Wednesday 20 February 2019

Varieté (1925 E.A. Du Pont & scr)

Now look, kids - I've told you before. Romantic triangles and high wire acrobatics do not a good mix make.

It was Silent Film Day. Whilst the acting of Emil Jannings and Lya de Putti seem overwrought by today's standards, they are both good. Not quite sure I buy Jannings as a trapeze artist either. The deserted wife and fellow acrobat are Maly Delschaft and Warwick Ward.




Good, despite crappy extant prints. Features some stunning camerawork by Karl Freund, especially the acrobat scenes, where Du Pont gives us a great fantasy death scene - there's other trickeries throughout. The plot is pretty guessable but the style is welcome, the aerial stuff really tense. Alfred Junge is one of the art directors.

Film buzzes along, takes us from Hamburg to the Berlin WinterGarten - everything looks suitably seedy and decadent. Learned German word - 'Krankenhaus' (hospital).


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