomes an anarchist in the novel . After being released from school, he stays in town and attacks civil order. He gives parties in his villa with games of chance and other immoral things. The pillars of the company follow his invitation and begin to corrupt, participate in gambling and do not behave according to their respective status. The professor is enjoying the chaos he has created. The film no longer contains anything of the text's originally anarchist tendency. In contrast, it has a system-stabilizing effect. The improper marriage with Lola does not fit into the civil order of the professor belonging to the educated bourgeoisie. Ultimately, it leads to the death of the deviator. The original order of society is therefore not wavering. The film shows an individual's fate instead of the social satire that Mann wrote.
Mann himself later commented contradicting the film adaptation. In 1930 he said that it was probably not possible to integrate all the pages of a novel into one film, while in 1931 he remarked that the professor's death was wrong and that the original comedy ending was the correct ending.
reception
criticism
Contemporary reviews
The contemporary criticism was directed not only against the change in the novel, but also against Mann himself, as the one who approved this type of film adaptation. The criticism of the Weltbühne at the time speaks of a “Christian-Germanic triumph over the poet Heinrich Mann” and that “a sparkling satire becomes the sentimental catastrophe of a middle-class existence”.
The critic Hans Wollenberg also wrote in the Lichtbild-Bühne on April 2, 1930 that “the first performance was preceded by a polemic in the daily press”, as to whether “The Blue Angel” (freely based on Heinrich Mann's “Professor Unrat” ) “was with or against Heinrich Mann filmed ”. Wollenberg came to the conclusion that the film was "... neither with nor against, but - without 'Professor Unrat' ". Only “external motifs” “remained”. One has "radically abandoned" the "psychological foundations on which Heinrich Mann's novel" is built and "whose most essential elements" they are. The subtitle given by Heinrich Mann to his novel 'The End of a Tyrant' , with which he had "thematically placarded" the story, was "no longer there" in the 'Blue Angel' . The “rubbish of the film” is “not the demon of the novel…” However, “its decline, its fall in the film is much deeper”; are "shown with coarser means" and immersed in "brighter, thicker colors". And “as shocking as this case is”, “as poignant as it is worked out in Emil Jannings' great play and in contrast to Dietrich and Gerron”, “the dramatic nexus of the film in contrast to the novel shows a clear crack and despite blinding external means not the internal tragedy of the 'rubbish' fate that Heinrich Mann wrote ”.
The journalist and film theorist Siegfried Kracauer could not gain anything from the film adaptation of the novel. He spoke of a "decoration" that was "a staffage", of "empty showrooms" that was "typical of today's public". It has its "hidden reason that nothing" is hidden behind it. The “film 'The Blue Angel', which has been acclaimed in the press ” is “a prime example of the intended insubstantiality”.
When the film opened in the United States, it experienced "incredible triumphs". The American newspapers were full of photos of Marlene Dietrich and enthusiastic reviews.
Later reviews
The film is still considered to be “a milestone in film history”. Marlene Dietrich became "an international star and 'The Blue Angel' the film with which you will always identify". [...] "Emil Jannings plays the professor's decline with a grand gesture. Still completely caught up in the theatricality of the silent film drama, the main character of the film almost turns into a caricature. "
The critic Roger Ebert wrote that 'The Blue Angel' will always have a place in film history, as the film that made Marlene Dietrich internationally known, even if it was seen as a vehicle for the German actor Emil Jannings when it was made in 1929 who just got the first Oscar for best male actor. Whatever the language of the film, it feels more like a silent film. Jannings have specialized in roles in which he is humiliated. His appearance in 'The Blue Angel' is strange. Although 'The Blue Angel' takes the path to a predetermined conclusion, what is fascinating is the look behind the stage in the run-down German post-war vaudeville and Dietrich's performance that seems to float above everything. The professor's final humiliation is excruciating and protracted and an example of how German films mirrored their society by humiliating intellectuals and glorifying the physical. One can see the sadomasochism of the Nazi position in the strange relationship between Professor Rath and Lola Lola.
"Shocking character study by Emil Jannings and the starting point for Marlene Dietrich's world career as a vamp in Sternberg's congenial, if literarily inaccurate film adaptation of Heinrich Mann's novella 'Professor Unrat'."
"Von Sternberg's film adaptation of the tragedy of the unworldly high school teacher Rath, who is ruined by the passion for the cheap dancer Lola, is without a doubt congenial, if not exactly based on the novella by Mann"
"The film adaptation [...] still impresses with its acting performances and the honest and effective imagery. Definitely recommended for ages 16 and up. "
Award
The film received the award "Predicate: artistic" in 1930
Others
Carl Zuckmayer's estate is in the German Literature Archive in Marbach . The script of The Blue Angel can be seen there in the Museum of Modern Literature in the permanent exhibition. The film has also left its mark on literature. This is how the Dutch novel In de schaduw van Marlene Dietrich treats . Berlijnse thriller ( In the shadow of Marlene Dietrich , Soesterberg: Aspect 2014) by Marianne Vogel the prehistory and the reception of the film as well as the role of Marlene Dietrich.
Another film adaptation
1959 was a remake directed by Edward Dmytryk at 20th Century Fox in Hollywood. The Swedish actress May Britt as Lola Lola and Curd Jürgens as Professor Rath played the leading roles .
literature
- Eberhard Berger: The blue angel . In: Günther Dahlke, Günther Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginnings to 1933. A film guide. 2nd Edition. Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 , p. 218 ff.
- Luise Dirscherl, Gunther Nickel (ed.): The blue angel. The script drafts . Röhrig, St.Ingbert 2000, ISBN 3-86110-243-9 .
- Joe Hembus , Christa Bandmann: Classics of the German sound film. 1930-1960 . Goldmann, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-442-10207-3 .
- Eva Jaeggi : Frozen Life - The Blue Angel . In: Stephan Doering, Heidi Möller (eds.): Frankenstein and Belle de Jour - 30 film characters and their mental disorders . Springer Medizin Verlag, Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-76879-1 , pp. 296-303.
- Friedrich Koch : School in the cinema. Authority and education. From the “Blue Angel” to the “Feuerzangenbowle”. Beltz, Weinheim / Basel 1987, ISBN 3-407-34009-5 .
- Dieter Krusche, Jürgen Labenski : Reclam's film guide. 7th edition, Reclam, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-15-010205-7 , pp. 95f.
- Heinrich Mann : Professor Unrat or the end of a tyrant. Novel . (Series: S. Fischer Century Works ). S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-10-047820-7 .
- Frederik D. Tunnat: Marlene Dietrich - Vollmoellers Blauer Engel; a biography . tredition, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8424-2372-5 .
Web links
- The Blue Angel in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The blue angel at filmportal.de
- The blue angel Fig. Title page The new film program
- The blue angel at marlenedietrich-filme.de
- The blue angel photos and references
- The blue angel on filmposter-archiv.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f The great German film classics, issue No. 3: The Blue Angel by DeAgostini, Verlag De Agostini Deutschland GmbH, Hamburg, 2005, editor: Holger Neuhaus, Joachim Seidel, pp. 3, 4, 7, 10 , 12-14.
-
↑ a b c d Leslie Frewin: Marlene Dietrich - Your Films - Your Life , Heyne Filmbibliothek No. 32/79, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, 1984,
ISBN 3-453-86074-8 , pp. 43-48, 60. - ^ Filmportal.de: filmportal.de: "The Blue Angel". filmportal.de , accessed on March 15, 2017 .
- ↑ filmmuseum-potsdam.de: Filmmuseum Potsdam: "Data on the history of the studios in Babelsberg". Filmmuseum Potsdam , accessed on March 15, 2017 .
- ↑ The Blue Angel Fig. DVD case, Deluxe Edition, of the Murnau Foundation
- ↑ The Blue Angel Fig. DVD case from the Murnau Foundation
- ↑ The Blue Angel Fig. DVD case and booklet "The great German film classics No. 3"
- ^ Siegfried Kracauer: From Caligari to Hitler. A contribution to the history of German film. Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 1958, p. 138.
- ^ Friedrich Koch: School in the cinema. From the “Blue Angel” to the “Feuerzangenbowle”. Beltz, Weinheim 1987, p. 42.
- ^ Friedrich Koch: School in the cinema. From the “Blue Angel” to the “Feuerzangenbowle”. Beltz, Weinheim 1987, pp. 45f.
- ^ Friedrich Koch: School in the cinema. From the “Blue Angel” to the “Feuerzangenbowle”. Beltz, Weinheim 1987, p. 44.
- ^ The blue angel In: Weltbühne from April 29, 1930, p. 665f.
- ↑ Hans Wollenberg : The Blue Angel In: Lichtbild-Bühne No. 79 of April 2, 1930. Retrieved on April 23, 2019.
- ↑ Siegfried Kracauer : The Blue Angel In: Die neue Rundschau No. 6, June 1930. Retrieved on April 23, 2019.
- ↑ Roger Ebert: The Blue Angel see page rogerebert.com (English). Retrieved April 23, 2019.
- ↑ The blue angel. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ The Blue Angel at Prisma.de, accessed on April 23, 2019.
- ↑ The soul of the archive Report on the exhibition in the Südwestpresse
