Der Blaue Engel
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Der Blaue Engel (English: The Blue Angel) is a film directed by Josef von Sternberg in 1930, and is one of the most famous films made by Marlene Dietrich. It was based on a novel by Heinrich Mann. It is the story of a man reduced to nothing due to obsession and jealousy.
Plot
The Blue Angel follows the character of Immanuel Rath, played by Emil Jannings, through a transformation from esteemed and respected educator at the local College Preparatory High School, to a deprived and destitute vagrant in pre-world war II Germany. Rath’s descent begins with ironically the punishment of several of his student for circulating photographs of the beautiful but scantily clad Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich) the local headliner for the gentleman’s club “the Blue Angel”. Hoping to catch the boys at the club itself (and perhaps intrigued by the foreign yet tantalizing ambiance of the taboo establishment) Professor Rath goes to the club later that evening and meets his eventual downfall; the lovely Lola. Becoming fraught with desire and to remain at Lola’s side the Professor returns to the night club the following evening (to return a pair of panties that were smuggled into his coat by one of his students) and overcome with desire scandalously stays the night with her. The next morning reeling from his night of passion Rath arrives late to school to find his classroom in chaos and the Principal perturbed. Desiring only to be with Lola, he leaves his position at the academy and marries his love. The honeymoon is soon over as the couple carelessly spend the teachers meager savings and Rath is forced to take a position as a clown in Lola’s Cabaret Troupe to pay the bills. Lola’s eventual boredom with the professor and Rath’s growing insecurities about Lola’s profession as a “shared woman” eventually decimate him to a mere shell of the man he used to be consumed by obsession and jealousy. Any shard of humility is stripped from the decrepit teacher when the troupe returns to his home town and in front of the Blue Angels patrons he is humiliated and berated by the very individuals he used to lord above. When Lola announces that she is leaving Rath for another man in the Troupe he tears away in the night full of rage. Rejected, humiliated and destitute the tragedy of the professor's life ends poetically in the very place in which he was once considered a great man, at the desk he once occupied at the academy.History
In his own words Josef von Sternberg calls the story, one of: “...the downfall of an enamored man...” (Sternberg, 11). Something bitter emanates off the screen watching a German professor crumble at the mercy of Dietrich’s sultry Lola-Lola. “...a figure of self-satisfied dignity brought low.” (Wakeman, 1045). Some critics saw the film as an allegory for pre-war Germany, but von Sternberg is very clear that he did not intend to make a political film, unaware of brewing tumult in the current German politics; “The year was 1929, Germany was undivided, although the real Germany, its schools and other places pictured in the film were not German and reality failed to interest me.” (Wakeman, 1046; Sternberg, 13). And indeed The Blue Angel inhabits a foggy fantasy land; of steep-pitched roofs, narrow streets and smoking chimneys. The moral simplicity of a fable, with the slicing sensuality of a pulp novel produced the perfect bridge between the emerging decade and the ending one; between cultures and their impending collision. Marlene Dietrich’s earnest portrayal of a liberated night club performer not only cemented her stardom, but also established a modern embodiment of a vixen. Lola-Lola’s lusty songs (written by Friedrich Hollander, Robert Liebmann and Sam Winston) slither their way into Professor Rath’s heart, entrapping him and sealing his tragic fate. The stories melancholy simplicity adds to the beauty of von Sternberg’s most famous work and undoubtedly was a factor in its feverish success, in both Germany and America.Emil Jennings had asked Sternberg to direct him in his first sound picture, Sternberg reluctant at first agreed out of pure flattery (“... he had the choice of every director on earth but that he preferred me. This touched me deeply...”). Sternberg and Jennings’ egos had clashed on the set of their previous collaboration The Last Command (1928), after filming Sternberg vowed never to work with the German star again. His temper was cooled, however, by Jennings’ adulation and in early 1929 he arrived in Germany; slated to direct a version of Rasputin for UFA-Paramount. Unfortunately for them, Sternberg was less then intrigued by this prospect, and as an alternative he was offered the idea of an adaptation of the Heinrich Mann story Professor Unrath. Sternberg restructured the story to fit his tastes; simplifying moral themes and emphasizing the anguish of the teacher. (Sternberg, 9-11)
The Blue Angel is famous for introducing the world to von Sternberg’s gorgeous ingénue, Marlene Dietrich; whose radiant sensuality might be blamed for the censorship the film faced in Pasadena, California (Black, 50). C.V. Cowan, censor for Pasadena, found much offensive (though Jason Joy, the nations censor, did not) and chose to remove many scenes (Black, 50). Reception of the re-cut film was not good, proving that people trusted themselves to judge the decency of artwork. Both the German and English versions are widely considered classics.
Lola Lola's nightclub act has been parodied on film by Danny Kaye (in drag) as Fraulein Lilli in On the Double and Madeline Kahn as Lili von Schtupp in Blazing Saddles.
A stage adaptation by Romanian playwright Razvan Mazilu premiered in 2001 at the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest, Romania, starring Florin Zamfirescu as the professor and Maia Morgenstern as Lola Lola.
Trivia
- In the movie Aliens, actress Cynthia Dale Scott, who plays Corporal Dietrich (as in Marlene Dietrich) has the words "BLUE ANGEL" written on the back of her helmet.
External links
- [The Blue Angel] at the All Movie Guide
- [Îngerul Albastru] at Odeon Theatre (stage production) ()
Bibliography
Black, Gregory D. Hollywood Censored. Cambridge University Press, (1994)Sarris, Andrew. The Films of Josef von Sternberg, The Museum of Modern Art (1966)
Von Sternberg, Josef. The Blue Angel, Simon and Schuster (1968)
Wakeman, John. World Film Directors Vol. 1. The H.W. Wilson Company (1987)
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