Douglas Sirk proves his mettle as a consummate romantic storyteller in these part-musical melodramas from the peak of his career in Germany. They cemented stardom for Zarah Leander, a beauty who could have been an international success had the timing and politics been different. Both pictures send their heroines on far-flung adventures. In To New Shores Leander’s seductive music hall chanteuse is a victim of love, banished to a prison in Australia; in La Habanera she’s the wife of an all-powerful Caribbean landowner, who purposely downplays a plague because it will affect his business. Sirk’s order of the day is to put Leander into intolerable situations, just as he did Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman and Lana Turner in his later Technicolor pictures at Universal.
To New Shores & La Habanera
Blu-ray
Kino Classics
1937 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / Street Date May 18, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Zarah Leander.
Cinematography: Franz Weihmayr...
To New Shores & La Habanera
Blu-ray
Kino Classics
1937 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / Street Date May 18, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Zarah Leander.
Cinematography: Franz Weihmayr...
- 6/1/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
What, another docu about Nazis? Rüdiger Suchsland’s show tells the entire story — with many rare clips and interesting actor and filmmaker profiles — of the hundreds of state-produced German films made during the Third Reich. It’s the most thorough, informative and eye-opening show on the subject I’ve yet seen. It comes with revelations about some surprising names, like Douglas Sirk and Ingrid Bergman.
Hitler’s Hollywood
DVD
Kino Lorber
2017 / Color & B&W / 1:78 enhanced widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date July 10, 2018 / Hitlers Hollywood: Das deutsche Kino im Zeitalter der Propaganda 1933 – 1945 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Narrated by Udo Kier
With film clips of Hans Albers, Heinz Rühmann, Zarah Leander, Ilse Werner, Marianne Hoppe, Gustaf Gründgens, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Alfred Abel, Lída Baaroví, Willy Fritsch, Gustav Fröhlich, Lilian Harvey, Johannes Heesters, Brigitte Helm, Paul Henreid, Margot Hielscher, Emil Jannings, Pola Negri, Magda Schneider, Kristina Söderbaum, Anton Walbrook.
Film Editor: Ursula Pürrer
Produced by Gunnar Dedio,...
Hitler’s Hollywood
DVD
Kino Lorber
2017 / Color & B&W / 1:78 enhanced widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date July 10, 2018 / Hitlers Hollywood: Das deutsche Kino im Zeitalter der Propaganda 1933 – 1945 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Narrated by Udo Kier
With film clips of Hans Albers, Heinz Rühmann, Zarah Leander, Ilse Werner, Marianne Hoppe, Gustaf Gründgens, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Alfred Abel, Lída Baaroví, Willy Fritsch, Gustav Fröhlich, Lilian Harvey, Johannes Heesters, Brigitte Helm, Paul Henreid, Margot Hielscher, Emil Jannings, Pola Negri, Magda Schneider, Kristina Söderbaum, Anton Walbrook.
Film Editor: Ursula Pürrer
Produced by Gunnar Dedio,...
- 7/3/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Hitler’S Hollywood Kino Lorber Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Rüdiger Suchsland Screenwriter: Rüdiger Suchsland Cast: Hans Albert, Heinz Rühmann, Zarah Leander, Adolf Hitler, Ilse Werner, Joseph Goebbels, Marianne Hoppe, Gustaf Gründgens, Hermann Göring, Leni Riefenstahl, Wilhelm Fürtwangler, Leni Riefenstahl Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 4/2/18 Opens: April 11 at New York’s Film Forum, 209 Houston […]
The post Hitler’s Hollywood Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Hitler’s Hollywood Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 4/8/2018
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The Criterion Collection adds to its handful of contemporary releases this week with Christian Petzold’s Phoenix, a film that has received near-universal acclaim since its 2014 premiere at Tiff, despite a common caveat that its story conceit is exceedingly implausible. Perhaps, as Justin Chang puts it at Variety, “in a movie of exacting subtlety, it sometimes takes the baldest of contrivances to cut straight to the heart of the matter.” He goes on:“World War II has just ended, and Nelly Lenz, a Jewish singer and an Auschwitz survivor, is about to undergo reconstructive surgery after a disfiguring gunshot wound. When she is later reunited with Johnny, the faithless husband who betrayed her to the Nazis to save his own skin, he fails to recognize who she is. Still, he discerns enough of a resemblance to propose a lowly scheme: Nelly — or Esther, as she calls herself — will pass herself...
- 4/27/2016
- MUBI
Sales agent Wide House is to be reunited with German filmmaker Rüdiger Suchsland on his next documentary Hitler’s Hollywood for delivery next year.
Wide House’s Anais Clanet confirmed at this week’s Dok Leipzig that she will be handling sales on Suchland’s new project after selling his first documentary, From Caligari To Hitler [pictured], which premiered at Venice 2014 in the Classics sidebar.
Speaking to ScreenDaily in Leipzig, Suchsland revealed that his second collaboration with the Berlin-based Looks Film & TV and Wiesbaden’s Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation has already received backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, HessenInvestFilm, and broadcasters Zdf/Arte.
“Hollywood was always something that the Nazis wanted to emulate,” he explained with reference to the film’s title.
“Speeches and documents provide evidence that there was a clear plan by the Nazis, and particularly Goebbels and Hitler, to establish a kind of alternative Hollywood, to copy Hollywood’s international success and to use it for Nazi...
Wide House’s Anais Clanet confirmed at this week’s Dok Leipzig that she will be handling sales on Suchland’s new project after selling his first documentary, From Caligari To Hitler [pictured], which premiered at Venice 2014 in the Classics sidebar.
Speaking to ScreenDaily in Leipzig, Suchsland revealed that his second collaboration with the Berlin-based Looks Film & TV and Wiesbaden’s Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation has already received backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, HessenInvestFilm, and broadcasters Zdf/Arte.
“Hollywood was always something that the Nazis wanted to emulate,” he explained with reference to the film’s title.
“Speeches and documents provide evidence that there was a clear plan by the Nazis, and particularly Goebbels and Hitler, to establish a kind of alternative Hollywood, to copy Hollywood’s international success and to use it for Nazi...
- 10/30/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Return From the Ashes: Petzold’s Compelling Resurrection of WWII Aftermath
At the head of the cinematic movement referred to as the Berlin School of filmmaking is auteur Christian Petzold, an internationally renowned artist whose works have met with increasing critical success and notable visibility. Usually utilizing the talents of his frequent collaborator, German beauty Nina Hoss, the duo has returned with Phoenix, their follow-up to the celebrated 2012 title, Barbara, where it snagged a Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.
While that film examined a predicament in early 80’s East Berlin, Petzold reaches farther back into the troubled tumultuousness of Germany history with his latest feature, set shortly after the end of WWII. The surviving members of Germany’s populace are forced to contend with restructuring via the help of outside military sources, as well as dealing with the returning survivors of the concentration camps. Like most of Petzold’s films,...
At the head of the cinematic movement referred to as the Berlin School of filmmaking is auteur Christian Petzold, an internationally renowned artist whose works have met with increasing critical success and notable visibility. Usually utilizing the talents of his frequent collaborator, German beauty Nina Hoss, the duo has returned with Phoenix, their follow-up to the celebrated 2012 title, Barbara, where it snagged a Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.
While that film examined a predicament in early 80’s East Berlin, Petzold reaches farther back into the troubled tumultuousness of Germany history with his latest feature, set shortly after the end of WWII. The surviving members of Germany’s populace are forced to contend with restructuring via the help of outside military sources, as well as dealing with the returning survivors of the concentration camps. Like most of Petzold’s films,...
- 7/28/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Novelist/screenwriter, Christian Kracht, gives a Paddington hard stare before his conversation on Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas with Daniel Bowles and Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: David Netto
Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.
In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...
Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.
In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...
- 7/24/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Marta Eggerth: Operetta and film star — a sort of Jeanette MacDonald of Central European cinema — dead at 101 Marta Eggerth, an international star in film and stage operettas who frequently performed opposite husband Jan Kiepura, died on December 26, 2013, at her home in Rye, New York. The Budapest-born Eggerth had turned 101 last April 17. (Photo: Marta Eggerth ca. 1935.) Although best known for her roles in stage musicals such as the Max Reinhardt-directed 1927 Hamburg production of Die Fledermaus, and various incarnations of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Marta Eggerth was featured in nearly 40 films. The vast majority of those were produced in Austria and Germany in the 1930s, as the Nazis ascended to power. Marta Eggerth films Marta Eggerth films, which frequently made use of her coloratura soprano voice, include Max Neufeld’s drama Eine Nacht im Grandhotel ("A Night at the Grand Hotel," 1931); the Victor Janson-directed musicals Once There Was a Waltz...
- 12/31/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
By modern standards, Quentin Tarantino would be considered an auteur; a director whose films reflect that his personal creative vision. But what exactly is that vision, and how is it reflected in his work? One major observation that one can make about Tarantino’s films is that he often incorporates a number of references, many of which refer to cinema, specific films, or pop culture. His films are laced with this intertextuality were the relationship between texts (or films) is constantly being redefined. This method of pastiche is one way that he draws attention to the fact that his film is a constructed piece of fiction, or a “simulation.”
His rational behind this is heavily influenced by French theorist Jean Baudrillard’s notion of “hyperreality.” Hyperreality in this case refers to the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy, as the two become blurred into one. Baudrillard argues that...
His rational behind this is heavily influenced by French theorist Jean Baudrillard’s notion of “hyperreality.” Hyperreality in this case refers to the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy, as the two become blurred into one. Baudrillard argues that...
- 6/26/2010
- by Kristen Coates
- The Film Stage
Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian in Douglas Sirk’s La Habanera La Habanera Review: Part I And this is where I got critical of the story. We see no slow deterioration of their marriage and we have nothing on which to base her change of heart. In the earlier sequence she thought her new life was "heaven", now she calls it "hell." Just exactly why, we don’t know. What we do see is that her son has become her surrogate husband. In fact, they have a relationship that borders on the incestuous; always kissing and fondling each other. The other mystery is that her son comes down with a fever, but it apparently has nothing to do with the island sickness that is a [...]...
- 5/12/2010
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
La Habanera (1937) Direction: Detlef Sierck (aka Douglas Sirk) Screenplay: Gerhard Menzel Cast: Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian, Karl Martell, Julia Serda, Boris Alekin, Michael Schulz-Dornburg Zarah Leander La Habanera First, I have to state that I watched Douglas Sirk’s La Habanera, not knowing what to expect. All I knew was the brief synopsis on the DVD box. I also knew that Sirk was a director of such lush 1950s Technicolor soapers as Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, and Written on the Wind. None of which would ever appear on my "favorites" list. But La Habanera was produced in Germany in 1937 in black and white, and starred an actress I had heard about — Zarah Leander — but had never seen before, so [...]...
- 5/12/2010
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.