Movie Details
| Title: | The Scarlet Empress | |
| Director: | Josef Von Sternberg | |
| Year: | 1934 | |
| Genre: | Historical | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.09.24 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.09.24 | DVD | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2024 roll: 1 spine: 109 And we come to the last movie on the shelf. This movie, along with Salo and Wild Strawberries, is the reason why the Criterion Random Roll exists. I've owned this movie for more than 20 years and never watched it. It's sat on three different shelves in three different houses and apartments and never made it to a DVD player. I think I bought it when I was reading Bogdanovich's book of director interviews and his short interview with Von Sternberg picqued my interest. I'd read about his famous pairing with Marlene Dietrich and their intense working relationship and figured I should educate myself a bit more and check some of them out. Fast forward to today, I've seen Dietrich in a few movies (Touch of Evil, Rancho Notorious, maybe Witness for the Prosecution or Stage Fright, Destry Rides Again) but still no Blue Angel, no Shanghai Express, no Blonde Venus, no Devil is a Woman, no Dishonored, no Morocco, no Von Sternberg movies at all. I don't know why I never watched it, I just didn't. Until Now! Well that was a movie alright. I don't really know anything about Catherine the Great and russian history is not super high on my list of interests and it's been quite a while since I've seen a movie from the 30s and that early-sound pacing... all of which to say I didn't like this. Watching it felt like a chore. But, I will say there was some great shot design here, some great double exposure montage work, some great sets and costumes and production design and all the non-screenplay elements were vivid and ornate and impressive. So I think I see why this film is notable to some, but I bounced completely off the story. It was almost like a silent picture with all the title cards explaining the plot, making all the dialogue feel mostly needless. I guess it wasn't torture like Tales of Hoffman, but I didn't love it. But I watched it! And that's that. If you're wondering what I'm gonna do now that all the criterion discs are cleared from the "unseen" shelf after nine years of doing this, I've got two words for you: BOX SETS |
