Germany has always attached great importance to its foreign cultural policy. After World War II, the proper presentation of "soft power" played a prominent role in the reconstruction of Germany's image.
During World War I, the German leadership, realizing the power of film as a propaganda weapon, set out to create the "Ufa Film Company". It is also interesting to say that the "Fog Pier" mentioned in the last issue was asked by the German Ufa Film Studio to shoot Marcel at that time. However, due to the deviation of its content from the Nazi propaganda, the filming rights were transferred to the French producers and released. .
The "Blue Angel" to be mentioned in this issue was produced by Ufa Company in 1930. This may be regarded as a brief golden age of German cinema. German sound film has developed quite well, and a group of internationally renowned film artists has emerged, while the Nazis have not yet come to power, and cultural controls are relatively loose. By 1933 German cinema had become almost entirely a vassal of military politics.
"Germany without a military cap" is the characteristic of German films at this time, and in "Blue Angel", not only its fragrant sex appeal and provocation directly challenge the film ethics formulated by the United States, but also buried "anti-revolutionary". The vanguard of the military cap.
"Blue Angel" is based on Heinrichman's novel "Professor Garbage."
Heinrichmann was born at the time of the victory of the Franco-Prussian War, so he lived in an almost fanatical German national glory for a long time, but with the increase of experience, he began to question his beliefs and the country he lived in.
"I had to contend with too much of my own 'Germanic' ambiguity and extremes".
In 1896, after a solitary life, he began to think critically about Germany. At that time, this behavior not only went against the national sentiment of the whole country, but also broke the relationship between him and the whole family.
During World War II, even in exile in other countries, he still clearly resisted fascist Nazism, and his highly productive literary works were all critiques of reality and Nazi militarism.
It's just that the later Heinrichmann supported the Soviet Union or supported France. I think he still thought he was Germany. He is a righteous defender and a compassionate saint.
However, in the film, the singer exists precisely because she can meet the needs of the society, and what the professor likes is precisely Lola's unobstructed true temperament.
So is it really corrupt for a professor to go after a young and beautiful girl and sacrifice everything for her? Are desire and sensuality really worth shame and irony?
Therefore, on the road of "anti-military hat", I always think Dietrich went further than Heinrichman.
Dietrich was originally born in a family of aristocratic officers, and became a nightclub singer at the age of 19 with the death of her father.
"Singer girl was very low in the social concept at that time? What's more, she was born into a nobleman. I don't know what happened in the middle, so that even a song girl can bring out the indulgent ruthlessness from her bones. and ease".
"Maybe this is the life she wants," Zeyin replied to me.
There are no sanctimonious moral regulations, hypocritical human feelings, and rigid constraints. She laughed arrogantly, sang arrogantly, danced wickedly, with the enthusiasm and curiosity of a little girl and the fortitude and courage of a soldier, and she treated her life without fear. She understands Mozart's classical beauty and appreciates Stravinsky's subversion.
"Having an ecstatic ability," says Sternberg, who has worked with him on seven films.
"Blue Angel" made her famous and unstoppable, her lover's list was like a celebrity magazine, and she even had a platonic romance with Hemingway.
When her career went downhill in Hollywood, Nazi Germany offered her an invitation to make her the movie queen of the Empire.
At that time, Germany printed various Hollywood movie star cigarette picture books, etc. The protagonist was Dietrich. However, she indifferently refused to hear about the evil deeds of the Nazis, so that all her films in Germany were banned. Hitler also sent her a bad check and even proposed to her for marriage, threatening to arrest her sister and harass her husband and daughter when she was rejected. However, Dietrich was still unmoved, "disgusting" and "idiot" were all her descriptions of Hitler.
Her distaste for German militarism even led her to plot to kill Hitler with poison hairpins.
She later left Hollywood to go to the anti-fascist field, where she sang for soldiers and helped exiles with her own funds.
Sometimes I feel that she is so close to the military cap. Born in an officer family, she is active in the front line of anti-fascism wearing a military uniform.
Sometimes I feel that she is so far away from the military cap, and the highest military generals have been repeatedly slapped in the face.
In "Blue Angel", when she waved her skirt and swayed her waist, probably everyone would feel that the mountains and rivers and the military country were far less than the blurred scenery in the half-closed eyes.
Written on January 21, 2016
View more about The Blue Angel reviews
