Word: expressionist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Thus the German myth's appearance in Blue Angel makes it seem an Expressionist film. But the weight of this material, the subject of the film, should not obscure our view of Sternberg's treatment of that material, for it's his treatment that is crucial to the film's meaning, especially for Jannings and Dietrich...
...German Expressionism, detailing the complete degradation and ultimate death of a bourgeois hero through his descent into the sex-and-violence filled world of the lower classes. The allure of a cabaret singer (Marlene Dietrich) leads Professor Rat (Emil Jannings) from the comfortable, orderly existence and, to complete the Expressionist myth as practiced in German movies, subverts his normal conduct until he becomes an object of the townpeople's scorn. The economic theme in this plot, closely related to the real and feared decline of the German middle classes in the 20's, satisfyingly gives American film critics...
...canary is part of the film's smooth flow, a dramatic event quietly noted and celebrated (in the bird's cremation). The theme of a box-like object or set whose dark exterior contains a bright space inside returns later in exteriors of the cafe which seem Expressionist: the hero wanders through the shadow-filled darkness barred from light, warmth, security. But the stove, like the stage at the end, gives the light a different meaning. Light is the core of the Romantic being, whether sexual (Dietrich, whose skin and hair shine) or metaphysical (the fire in the stove). Janning...
...terrifying long shot of the stage, rectangle of light, surrounded by the darkened hall and crowd. Despite the weight of this darkness, our attention is riveted to the personal drama on the bright stage. This finally proves the ideal and Romantic basis of Sternberg's drama as against its Expressionist surroundings...
...sweeps about Venice in her private gondola, Peggy Guggenheim. 70, has borne a vexatious problem: What to do with her vast art collection when she dies? Her palazzo on the Grand Canal is filled with Cubist, Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist treasures. Museums in New York and London have clamored for it but she wanted to keep it in Venice. Then she hit upon an ingenious solution. Why not New York's Guggenheim Museum? So, title to Peggy's 263 prime works, valued at up to $12 million, will be given to the Guggenheim-on the condition that they...