"Gripping, Dramatic, Sensuous, Thrilling, Powerful." This is Variety (Varieté). This 1925 silent German drama film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont, adapted by Dupont and Leo Birinski, and based on the novel Der Eid des Stephan Huller (The Oath of Stephan Huller) (1923) by Felix Hollaender. The film tells a tale of jealousy, obsession and murder, set against the backdrop of the circus. Carnival owner "Boss" Huller used to be a talented acrobat. Now he owns a lowbrow sideshow act with his wife. When he meets a beautiful young woman, he runs off with her, abandoning his family. But a strapping trapeze artist soon lures away Huller's new lover. Huller then realizes he has swiftly moved from cheater to cuckold.
Upon it release in the United States on 27 June, 1926, the film was heavily cut and censored (except in New York) as it was not made with the intent to pass the newly established MPPDA's "Hays Code", which had been introduced the year before with hopes of mollifying the more than 100 local and state censorship boards around the United States. These boards quickly took an ax to the film, cutting, on average, enough footage to fill two film reels. The film had to excise the entire first reel, "thus destroying the motivation of the tragedy, implying that the acrobat was married to his Eurasian temptress." New York made the fewest cuts, removing slightly less than the other American cuts.
The film stars Emil Jannings, Lya De Putti, Maly Delschaft, and Warwick Ward. Although beset by sensuality and tragedy, by a doomed couple and, amongst a remarkable carnival backdrop, by drama generally, is so sheerly, dominatingly dramatic and gripping that sensuality and tragedy hardly seems an issue.
A deliciously sordid soap opera. The tragic romance doomed with tragedy by the deleterious effects of sensuality and jealousy man remains one of the most haunting synergies, especially in this silent classic. Full of striking imagery which, once seen, will stay with you forever, this is a highly accomplished piece of work which brings together some of the greatest talents of the era. With Variety, you forget that two hours have gone by. You forget because it's completely one hundred per cent gripping and involving in a modern sense. The movie's horrifying and beautiful conclusion becomes more poignant and powerful with each passing year. One of the classic films of the German silent era. Variety is a German silent film that any couple could relate to. They wouldn't like the way it ends, though. Dupont was a psychologically astute filmmaker, but it's the shockingly sensual, charismatic leads that make the picture. More than a little overbaked and frequently veering from the artistic to the artsy. Neither an exposé of social conditions nor a psychological case study and certainly not a moral parable the film is a tour de force of tragic cinema. One of the great films about the mysterious allure of the female form and the destructive power of the male gaze that's inflicted upon it.
A deliciously sordid soap opera. The tragic romance doomed with tragedy by the deleterious effects of sensuality and jealousy man remains one of the most haunting synergies, especially in this silent classic. Full of striking imagery which, once seen, will stay with you forever, this is a highly accomplished piece of work which brings together some of the greatest talents of the era. With Variety, you forget that two hours have gone by. You forget because it's completely one hundred per cent gripping and involving in a modern sense. The movie's horrifying and beautiful conclusion becomes more poignant and powerful with each passing year. One of the classic films of the German silent era. Variety is a German silent film that any couple could relate to. They wouldn't like the way it ends, though. Dupont was a psychologically astute filmmaker, but it's the shockingly sensual, charismatic leads that make the picture. More than a little overbaked and frequently veering from the artistic to the artsy. Neither an exposé of social conditions nor a psychological case study and certainly not a moral parable the film is a tour de force of tragic cinema. One of the great films about the mysterious allure of the female form and the destructive power of the male gaze that's inflicted upon it.
Simon says Variety (Varieté) receives:
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