The Blue Angel

[Foxbat]

Yes. I know. This is a site dedicated to Fantasy and Science Fiction. But isn’t it the case that any literary invention could be classed as fantasy? And isn’t it the case that, sometimes, a film comes along that just blows your socks off? A German film to make matters more complicated!

Don’t let the fact that this film is from Germany put you off. A few years back I discovered a fascinating thing about German films from the 20s and early 30s – they were hard hitting, brutal, and punching well above their weight when compared to Hollywood’s sometimes staid offerings at that time. The first to catch my eye was Fritz Lang’s ‘M’. It’s a film about child molestation and murder, about the hunting and profiling of a killer. It sounds like one of the many Lector wannabes of now – but it was made in the early thirties.

Finally, I have seen ‘The Blue Angel’. Like many, all I really knew about it was that iconic shot of our heroine in stockings and top hat, singing ‘Falling In Love Again’. But there’s so much more to it than that. Made in 1930, it is the tale of a college professor who falls hopelessly in love with a nightclub performer and eventually marries her. She sees him for what he is – an older man with money – and milks him for every penny he owns. This is what the film is all about – the fall, humiliation and ultimate destruction of one man.

Like all films, it has to be watched within the context of its own time. What was once racey and hard-hitting has now become the norm. But turn your clocks back a few decades and imagine the effect this film must have had on German audiences when it was first released. I think this is the best compliment I can pay this film is after all these years - I still care what happens to that sad, old professor. I still feel my mood darken as I watch his descent into his own little hell.

And driving it all along – what do we have?
– the Mesmerising, the Beautiful, the Iconic Marlene Dietrich in the role of Lola Lola. Nobody else from her time period could have pulled this off. It’s just a pity that she can’t sing but – hey - nobody’s perfect – not even Marelene.

A fine film that still provokes thought and emotion after all these years. Early German cinema at its peak and probably the archetypal Dietrich on the Silver Screen.

[I, Brian]

Good call - sounds like I should watch our for it.

[Foxbat]

..................And here's today's Fascinating Fact:
Emil Jannings played the hapless college professor in this film but in 1928, he won the very first Oscar for his performance in The Last Command.....I bet you all really wanted to know that

[I, Brian]

Trivia is good.