Salome (1923)

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Movie
German title Salome
Original title Salomé
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1923
length 6 acts, 1705 meters, at 20 fps 73 minutes
Rod
Director Charles Bryant
script Natascha Rambowa (as Peter M. Winters)
production Nazimova productions
camera Charles van Enger
occupation

Salome is an American historical drama by Charles Bryant from 1923. The American-Spanish coproduction for the film company Nazimova Productions was directed by the leading actress Alla Nazimova . The original for this silent film was the one-act tragedy by Oscar Wilde , published in 1893 with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley . Like her, the film caused considerable moral turmoil.

action

Salome, stepdaughter of the Judean tetrarch Herod Antipas, wants to see the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan and falls in love with him. Because Jochanaan does not respond to her attempts at seduction and refuses to kiss her, Salome seeks revenge: She wants to dance the "Dance of the Seven Veils" for Herod, who feels more than just stepfather to her, and for this she demands Jochanaan's head in a silver one Bowl. Herod tries in vain to change Salomé's mind, but since he has sworn an oath, he lets Salome dance and behead Jochanaan. When Salome is handed the bowl with Jochanaan's severed head, she kisses his mouth, lasciviously triumphant. Herod turns away in disgust and gives the order to kill Salome too.

background

"Salome" is the silent film version of the tragedy by Oscar Wilde , whose script was written by Natascha Rambowa, the wife of the famous actor Rudolph Valentino , under the pseudonym Peter M. Winters. She also designed the opulent decorations and costumes. The illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley in the printed edition of Wilde's play served as a template for the decorations . For the costumes, the most expensive materials were obtained from the Maison Lewis in Paris. The production budget was $ 350,000.

The photography was done by Charles van Enger, assisted by Paul Ivano and the still photographer Arthur F. Rice. “Salome” premiered on December 31, 1922 in New York. The film was only released in American cinemas on February 15, 1923. It was also shown in France, where it was first shown on March 8, 1924 in Paris. There were also performances in Spain, Portugal, Finland and even in Brazil and Japan, there as early as November 16, 1923.

Allegedly - Kenneth Anger confirmed the rumor - Nazimova spread that the film had been produced in homage to Oscar Wilde with a cast made up of bisexuals and homosexuals, thereby causing a huge scandal. The film was also heavily censored because of its open portrayal of homosexuality; The censors found the mixture of "decadent perverts" with biblical figures and motifs particularly offensive.

reception

The film became a complete failure commercially as it overwhelmed the average audience and marked the end of Ms. Nazimova's career as a film producer. For a long time there was no distribution until a small independent company, the Allied Producers and Distributors Corporation. took over sales.

Salome was reviewed in The New York Times January 1, 1923, Variety January 5, 1923, Film Daily January 7, 1923, and New Republican No. 33 January 24, 1923 by Thomas Craven (p. 225) .

The film did not come off well in public discussion. The New Republican wrote, “Degrading and unintelligent. Nazimova tries a role for which she has no qualifications [...] However much she tries, she cannot be seductive [...] The deadly lure of sex that penetrates Wilde's play like a creeping poison, is expelled the moment one becomes aware of her boyish form. "

Others, however, recognized the artistic vision behind the project and reacted accordingly. So it was in Life Magazine "" The people who are responsible for Salomé, earning all your soul the gratitude of everyone who believes in the possibilities of film as art.:.

Reconstruction, re-performances

Salome was screened at the 1989 International Festival of Lesbian and Gay films in New York, and in 1990 at the New York Gay Experimental Film Festival .

In 1993 "Salome" was rediscovered and reconstructed by the George Eastman House .

The film was selected in 2000 by the Library of Congress in Washington to be listed as " culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant " in the United States National Film Registry .

The culture channel Arte broadcast the film on January 28, 2008 at 11:50 p.m. on German television with new music by film composer Marc-Olivier Dupin , who also conducted the orchestral recording.

At the Silent Film Music Days in Erlangen, "Salome" was performed with the music of Marc-Olivier Dupin, which was played here live by musicians from the Erlangen Music Institute under the direction of Stefan Hippe .

On July 15, 2003 "Salome" was released on DVD along with the avant-garde film "Lot in Sodom" (James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber, 1933).

In 2013 the film was screened at the Ojai Music Festival in Ojai , California , where the group The Bad Plus improvised live musical accompaniment for the film.

literature

  • Kenneth Anger: Hollywood Babylon. Phoenix, Ar .: Associated Professional Services 1965; San Francisco: Straight Arrow Press (distributed by Simon & Schuster), 1975, ISBN 0-87932-086-9 . (German: Hollywood Babylon. From the American by Sebastian Wolf and Benjamin Schwarz. Zweiausendeins, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-8077-1078-5 )
  • Kenneth Anger: Diva of Décadence Salome. In: Bruce Posner (ed.): Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1893–1941. Black Thistle Press / Anthology Film Archives, New York 2001, pp. 93-96. (English)
  • Larry Hamberlin: Tin Pan Opera. Operatic Novelty Songs in the Ragtime Era. Oxford University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-533892-8 , pp. 103, 142, 330. (English)
  • David E. James: The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. University of California Press, 2005, pp. 15, 23, 33, 249, 381, 449, 452, Anmm. 22–30, 544. (English)
  • Panja Mücke: musical film, musical theater: media change and scenic collage with Kurt Weill. (= Kurt Weill Studies. Volume 7). Waxmann Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8309-7142-9 , p. 184.
  • Adele Reinhartz (Ed.): Bible and Cinema: Fifty Key Films. (= Routledge key guides). Verlag Routledge, 2013, ISBN 978-0-415-67720-2 , pp. Vii, viii, x, 217-218, 262. (English)
  • Hans Scheugl, Ernst Schmidt: A sub-story of the film. Lexicon d. Avant-garde, experimental u. Underground films. Volume 2, Verlag Suhrkamp, ​​1974, pp. 1921, 1147.
  • William Tydeman, Steven Price: Wilde: Salome. (= Plays in Production. Volume 4). Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-56545-6 , pp. 122, 154, 160, 164-167, 203. (English)
  • Karen Ward Mahar: Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. (= Studies in Industry and Society: Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood). New edition. JHU Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8018-9084-0 , pp. 175, 260, 205 and. 272. (English)
  • Lissy Winterhoff: Her splendor must be an abyss, her lust an ocean: the Jewish princess Salome as femme fatale on the stage at the turn of the century. Verlag Königshausen & Neumann, 1998, ISBN 3-8260-1433-2 , p. 29 and note 73.

Web links

Illustrations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ actual Winifred Hudnut, cf. John Ostrom, September 22, 2012 at thefrenchsampler.blogspot.de
  2. ↑ cf. IMDb / releaseinfo imdb.com
  3. ↑ cf. Theresa Theophano Film Actors: Lesbian. ( Memento from December 16, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) at glbtq.com (accessed on July 14, 2014)
  4. ↑ cf. Entry, published on March 26, 2012 by ' Desinteressierter Schmock' at stubenhockerei.com ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : , "" Salome "has its supposedly completely homosexual actor cast his homoerotic undertones, and, well, as Oscar Wilde adaptation, a certain cult status in the queer en Community (actress Nazimova was even elevated to a lesbian icon, according to Davis). An enormous camp factor also forms between the sets, costumes and Nazimova's facial expressions ... " @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / stubenhockerei.com
  5. ↑ cf. Internet Archive Feature Films: "Rumors at the time of its production that the cast was all gay doomed its success with the mainstream public."
  6. ↑ cf. prisma.de : “" Salome "was marketed as America's first art film. When he finally found a rental after a year in the closet, the American audience was more bored than shocked. "Salome" was considered a curiosity and was forgotten ”
  7. ↑ cf. DE James: The Most Typical Avant-Garde. 2005, p. 452 note 27.
  8. ↑ cit. According to: Program of the StummfilmMusikTage Erlangen, stummfilmmusiktage.de ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stummfilmmusiktage.de
  9. ↑ cf. arte.tv ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arte.tv
  10. ↑ Lost Silent Classic Collection, Alpha Video, ID1995DS01, Run Time: 61 minutes