7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
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 | 65% |
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 Mono
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (1 BD, 2 DVDs)
DVD copy
Region B (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Josef von Sternberg's "Der blaue Engel" a.k.a. "The Blue Angel" (1930) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The release contains the German and English-language versions of the film; original trailers; short clip from an interview with Marlene Dietrich; video essay by critic and film scholar Tag Gallagher; audio commentary by film critic and scholar Tony Rayns; and more. The release also arrives with 48-page illustrated booklet featuring Josef von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel", written in 1968 for the English publication of the original continuity script of the film, and Werner Sudendorf's "Chronicles", a timeline of the early history of the film which was originally compiled in 2001 by the chief curator at the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen, In German or English, with optional English subtitles for the German-language version of the film. Region-B "locked".
"From head to toe, I'm made for love..."
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.19:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment.
The release contains the German and English-language versions of the film. The former runs at approximately 107 minutes, while the latter runs at approximately 104 minutes. Please note that screencaptures #1-11 are from the German-language version, while screencaptures #12-22 are from the English-language version.
The German-language version looks slightly darker when compared to the English-language version of The Blue Angel. Blacks and grays are marginally better saturated as well. Generally speaking, detail and clarity range from decent to very good, but various contrast fluctuations affecting the overall integrity of the image are present on both versions. Around the edges of the frame occasionally there is also extremely light shimmer. The best news is that there are no traces of excessive sharpening or degraining corrections. On both versions there are various small scratches, damage marks, and even small vertical lines (on the English-language version I also noticed small frame skips), but the integrity of the image has been preserved as best possible -- damaging corrections to remove larger cuts, splices, and vertical lines have not been performed. Naturally, even though there are areas of the two versions that look a bit rough, both have solid organic looks. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are two standard audio tracks on this release: German LPCM 2.0 and English LPCM 2.0. For the record. Eureka Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the German-language version of The Blue Angel. There are no optional English subtitles for the English-language version of the film.
While clarity is quite good on the two lossless tracks, both are plagued with light to moderate background hiss. On the German-language version, however, its presence is at times more prominent. This said, the background hiss never becomes overly distracting, and the dialog remains easy to follow. Additionally, there are no serious audio dropouts or distortions to report in this review.
I like Eureka Entertainment's release of Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel a lot. It contains the superior, in my opinion, German-language version of the film, as well as the English-language version, which isn't included on Kino's U.S. release of the film. I think that this is an essential film to see and own that should have a reserved spot in every serious collection. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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