 Hello. Welcome to St. Lavaux's World Cinema. I'm your host, Betty St. Lavaux. On this show, we talk about foreign movies. I don't really come up with that many statistics because I sort of all want you all to watch some movies and maybe I'll get back to that at a later date along as the series goes along. But I just sort of want you to enjoy foreign films because they get a bad rap. You've got to read sometimes to watch them. The plots are, what are you kidding me? It's sad. I don't understand that camera angle. And these are some of the not problems, but challenges that some Americans have to go through when they watch European movies, especially when you head back in time and watch the ones by F.W. Murnow and Fritz Lang made in the 20s. When I was a film student at Antioch, the film teacher, he was such a compassionate guy. He would state at the beginning of every class, you're used to American movies, this might be a little difficult for you, but please try to enjoy it. A lot of his classes I fell asleep and he never seemed to mind because he was giving us an instruction in European films. And so my hat's off to him. I can't remember his name, but I think his first name was Ted. There are other professors too who helped me understand European movies. Firstly, my mother, I grew up watching European films. So I want to be your European film whisperer. Let's put it like that. Now, let's just start off with a list of some really great foreign films that you're going to like. And then we're going to talk about one in particular after that. So my short list is The Devils, starring Oliver Reed. You're going to love it. All right. It's based on a true story back in the religious war era time. And you're going to love Reed's performance. 400 Blows. This was directed by Francois Traffaut and there are very many new Hollywood filmmakers from the late 60s to the 70s who really love this movie quite a bit. Pauline at the Beach, directed by Eric Romer. I watched that years ago. I happened to like it. A Man, a Woman. Claude Lerouche. It's kind of corny and lifetime for both men and women, but it's a really beautiful romantic love story and you're going to love the soundtrack. Princess Tamtam, starring Josephine Baker, speaking fluent French like a native. Allgal from St. Louis is going to charm you with her rendition of an imposter who pretends to be an Arab princess, swanking it up with the Riviera set. Mamzelle, which is a Jean Marot movie. Jean Marot was married to both Tony Richardson, a new wave filmmaker in England and William Friedkin, who was a new Hollywood filmmaker. She plays a diabolical woman and it's set in a small village in France. Bride War Black, which is another Jean Marot movie. Bicycle Thief, a very, very famous movie that a lot of filmmakers say turn them on to wanting to make movies. E. Villoloni, Frederico Fellini, Rules of the Game, one of my favorites, Jean-Marin Wall, Seventh Seal, directed by Ingmar Bergman. You're going to love Max Fonsito in this movie. He plays a soldier returning home after the war in Denmark and meets a whole bunch of travelers along the way. Juliet of the Spirits, my first Fellini movie, which totally knocked my socks off. Chunk King Express, Wong Kar-Wai's very, very beautiful movie starring, I want to say Maggie Chang and Tadiko, I wish I could remember his last name, and Tony Leong. Japan's Answer to Madonna, Bridget Lee, oh, I wish I could remember the cast, but we're going to talk more about Chunk King Express in a future episode. It's one of my favorite movies in the whole world. Nosferatu, F. W. Murnau, Sunrise, which I also believe is Murnau, In the Rem of the Senses, a Chinese movie, Omicord, a Fellini movie, and Last Night's Light, a great movie I saw decades ago in Washington, D.C., Chinese movie, Love, Betrayal, Treachery, what a great flicker. All right, so if things progress the way I think they will, in future episodes, we're going to discuss Hong Kong films, Bollywood, and the Nigerian film industry, all right? And those Hong Kong filmmakers and the Australian filmmakers, they can really, they can make some movies, so that's my last side about that. Okay, so today we're briefly going to discuss the Blue Angel, Joseph von Sternberg's movie starring Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings, pardon me, and where's the rest of the cast here? Let's see, I guess I don't have the rest of the cast here. Anyway, von Sternberg shot an English version, and he shot a German version. He shot the English version for Paramount, and he shot the other version for Ufa Studios, and I have Ufa's full name down here somewhere. The story is based on Henrik Mann's Professor Arnold, End of a Tyrant, and a lot of actresses when it was announced that von Sternberg, who was very famous in Berlin back then, was going to direct this movie, every actress wanted to be in it, so at one point even Lenny Riefenstahl, who became a very famous film director in her own right, thought that she was going to play Lola Lola. Marlene had just lost a lead in Pandora's Box to Louise Brooks, excellent, very fine actress, film historian, and she was looking around for something to do, so what occurred was that von Sternberg had worked with Jannings on his last commercial movie, but he swore he never would again. He put Jannings in the movie any way Jannings was on his last leg as an actor, and he certainly was, he didn't know at the time, but Blue Angel was one of the nails in his coffin. Von Sternberg saw Marlene in Two Bow Ties in 1929. Ruth Lanshorf, who was a mystic to Sternberg's friend and producer, championed her. Sternberg said she's a wife and a mother, I'm going to need her to speak English, and she's an talented cow. Marlene also at the time, unfortunately, had a reputation for having gotten around, and even though it was Weimar Berlin, she would push the envelope frequently. At any rate, von Sternberg kept her on tenterhooks. It was if he knew that this talented woman was not only a diabolical genius, she was diabolical. They started shooting November 4, 1929, and it's shooting January 22, 1930 of both movies. They shot both movies in a little under three months. They shot in sequence the English following the German. Okay? The budget was two million mocks. It premiered at the Gloria Plast Theater, April 1, 1930, and the release date was later in the U.S., after Marlene's first American movie, Morocco, with Gary Cooper. They wanted to make sure that Paramount's investment had not gone to waste. Years ago, I watched this movie with a really good friend of mine, one of my best friends. We didn't watch that many movies together, but we watched a couple. We watched East of Eden. We watched this one, Blue Angel. We watched a couple of cartoons together and did some Rocky movies. My friend Phil and our friend Sarkis and I did some Rocky movies together. At any rate, we sat down to watch Blue Angel. I didn't think that he would be really into it, but he loved the plot at line, the fact that the traveling theater comes to town. Professor Anrott, who is a very priggish gentleman and a real stick in the mud, discovers that his students are hanging out at the place called the Blue Angel. The theater is called the Blue Angel, but the troupe that comes in has Lola Lola played by Dietrich. He is soon smitten with her, and life takes a course for the disastrous, to quote Elmore Leonard. He loses his standing at the church, at the gymnasium, the school. He leaves town, he marries Lola, and then becomes one of the traveling performers. To see his descent is something to be believed. I mean, they don't make them like this anymore at all. von Sternberg had a little difficulty with the actor speaking English, but if I can only speak German as well as they can speak English, I took German for four years and I can translate it, but I can't speak it as fluently as these actors. Lola Lola, who made Dietrich an international film icon, really, she's immortal, plays a woman who, she's just basically an actress, and she's light of heart and gay, and the professor, who of course is totally untutored, he's never met anyone like her, falls in love with her, and her life has changed also. Funnily enough, as his kind of goes down, hers goes up. I would really love for you all to check this movie out. And also, if you want, read Maria Riva's beautiful Marlena Dietrich. Maria Riva was Dietrich's daughter, and at a very early age, she literally became Dietrich's, what do you call it, collaborator. She had an eye for lighting and clothes, just like her ma. Jay Michael Riva is her son and Oscar-winning set designer. The Rivas, Michael J. Riva was Maria's husband, are a very talented bunch, hats off to them. So I hope you've liked this little lesson today. I'm your hostess, Betty St. LaVille. You've been watching St. LaVille's World Cinema here at Orca. And as usual, I'd like to thank my first film professor, who taught me quite a bit about learning to appreciate European films. Sharon Ardella, Paris, Oceania, Claridge. Until next time, babies, check out some movies with some subtitles. Ciao.