Varieté (1925)

An audacious revenge melodrama set under the canvas of the big top, starring Emil Jannings... A key work of German silent cinema and an international smash on its release, E. A. Dupont's Varieté (Variety) is an audacious revenge melodrama set under the canvas of the big top. When Boss Huller (the iconic Emil Jannings) meets the young émigré Berta-Marie (Lya De Putti), it kindles his desire to relaunch his career as a trapeze artist, stalled due to an injury and the pressures of domestic life. But with passion comes obsession, and with the involvement of the famed Artinelli into their act, tensions rise to a fever pitch. Visually astonishing, with some of the most inventive camerawork of the 1920s, and a typically intense and vivid central performance from Jannings, Varieté is presented here in an all-new restoration of the original German version. Featuring two scores: one by Stephen Horne (as performed at the London Film Festival 2015, and one by the Tiger Lilies (as performed at Berlinale 2015).