Salome, the flower of the Orient
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Salome, the flower of the Orient |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1921 |
| length | 1 act, 180 meters, at 16 fps approx. 10 mins |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ernst Lubitsch |
| script | Ernst Lubitsch |
| production | Ernst Lubitsch |
| occupation | |
| |
Salome, die Blume des Morgenlands is a parodic one-act act that Ernst Lubitsch realized in 1921 from his own script. He performed the biblical material about Salome , the stepdaughter of King Herod , and John the Baptist as a shadow play. The title role was given by Pola Negri . He was banned by the film inspection agency.
action
In the censorship notice of December 19, 1921, the content is described as follows:
“Salome appears and the connecting text reports: 'Because she can't do anything else / Salome stares at the moonlight'. Herod, who is called Mr. Odes in the connecting text and is depicted as a covetous waddling fat man, looks at Salome with amorous eyes while she asks the 'slave chief' to go into the tower and fetch 'Johann' to the tryst. One then sees John the Baptist, portrayed as a long, skinny person, and the connecting text reports that his hermitage is narrow: 'For whether the great housing shortage / was only offered this refuge'. Salome makes a declaration of love to Johannes in which she describes him as a 'dashing' man and says to him, 'My darling is not so stupid / I want a kiss and you are too brittle', to which Johannes replies: 'O woman, I can don't crunch up / stop your bland cuddling! '. Salome gets angry and swears revenge. She stands before Herod. Herod asks her to please him with a 'foxtrot', he would also give her something nice: 'When she hears this, very unabashedly / Salome decollates'. Servants appear and undress Salome, who is preparing to dance. This dance, however, is not shown: 'The one because the nude dance is hackneyed / the interest in it is extinguished. And if you still want to see one / you have to go to cabaret! '. Instead of a gift, Salome now asks that John be beheaded. The executioner hands her John's head in a bowl. The film ends with the words' Punishment is approaching! There is still the curse of the evil deed! '"
background
At the end of the First World War, the Salome material was used several times as a template for film dramas: both in the USA (with Theda Bara in 1918 and Alla Nazimova in 1923) and in Germany (by Eugen Burg 1919, Franz Seitz sen. 1919).
Lubitsch then delivered his one-act version as a parody, which he provided with the addition of "Flower of the Orient" , certainly not without looking at music titles such as the successful "Oriental Foxtrot" "Salome" (1919) by Robert Stolz .
He did not shy away from 'anachronistic' updates as a means of parody, nor from the inclusion of colloquial (“fesch”, “fade”) or even “Berlin” words such as cuddle and crunch in the subtitles.
reception
The film was available to the authorities on September 16, 1921 and was immediately banned under number B.04229. Another censorship appointment on November 24, 1921, under number B.04769, could not avert a ban. The third attempt to get the film through the censorship also failed on December 19, 1921 at the Oberprüfstelle, which reaffirmed the ban under number B.254.21, so that the film could not be shown. The 1921 publication date is therefore with a? Mistake.
A showing of the film was banned by the censors due to the alleged denigration of the Bible. It was not just individual scenes that led to the decision, such as the one mentioned as an example, "in which Salome kisses the severed head of the Baptist", but "the film in its entirety" is suitable, "brutalizing" and "demoralizing" to work and "to hurt the religious feeling".
literature
Censorship decisions for "Salome, the flower of the east":
- Censorship, Berlin film inspection agency B.04229, September 16, 1921, 1 act 180 m, ban. Source: Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF e. V. [3]
- Censorship, Berlin Film Inspectorate B.04769, November 24, 1921, 1 act 180 m, ban. Source: Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF e. V. [4]
- Censorship, Film-Oberprüfstelle OB254.21, December 19, 1921, 1 act 180 m, ban. Source: Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF e. V. [5]
"Salome, the Flower of the Orient" Contents & Materials (DIF) [6]
Web links
- Salome, the flower of the Orient at filmportal.de
- Pola Negri at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ "The strip of pictures shows silhouettes that represent the parody of biblical material in an unworthy and religiously hurtful way", says the wording of the censorship decision of September 16, 1921.
- ↑ so filmportal.de; In the text of the censorship decision, however, it says: “The characters are the size of play dolls”. Have living actors cast their shadows, or just puppets? Since the film must be regarded as lost, it will no longer be possible to verify it.
- ↑ It is no coincidence that Herod asks Salome in the subtitle that she should dance a “foxtrot” for him, cf. Table of contents in the censorship decision of December 19, 1921
- ↑ in the text by Arthur Rebner it says: "Salome, most beautiful flower of the Orient" (1920, oriental foxtrot), cf. robertstolz.at [1]
- ↑ like: "Housing shortage", "Foxtrot", "Nude dance", "Cabaret"
- ↑ cf. also “1911 - 1918 KUNSTNERISK VENDEPUNKT” på stumfilm.no [2] : “Man er noe usikker på om 'Salome, the flower of the Orient' (1921) ble laget det året.”
- ↑ cf. Censorship decision of December 19, 1921