Variety (1925 film)

Variety (German: Varieté [ˌvaʀi̯eˈte], also known by the alternative titles Jealousy or Vaudeville) is a 1925 silent drama film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont based on the 1912 novel The Oath of Stephan Huller by Felix Hollaender.[1]

Variety
Directed byEwald Andre Dupont
Produced byErich Pommer
Written by
Screenwriter:
Based onThe Oath of Stephan Huller by Felix Hollaender
Starring
Cinematography
Distributed by
Release date
  • 16 November 1925 (Germany)
  • 27 June 1926 (US)
Language

In the film, Jannings portrays "Boss Huller", a former trapeze artist who was badly injured in a fall from the high wire and who now runs a seedy carnival with his wife (Maly Delschaft) and their child. Huller insists that the family take in a beautiful stranger (Lya De Putti) as a new sideshow dancer, with whom he develops a new trapeze number. He falls in love with the new star, and the story ends in tragedy.

The film was heavily censored when it was released in America (except New York), by excising the entire first reel, "thus destroying the motivation of the tragedy, implying that the acrobat was married to his Eurasian temptress."[2]

The trapeze scenes are set in the Berlin Wintergarten theatre. The camera swings from long shot to close-up, like the acrobats.[3]

The story was loosely remade by Dupont as the 1931 sound film Salto Mortale.

Cast

Influence

The German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck cites being unexpectedly exposed to the film as a child of four as the start of his interest in the medium.[4]

This film is believed to contain the first documentation of unicycle hockey – it features a short sequence showing two people playing the game.

See also

References

  1. Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek listing. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
  2. Morris Ernst and Pare Lorentz, (1930). Censored: The Private Life of the Movie, New York: Jonathan Cape. p. 12.
  3. Eric, Rhode (1985). A History of the Cinema: from its origins to 1970. New York, USA: Da Capo Press. pp. 184–185. ISBN 978-0-306-80233-1.
  4. Rohter, Larry, "German Director Plunges Beyond His Comfort Zone", The New York Times, December 8, 2010 (December 9, 2010 p. C1 NY ed.). Retrieved 2010-12-08.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.