A classic

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list, among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, it took me a while to get into the damned thing. The fact that the copy I saw was pretty bad probably didn’t help but I also believe that the first half was rather slow. Indeed, it seemed that it was dealing with a frustrated teacher who entertained the same sexual fantasies that his pupils had and I thought the guy was actually rather pathetic and not really interesting. However, it all changed when the guy decided to actually marry Lola Lola. Indeed, it was such a surprising turn of events and it didn’t seem to be make any sense to everyone, his colleagues, Lola, her colleagues,… And that’s when the movie did start to become fascinating. Indeed, how could this decision actually make sense to Professor Immanuel Rath himself? Behind his stiff demeanor, was he actually some kind of closeted romantic? Eventually, you never really found out why he made this choice but watching his downward spiral was so spellbinding to behold. It was definitely a strange character and the main reason why he actually worked was because Emil Jannings gave here such a strong performance (it’s a pity that arguably one of the best actors that ever lived would eventually become a major Nazi sympathizer). Concerning Marlene Dietrich, she got her breakthrough with this movie (she would eventually make 6 more movies with Josef von Sternberg) and she was, of course, pretty good but, in my opinion, her character was much more straightforward than Immanuel Rath and therefore less interesting. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might be a tricky movie, it is a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.