Rating: 
Summary: Why no commentary?
Review: This is a fantastic film and with so many film historians out there, I'm surprised that Criterion did not seek someone out to do a commentary for this film. As for the transfer, it is good but not up to Criterion's usual standards. There are many scratches evident on the film. However, it is not as bad as one reviewer states. I did not notice the "flesh eating bacteria" on the faces and I have a 35 inch screen. I would certainly not hesitate to purchase it.
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite Marlene movie!
Review: This is her best. She's beautiful, talented, graceful, stunning and just a Queen of the motion picture screen from years go by.My favorite part of the movie is the wedding all done with music and alot of close-ups.For Radio City Music Hall fans the music during the wedding is the same song that is used for "The Glory of Easter" when they do the Easter Show which now hasn't been done in a few years. But when you see this scene you will regonize the music really fast.This movie is breaktaking and a very important part of Americana which i hope will always be treasured. You won't go wrong buying this film... Enjoy!!!!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Marlene movie!
Review: This is her best. She's beautiful, talented, graceful, stunning and just a Queen of the motion picture screen from years go by.My favorite part of the movie is the wedding all done with music and alot of close-ups.For Radio City Music Hall fans the music during the wedding is the same song that is used for "The Glory of Easter" when they do the Easter Show which now hasn't been done in a few years. But when you see this scene you will regonize the music really fast.This movie is breaktaking and a very important part of Americana which i hope will always be treasured. You won't go wrong buying this film... Enjoy!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Film - So-So Transfer
Review: This is such a fascinating work of art and so extraordinary visually that I ranked this as a 5-star item despite some qualms over the transfer.The packaging boasts of a 'luminous transfer', and while the picture is very very good in many places, and the images very sharp, there are visible flaws in the print. This is, I suppose, to be expected in a 70-year-old-film, but the print is not as good as in other Criterion Releases, such as "The Third Man" or "Grand Illusion." That said, the print is in *very* good shape for its age, and the picture quality is very very striking most of the way through (I kept longing for a bigger screen than my old 21" TV). Don't expect a *perfect* picture, though. Even under the best of conditions, visual flaws will be evident in material this old. Digital doesn't mean perfect. One must manage one's expections with older films.
Rating:
Summary: My first exposure to von Sternberg
Review: This is the first film von Sternberg film that I've seen, so I would hardly presume to call it his best work. Nonetheless, the film was immensely accessible to me. The opening credits say the film was based on the diaries of Catherine the Great, and the film gives that impression in a most curious way. Rather than even attempting to give a realistic portrayal of the characters, we get a film populated by grotesque caricatures. The acting is bad, but it seems to be intentionally so. The whole film seems obsessed with painting the world as filtered through Catherine's eyes. As we watch Dietrich go from dainty naïf to brutal dominatrix, her opponents are cartoon like and seem to physically manifest their egos, and her conquests are simply attractive, virile men with next to no substance. The filmmaking is invigorating with some of the images standing out as originals even after all these times (A human bell clapper and a drill penetrating the eye of a figure on a mural stick out most in my mind). Still, the biggest impression the film leaves is that it must have come before its time. It's got a great deal of humor in dealing with a subject matter that's not innately funny, and I'm stunned that a film this sexually vital was given the go ahead in the 30's. There's a feminist streak running though this film, and I can't imagine how it was viewed when it originally came out. I certainly am compelled to see more of the director's work after seeing this, and would recommend the film without reservation, if only because I am sure that the film could play was as pure camp as well.
Rating:
Summary: FASCINATING FANTASIA ON THE LIFE OF CATHERINE THE GREAT!
Review: This movie is justly famous for it's bizarre visual style; it's a fascinating excursion into the life of one of history's most notorious women. As a child, Catherine is played by Dietrich's own daughter, Maria Sieber; Dietrich is innocent and naive at the beginning and she slowly becomes a powerful and lusty ruler. Louise Dresser is strangely folksy as the illiterate Empress Elizabeth (who in real life could speak many languages, but her manners were atrocious). John Lodge, who later had a successful career in politics (Governor of Massachusetts) has a very commanding presence and he's astonishingly modern in his playing of Count Alexei. Sam Jaffe is brilliantly eccentric in his playing of Peter the Mad; his performance lingers in the memory. Opulent and beautifully lighted, THE SCARLETT EMPRESS wasn't exactly box-office in it's day (it was ahead of it's time); today it's a visual orgy, fascinating to observe!
Rating:
Summary: Big.
Review: This movie is obviously a showcase for Marlene. Everything is huge. Actually massive. The first part of the movie is hilarious. Marlene tries to be an innocent young girl. Wide eyes, blonde curls, etc. This is a wonderful movie for Dietrich fans.
Rating:
Summary: quite impressive for its time
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. The Scarlet Empress was one of the last films made before the Motion Picture Production Code began to be more strictly enforced. As a result, it was quite racy for its time and also contains scenes of a torture chamber near the beginning of the film. The movie is based on the diaries of Catherine II (The Great) who was empress of Russia in the late 18th century. The film covers her life from childhood till her ascension to the throne. The film depicts some of her many adulterous affairs making it controversal for its time. Thankfully it doesn't perpetuate the wildly popular myth that her death was caused by attempted beastiality with a horse (which never would have made it into the movie anyway.) The film does not cover her death, but for the record, she died after having a stroke while on a commode. The film has several montages of Russian folk music in it including the original national anthem of Russia, "God Save the Czar" The DVD does have restored image and sound, but is not as rigorous as many other Criterion DVDs. The DVD has two bonus features. A documentary "The World of Josef von Sternberg" and a slideshow of lobby cards and stills from the film. There is also an tribute to von Sternberg in the liner notes in addition to the regular essay that almost every criterion DVD has.
Rating:
Summary: Garishly Ornate, Complex, Vision of Surreal Decadence
Review: Two gnarled statues of grotesque beasts make love in the garden, a perverse cuckoo clock exposes female bodily organs, a skeletal figure shot through with arrows twists its face in a silent wail towards heaven. This is the decor of "The Scarlet Empress," furnishings which speak more of the film's themes and ideas than the plot could ever be allowed to. The actors remain intentionally wooden; it's as if the world around them was an expression of their suppressed emotions. Shame takes the guise of chairs, but chairs in the shape of gargantuan, deformed old men hiding their stricken faces in hideous fingers. Masochism is occasionally a clock, lust a decorative food display, but all perverse, leering. And death... Everywhere is a ghastly preoccupation with death, icons proudly display decapitation, skeletons stretch themselves over boiling cauldrons, while ghastly statues of tortured corpses lurk in every shadowy corner. Together this creates a world of painful decadence, a disgusting, yet fascinating dreamscape of visual pleasure. All this takes form and depth, is sculpted by director Sternberg's haunting lighting. It is "his" light, he lords over it, and with it anything is possible. He can make a face beautiful or ugly, innocent or evil. He can accentuate a certain side of a person's nature, or how a specific set piece relates to it, all with the proper illumination. If his lighting is astounding, equally so is Sternberg's use of the visual motifs in his mise en scene (bells, veils, figures, specific set pieces, etc...) to transport the viewer back and forth through the film. For instance, the binding of Catherine and Peter's hands at their marriage is later echoed by an unquestionably similar knot Catherine ties in a napkin she is fondling, and then tosses onto the table of she and Peter's last meal together. The initiation of their marriage and the initiation of its end are in this way linked, and the audience is forced to take into account the changes in both their characters. Not only does the rhythm of these motifs remain figurative. The movement of the film takes on a distinct rhythm as well. A swinging motif is evident throughout, the bells, the incense burners, Catherine's swing, the hoopskirts, a baby's basket, and so on. In this the film takes the feel of a frenzied, but excellently choreographed dance.
But in all this there is one thing more noteworthy. Marlene Dietrich radiates! Quite possibly the most beautiful woman who ever lived, she begins innocent and virginal (seemingly intentionally melodramatically), standing out in a world of amorality. She is both the happiest and saddest point of the film. Her wedding to the vulgar Peter in an immense, yet claustrophobic cathedral is the most emotional part of the film. As it is filmed entirely in a series of close-ups of individuals, and long shots that blur their faces, there is no discernible eye connection between any of the characters. She is completely alone. As a voyeuristic camera cuts closer and closer to her trembling, veiled face, we suddenly feel the need to turn away. We know now that this last thread of decency is about to be crippled. Soon enough her innocence begins to fade before her sexuality, and the surroundings that once nearly suppressed her, she lords over, a queen of immorality. "The Scarlet Empress" expresses the essence of film, and why it succeeds as an art form. It creates the possibility of a world almost wholly artificial, divorced from anything that ever was. It retains only fragmentary reproductions of something that existed in a pre-filmed state, combining and distorting them to effect something 90% fake. What's more that seems all it is interested in. No other artistic medium (aside from painting) is viewed worthy of its visuals, and all theatrical, literary, or other requirements are given little attention. They are flippantly thrown in only to please a narrow minded audience, and occasionally (but very, very rarely) to accentuate the films themes. Yet painting, ah yes, painting. That was a medium worthy of a brilliant visionary like Sternberg, and one he transferred to the screen with gusto. "The Scarlet Empress" is to Dali in its obsession with the bizarre, da Vinci in its detail, Picasso in its complexity of associations, but entirely Sternberg in its conception.
Rating: 
Summary: This classic deserves better
Review: Von Sternberg's masterpiece is a visual feast, but this DVD seems to have been made from a grainy sixteen millimeter print. It is a disgraceful disk. I have seen archival prints of this film and I KNOW this is not even close to the best print they could have gotten. Sadly, this is the first of the seven Sternberg/Dietrich films to make it to DVD, and I hope this release doesn't set a bad precedent.
|
