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The Blue Angel



The Blue Angel [Der blaue Engel] is one of the first German language sound films (filmed simultaneously in an English-language version), and the picture that represents the initial collaboration between Josef von Sternberg and his immortal muse, Marlene Dietrich.

Following up his role in von Sternberg's great silent The Last Command, Emil Jannings portrays a schoolteacher named Immanuel Rath, whose fateful expedition to catch his students frequenting the cabaret known as "The Blue Angel" leads to his own rapture with the establishment's main attraction Lola (Dietrich) — and, as a result, triggers the downward spiral of his life and fortune.

Directed by von Sternberg while on loan from America to the pioneering German producer Erich Pommer, The Blue Angel is at once captivating, devastating, and powerfully erotic, laced-through with Sternberg's masterful cinematography. From here, the director and Dietrich would go on to make six more films together in the span of five years, and leave a legacy of some of the most indelible iconography in the cinema of glamour and obsession. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present The Blue Angel in a new Dual Format presentation that incorporates both versions of the film in 1080p HD for the first time in the UK.

DUAL FORMAT (BLU-RAY + DVD) EDITION

• New 1080p HD presentation of both the German-language and English-language versions of the film, with progressive encodes on the DVD
• Newly translated optional subtitles on the German-language version, and SDH on the English-language version
• New and exclusive video essay on the films by critic and scholar Tag Gallagher
• New and exclusive feature-length audio commentary by critic and scholar Tony Rayns on the German-language version
• Original 1929 screen test with Marlene Dietrich
• Archival 1971 interview clip with Dietrich
• Three clips of Dietrich in performance from 1963 and 1972 concerts
• Theatrical and re-release trailers
• 48-PAGE BOOKLET containing a 1968 essay by Josef von Sternberg about the film; a complete timeline of the film's production history by Werner Sudendorf; and copious rare archival imagery from the production provided by Sudendorf and the Deutsche Kinemathe

Coming January 28th.

Fantastic slate of extras and I'm sure this is what many of us were looking for with Die Nibelungen. Definitely will be going for this over the German one.

Is there any reason the Werner Sudendorf commentary from the old Eureka disc (amongst others) isn't included? It's a bit dry, as Sudendorf isn't a native English speaker, but it's actually quite an insightful commentary, if I remember rightly. It would be a shame to lose it. I'd definitely like to see it included if possible. I guess it could be one of the "features to be announced closer to release date" but presumably that would largely be the as-of-yet unannounced booklet.

This is great news! The Gallagher essay and Rayns commentary sold me on this edition immediately.

Yeah, I was really just looking for a tie-breaker with Kino, and that's way above and beyond. I'm looking forward to this one.

matrixschmatrix wrote:Yeah, I was really just looking for a tie-breaker with Kino, and that's way above and beyond. I'm looking forward to this one.

Is there a list of Kino's extras somewhere or are we just assuming that everything from the DVD gets carried over?

I was going off the Amazon listing, though admittedly those aren't always trustworthy.

matrixschmatrix wrote:I was going off the Amazon listing, though admittedly those aren't always trustworthy.

That's essentially what's on the original DVD. I wonder if the Sudendorf "chronicles" is actually the Sudendorf commentary that TM Daines refers to and was on the original Kino DVD accompanying the German version of the film? If so, the major difference becomes the Gallagher essay.

Well, I'd happily take a Tony Rayns commentary over that Sudendorf one, which is fine but which isn't up to Rayns' standard (plus, it's on the Kino DVD I already own)

matrixschmatrix wrote:Well, I'd happily take a Tony Rayns commentary over that Sudendorf one, which is fine but which isn't up to Rayns' standard (plus, it's on the Kino DVD I already own)

Since I've pre-ordered the Kino in the DVD Empire sale (and bundled it with Purple Noon to get a good price on that BD plus free shipping), I'm looking for a reason to double dip. Kino has shown consistently good results in their Blu-ray transfers, so I'm not expecting huge differences there. I'm not much of a commentary aficionado and I'm not sure the Gallagher essay is enough on its own to justify a double dip. That plus a significant difference in the transfers though...

A more detailed listing of the features:

R2 United Kingdom - (Masters of Cinema/Eureka Video)
Commentaries:
Audio commentary by critic Tony Rayns (German version only)
Extras:
Disc One:
Original German Version (4:3) 1.19:1 / German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (107:08)

Disc Two:
English version (4:3) 1.19:1 / English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (104:20)
"Who am I?" 2012 video essay by Tag Gallagher (29:58)
1929 Screen Test (3:46)
1971 Interview Clip (1:25)
Dietrich in Concert:
- "Falling in Love Again" (3:26)
- "Lola" (2:13)
- "You're the Cream in My Coffee" (3:30)
Theatrical Trailer (3:51)
Re-release Trailer (3:08)
Subtitles:
English (German version) and English SDH (English version)
Aspect Ratio:
1.19:1
Picture Format:
Non-Anamorphic
TV System:
NTSC
Soundtrack(s):
German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (Disc 1)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (Disc 2)
Case type:
Keep Case
Notes:
Yes, this is NTSC. Only available as part of a Blu-ray+DVD combo.
Comes with a 47-page booklet featuring an essay by Josef von Sternberg and an essay by Werner Sudendorf.

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Pity the old commentary didn't make it across, but what a package to start 2013. One of the films I consider one of my "top 10", so I can't wait to see this on Blu.

Probably to read with caution, because it looks as if the English version will only be on the DVD.
However, it would also mean that the German version, in HD, would get a DD 2.0, whereas no MoC BD so far used such an encoding for soudntrack (only LPCM or DTS HD MA).

tenia wrote:Probably to read with caution, because it looks as if the English version will only be on the DVD.

Eureka's site says "New 1080p HD presentation of both the German-language and English-language versions of the film" in the specs.

There are just the DVD specs. It will be BD+2xDVD, no?

I have a single BD checkdisc, which definitely contains both versions in 1080p - I've just double-checked to make sure.

In fact, these are the BD menu options:

• Play Film
• Chapters
• Play Film without subtitles
• Commentary by Tony Rayns
• The English-Language Version
• "Who am I?" by Tag Gallagher
• 1929 Screen Test
• 1971 Interview Clip
• Dietrich in Concert
• Theatrical Trailer
• Re-release Trailer

...which would appear to match everything listed in the DVD specs above. I don't have the DVDs, but I'm assuming they simply spread the above across two discs.

Any consensus on which version is better? I have only seen the German version (which I loved), foolishly thinking for a long time the "English version" was just a dub. Does it offer anything over the German version or is it virtually identical? And how well do Jannings and Dietrich perform in comparison?

It's the German version all the way. The English version has all of the songs in English, some of the camera setups are somewhat different but not for artistic reasons, and you get Marlene Dietrich stating at least a couple of times that she doesn't understand German (when Jannings gets angry earlier in the film.) The performances are fairly stilted in comparison. No substantial differences overall.

Nothing special. It's certainly not a bad version of the film but most people will probably watch the English version once and never bother with it again.

manicsounds wrote:BlurayDefinition review

This is an intriguingly-constructed sentence:

The audio commentary by the always interesting Tony Rayns will definitely be of interest and is never boring to listen to.

So did he listen to it halfway through writing that?

I just like 'the always interesting Tony Rayns will definitely be of interest', that's some indisputable logic

The Digital Fix.

Isn't the MoC picture slightly darker than one would wish? Looking at the Beaver grab in which Dietrich sits on the barrel, for example, it is impossible to distinguish between her black dress and the barrel. This is not the case with the comparable Kino grab. Although I will personally buy the MoC for all the great extras (and the English version) it has, the Kino--based on the Beaver screen grabs, at least--does show slightly more detail.

Zaki wrote:Isn't the MoC picture slightly darker than one would wish? Looking at the Beaver grab in which Dietrich sits on the barrel, for example, it is impossible to distinguish between her black dress and the barrel. This is not the case with the comparable Kino grab. Although I will personally buy the MoC for all the great extras (and the English version) it has, the Kino--based on the Beaver screen grabs, at least--does show slightly more detail.

If you are referencing the German version, your eyes are far better than mine if you can distinguish the hem of her skirt from the barrel on either the Kino or MoC. The MoC is certainly darker, but the hem and barrel are indistinguishable on both. On the English version, which appears only on the MoC, it's quite another matter.