Parallax View

The Blue Angel (Kino) – American director Josef von Sternberg went to Germany to direct Emil Jannings in his transition from silent to sound cinema and returned to Hollywood with an international hit and a new star: Marlene Dietrich. Not exactly what Jannings had in mind, but then how could he know that the theatrical [...]

O listen … listen well: Listen to the Legend of Chuck-a-Luck, Chuck-a-Luck, Listen to the song of the gambler’s wheel, A souvenir of a bygone year, Spinning a tale of the old frontier And a man of steel, And the passion that drove him on, and on, and on. It began, they say, one summer’s [...]

Pina Menichelli is the very ideal of the diva in Il Fuoco (Italy, 1915). Introduced only as an illustrious poetess and countess, she steps out of her chauffeured car in a feathered outfit and hat that makes her look like a bird of prey. And she acts that way too when she meets the young [...]

This program note was written in connection with the November 16, 1971 showing of Touch of Evil in the University of Washington Office of Lectures & Concerts Autumn Quarter Film Series “The Cinema of Orson Welles.” Since that was a long time ago and the only version of the movie available at the time was [...]

[Originally written for a University of Washington Lectures & Concerts Film Series, "Sternberg and Dietrich"; reprinted in Movietone News No. 37, November 1974] Marlene Dietrich first appeared to American audiences as a dark figure browsing over the deck of a ship in the fog somewhere off the coast of Morocco. Her visual treatment on this [...]