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davidhare wrote:In fact the "secret" is simply regular reacquaintance with his films. The more you watch them the more and more seductive they are in pulling you into his "invented" hyper real worlds of poetic imagination. The opportunity is always there to join Sternberg and submit yourself totally to his will - if you like - like one of his hapless males struggling with the eternal paradox of pleasure and pain. But the pleasure to be gained from this is life changing. And endlessly humorous I should add.

Scarlet Empress and Devil is a Woman are, apart from being multilayered masterpieces, comedies. At the highest imaginable level.

OK, OK, you guys have convinced me, if convincing I needed, which I don't think I did, though having seen Docks of New York last week, I would put Last Command some way above it. I do like your idea of

invented" hyper real worlds of poetic imagination.

That one sounds really cool. Blaue Angel next then...

It amazes me how folks can resist this material. Just such a perfect marriage of image and content, these films just levitate which such livid electricity.. just on the surface alone, every corner of every shot seems fraught with life, every shadow loaded with potential, vibrating with significance and electricity, as if, as in something like Joyce's Ulysses, there are mysteries to be uncovered every time you pass thru the work.

Joe was probably the greatest visual artist of the sound era. The only guy who could set up a shot with such visual orgasm (though in a much different fashion though deep in the chiaroscuro as well) is Alton, particularly w Mann.

davidhare wrote:

Joe was probably the greatest visual artist of the sound era

Yes, and he was also one of the greats of the late silents. I was surprised to hear our friend was not so crazy for Docks of NY. Certainly I have to count myself very lucky to have seen the MOMA nitrate prints of this (and Underworld and Last Command) albeit 40 years ago. The simple visual experience of Docks in particular is prime Sternberg (THIS is the picture that must have wiped out Mizo and Ozu and Ophuls) and the sheer silvery gelatinous luxury of the image literally brings you to tears of pleasure.

VERY large Group Karmic Chant for Paramount reissue this year.

A little clarification (and a little backtracking as well, to be fair...) It was by comparison relative to The Last Command, which really blew me away, and while I did indeed appreciate the look of Docks, and that is usually more than enough for me, I found the story less satisfying than The Last Command. (My tape went a bit naff for the last 20" and lost the sound which did not help either, though the print on both tapes looked very good otherwise.) Am I right in seeing Betty Compson as a prototype Dietrich? I certainly saw Dietrich in her. I also found it very homoerotic but that is hardly a surprise I guess.

Expectations played their part as well, of the three I have now seen, I expected Docks to be way ahead of Last Command and Der Blau Engel, whereas those two proved very pleasant surprises (I really did not expect to like Der Blaue Engel but it too impressed me, even if I found some of the humiliation of the professor hard to take. Jannings does humiliation so well though, doesn't he?). I suspect that when the weight of expectation is removed and I go back to these films Docks may come over better. I often find that I get so much more out of a film, especially a "big" film, i.e. a film I have longed to see, second time round. (Lordy, more than enough backtracking...)

Is there any word of a Paramount reissue, or Eclipse or similar? If not, should I take a chance on one of the PD versions of Underworld?

Crime and punishment has just been released in Spain, if anybody wants I can post some screencaps.

O.K., here they are.

Looks great - thanks for posting the caps. I can't find anything on fnac.es - where can one order a copy?

here or here for instance, but it is not an exclusive, so fnac should have it eventually.

I realize now that the release date is the 27th, but they already had it today at 'el corte inglés'.

Looks fantastic-- but that was to be expected viewing the state of the elements in the boot floating around from the source-VHS.

I'm a definite fan of this film. Lorre makes a fine Raskolinow-- embodies rather well all the contradictions & eccentricities of character.

Over the last few years Mike Schlesinger has indicated in several interviews and postings (on the Classic Horror Film Board) that this title is upcoming as part of a R1 Sony box of Lorre's Columbias - with The Face Behind the Mask (a fascinating early noir) and Island of Doomed Men. The last I read, there were print problems with the last title and some disagreement over how to market the set, which his colleagues wanted to include in Sony's "Icons of Horror" series!

How do the Von Sternbergs in the R1 "Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection" (Morocco, Blonde Venus and The Devil Is a Woman) compare with the European releases? (They're mentioned in the filmmaker thread, but I couldn't find any mention of quality.)

I had the same problem, David, and spent ages scratching my head over the request for my passport number. In the end I bought a copy from a Spanish seller on Ebay (like this one), and although I paid a few quid extra for the privilege it made the whole process a hell of a lot easier!

The disc is great, and I love the film. Surprisingly, it struck me as almost "minimalist", with the poverty row mise-en-scène often consisting of little more than carefully staged figures and pools of (Sternbergian) light...

nsps wrote:How do the Von Sternbergs in the R1 "Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection" (Morocco, Blonde Venus and The Devil Is a Woman) compare with the European releases? (They're mentioned in the filmmaker thread, but I couldn't find any mention of quality.)

They're the same transfers.

foggy eyes wrote:I had the same problem, David, and spent ages scratching my head over the request for my passport number.

That's very strange. When I read David's post about the passport number, I assumed they required it because he lives in Australia. But as you're from the UK and thus are from the EU, I wonder what's going on. In any case, none of these Spanish e-tailers ever wanted my passport number (I'm in Germany).

And yes, the shipping costs of fnac are ridiculous, and dvdgo is only slightly cheaper. I really wonder why they have to use these couriers. Admittedly, the discs arrive within one or two days, but still...

Tommaso wrote:That's very strange. When I read David's post about the passport number, I assumed they required it because he lives in Australia. But as you're from the UK and thus are from the EU, I wonder what's going on. In any case, none of these Spanish e-tailers ever wanted my passport number (I'm in Germany).

No idea. They wouldn't let me put the order through without it, so I gave up and looked elsewhere. Never had the problem with any other overseas e-tailer...

I'm probably being a bit thick here but is this playable without any subtitles at all (it lists heaps of them but no mention of "none").

Felix wrote:I'm probably being a bit thick here but is this playable without any subtitles at all (it lists heaps of them but no mention of "none").

Yes, it's fine.

Felix wrote:I'm probably being a bit thick here but is this playable without any subtitles at all (it lists heaps of them but no mention of "none").

The fact that there are multiple options suggests that none are burned into the video, so yes, it should be easy to turn them off—if not on the menu then with your player's subtitle button.

Thanks for the info, Schreck.

EDIT: Whoops—Foggy Eyes beat me to it.

Thanks to you both; time to replace the VHS then.