7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Professor Immanuel Rath, the sexually-repressed instructor of a boys' prep school, after learning of the pupils' infatuation with French postcards depicting a local nightclub songstress, decides to personally investigate the source of such indecency. But as soon as he enters the shadowy Blue Angel nightclub and steals one glimpse of the smoldering Lola-Lola, commanding the stage in a top hat, stockings and bare thighs, Rath's self-righteous piety is crushed. He finds himself fatefully seduced by the throaty voice of the vulgar siren, singing "Falling in Love Again." Consumed by desire and tormented by his rigid propriety, Professor Rath allows himself to be dragged down a path of personal degradation.
Starring: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Hans Albers, Rosa ValettiForeign | 100% |
Drama | 66% |
Romance | 40% |
Music | 9% |
Melodrama | 1% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.19:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.2:1
German: LPCM 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Strutting about onstage in stockings and garters, her bare thighs cheekily peeking out from under a short ruffled skirt, Marlene Dietrich became a near-
instant international sex symbol because of her cabaret queen role in 1930's Der blaue Engel—a.k.a. The Blue Angel—a comic drama
that was one of Germany's first major "talkies." It was also Dietrich's first film with the Austrian-American director Joseph von Sternberg, who would
sculpt and re-sculpt her public image in six subsequent Hollywood movies, including Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, and The
Scarlet Empress.
The Ufa Studios-produced project initially materialized out of a collaboration with Swiss-born actor Emil Jannings, who had previous starred in Von
Sternberg's 1928 silent film, The Last Command, winning the very first Academy Award for Best Actor. Though the two famously didn't get
along, they eventually reconciled, and Jannings temporarily wooed Von Sternberg away from Los Angeles to make The Blue Angel in Berlin,
shooting German and English versions simultaneously. The German cut is better known—partially because the actors are better in their native
language, but also because the English edition was presumed lost for decades—and Kino-Lorber is presenting it here in high definition for the first time,
using a print newly restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Institute.
Newly restored in high definition by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Institute—the same folks who oversaw the recent restoration of Fritz Lang's Metropolis—Blue Angel alights on Blu-ray with a satisfying 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation. Sourced from archival 35mm elements, the image fully retains its natural filmic look here, with a visible grain structure and no traces of adverse digital noise reduction or edge enhancement. While the film hasn't quite been given the same level of frame-by-frame restorative polish as Metropolis, the print has been decently cleaned up, with comparatively few white specks and small scratches for a movie from 1930. There is some age-related damage—occasional vertical scratches, slight brightness fluctuations, some brief warping and staining—but nothing out of the ordinary if you're used to watching films from this era. Those who owned Kino's previous Blue Angel DVD will notice an appreciable upgrade in clarity, even if the picture—on the whole—is a bit soft, with a chunky grain pattern that inherently limits the resolution of fine textures. Aside from the mild aforementioned flickering—which is quite hard to correct digitally—the film's black and white photography is handled well, with a good contrast balance that neither crushes shadow detail nor blows out highlights. No overt compression or encode issues either. All around, a very watchable transfer.
The Blue Angel's original German-language audio is capably reproduced on Blu-ray via an uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 track. Considering this is an 82-year-old film and one of Germany's earliest talkies, there are obviously some unavoidable limitations in sound quality here. You'll notice a low-but- persistent background hiss if you're listening for it, occasional pops and crackles, and some harshness/muffling in the vocals, but nothing grating or distracting in the slightest. The real highlight here is Marlene Dietrich's musical numbers, including "They Call Me Naughty Lola," and the famous "Falling in Love Again," which has subsequently been covered by The Beatles, Christina Aguilera, and Kevin Ayers. The disc includes optional English subtitles, which appear in easy to read white lettering with black borders.
Kino previously packaged the German and English-language versions of The Blue Angel together in a 2-disc DVD set, so I'm not sure why they've opted to not include the English cut here. Also missing are all of the DVD extras—a Dietrich screen test, interview and concert footage, an audio commentary for the German version, and more. Disappointing? Slightly, but having the German edition in high definition makes up for the lack of supplementary material.
A tragi-comic study in social downfall and humiliation, Joseph von Sternberg's The Blue Angel is one of the highlights of Weimar-era cinema. Though Emil Jennings delivers a fine performance as the nominal star, the film is best remembered for launching the sultry Marlene Dietrich to international fame and iconic sexpot status. Kino's new Blu-ray release of the German-language edition is just as easy on the eyes as the film's leggy female lead, but it might've been easier to fall in love with had it also included the English cut and the special features missing from the earlier 2-disc DVD set. Still, if you don't mind the lack of frills, The Blue Angel on Blu-ray is an attractive proposition. Recommended!
(Still not reliable for this title)
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