The scarlet empress

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Movie
German title The scarlet empress
Original title The Scarlet Empress
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1934
length 104 minutes
Rod
Director Josef von Sternberg
script Manuel Komroff ,
Eleanor McGeary
production Josef von Sternberg
camera Bert Glennon
cut Josef von Sternberg,
Sam Winston
occupation

The scarlet empress , also known as The Great Tsarina (original title: The Scarlet Empress ), is an American historical film by Josef von Sternberg from 1934 with Marlene Dietrich as Katharina the Great . The script is loosely based on Katharina's diaries.

action

As a young and inexperienced princess, Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst was summoned by Tsarina Elisabeth to Russia to marry her nephew Grand Duke Peter . She is said to give birth to a male heir to the throne under her new name, Katharina . Katharina initially has romantic ideas about marriage, but Peter turns out to be a sadistic idiot. Katharina and Peter hate each other from the start, but a wedding still takes place. When after the first few years of marriage there is still no prospect of a child, Katharina is held responsible for it.

In the meantime, Count Alexei Razumovsky has his eye on Katharina, whereupon he successfully advances her. But when Katharina learns that Alexei is Tsarina Elisabeth's lover, she prefers to have an affair with Lieutenant Dmitri. He becomes pregnant and, to the great delight of the Tsarina, gives birth to a healthy boy nine months later. However, Peter is immediately certain that it is not his child, which is why he despises Katharina all the more.

Katharina is then convinced that after the death of the Tsarina, Peter will plunge Russia into ruin as the new ruler and have her killed himself. With her feminine charm, she cleverly brings the military on her side. After the Tsarina dies, Peter establishes a terror regime and openly threatens his wife with death. When Peter has her arrested in order to give preference to his mistress Elizaveta at his side, Katharina escapes and then storms the tsar's palace with the military. Peter is murdered by Katharina's new lover, General Grigori Orlov . After the successful coup, Catherine becomes Tsarina of Russia.

background

The shooting took place from November 1933 to the end of January 1934 in the Paramount Pictures film studios , where opulent backdrops were created based on designs by Hans Dreier and Travis Banton designed extravagant costumes for Marlene Dietrich . As a young Katharina, Dietrich's daughter Maria Riva first appeared in a film. John Lodge , who played Count Alexei Razumovsky , later became a politician and was Connecticut Governor from 1950 to 1954 .

The film was premiered on May 9, 1934 in London (Carlton), but was not released until September 7, 1934 (release) and September 15, 1934 (New York, Capitol) in the US cinemas, since in the spring of 1934 already with Catherine the Great a British biopic about the famous monarch had been released. In Germany , The Scarlet Empress was shown for the first time on September 14, 1934 in the Marble House in Berlin.

Reviews

For the New York Times it was "a sedate, peculiarly beautiful, lengthy and always tiresome production" at the time. Variety said in 1934 that director Josef von Sternberg “was so fascinated by all the pomp and glitter” that he “neglected everything else”. The fact that he still does well with it proves "his artistic genius and his amazingly refreshing sense of composition". His main actress Marlene Dietrich “never looked more beautiful than here”. In return, however, she “never looks particularly lively or vital”.

The lexicon of international film stated that director Josef von Sternberg had placed no value on “a historically accurate reconstruction of the color of the time” in his film. The result, however, is "remarkable [...] thanks to the lavish decorations, the dynamic image design and the acting performance of Marlene Dietrich". The Protestant film observer found that The Scarlet Empress , although published in 1934, is “still today a fascinating and exciting film because of its dynamism, its overwhelming and lavish decorations and especially its optical design”. The conclusion was: “Recommended for ages 16 and up” Prisma described the film as “lavishly equipped historical film”, which “does not offer a reconstruction of the historical sequence”, “but rather a grandiose homage to Marlene”, “like von Sternberg did saw". This one did a great job: "Never before and never after has it been staged in a more radiant, mysterious and seductive way."

In retrospect, Roger Ebert called the film “a bizarre visual spectacle that combines depraved sexuality with cheeky crude humor, as if Mel Brooks had collaborated with the Marquis de Sade ”.

More films about Catherine the Great

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Marlene Dietrich - actress . In: CineGraph - Lexicon for German-Language Film , Lg. 21, F 4
  2. "A ponderous, strangely beautiful, lengthy and frequently wearying production." See Mr. von Sternberg Presents Miss Dietrich and “The Scarlet Empress” at the Capitol . In: The New York Times , September 15, 1934.
  3. “Josef von Sternberg becomes so enamored of the pomp and flash values ​​that he subjugates everything else to them. That he succeeds as well as he does is a tribute to his artistic genius and his amazingly vital sense of photogenic values. Marlene Dietrich has never been as beautiful as she is here. [...] But never is she allowed to become really alive and vital. " See The Scarlet Empress . In: Variety , 1934.
  4. The Scarlet Empress. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 26, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. Evangelischer Filmbeobachter , Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 36/1970.
  6. cf. prisma.de
  7. "The film tells the story of Catherine the Great as a bizarre visual extravaganza, combining twisted sexuality and bold bawdy humor as if Mel Brooks had collaborated with the Marquis de Sade." Roger Ebert : The Scarlet Empress . In: Chicago Sun-Times , Jan. 16, 2005.