Variétés

Variete is a well-directed and well-acted morality play. Chock full of cynical humor and ironic twists, it keeps your attention throughout in expert fashion until the last 20 minutes of the movie. Then things unravel too quickly and too obviously to hit home with the intended impact of the final irony. Still, I give it 7 out of 10.

Wonderful cinematagraphy and cutting influenced other films of the day. The story is old, but made interesting by the acting, sets and location shooting. The trapeze act shots are well worth seeing, though vaudeville and circus fans will be unhappy that there are few other acts shown. However, a 30 or 45 second summary of the variety (vaudeville) show is clever.

The print I saw at New York's Museum of Modern Art did not have the 'prolog' either. Perhaps it was omitted when the film was released in the US.

We are privileged that technology allows us to view such films as this, that are almost 100 years old, in such clarity. The print now available on Blu-ray is stunning and even if, after the first few minutes, one becomes used to this, when the setting switches to Berlin nighttime street scenes, our jaw drops again. Vintage photographs of amazing clarity come alive as buses, taxis and crowds of people jostle as the neon shines brightly in the sky. The vaudeville scenes of the 'Codonas', standing in for our film stars, fly through the air with the greatest of ease and demonstrate their infamous 'triple somersault' with only the excited crowd below. Throughout the film there are wondrous shots of the streets, the circus, the fairground and more intimate cabaret, but also there is a tale to be told. Emil Jannings is our star, seemingly too old for the part and looking more like a builder or truck driver than a trapeze 'catcher' but he was such a popular performer back in the stage and silent film days in Germany, this slight oddity would have gone unnoticed. Even more noticeable is the beautifully strange Lay De Putti who plays the love interest here. or should I say, 'sex interest' for this is a surprisingly saucy and frank portrayal of the natural and obvious appeal of such a young and pretty and half naked dancer and trapeze artiste. Not over long, remarkably involving and most fascinating glimpse into the 'variete' scene in 20s Berlin.

The print I saw recently did not contain the "prologue" mentioned above, which I assume was lifted from the novel on which the film was based. If it had been included in some form, it would have made several things clearer: 1) where "Boss" got his nickname; 2) why he was so much older than Berta-Marie; 3) why so much older (and less in-shape) a man would still be a trapeze artist; 4) why the couple seemed so puppyishly in love at the beginning, he to the point of slavishness; and 5) why "Boss" would be so jealous when Artinelli shows attentions to Berta.

None of this is absolutely necessary to enjoy the film, however, which has beautifully detailed performances and terrific camerawork by Karl Freund. The trapeze sequences will leave you giddy. The montages of variety acts are witty and vibrant. Berlin nightlife in the '20s looks glamorous. And Jannings surely has one of the classic silent-screen actors' faces, eloquently conveying a wide spectrum of emotions.

"Variete" was a sensation when it appeared, primarily for its camerawork. At the time, director EA Dupont took most of the kudos and seemed launched on a promising career. But he was tapped out after his next flick, the estimable "Picadilly," and in retrospect, Freund is the creative force whose part in "Variete" assumes a place in a major body of film work. That being said, Dupont's work with the actors here is outstanding and a key part of the film's success.

Among silent film conneisseurs Herr Ewald André Dupont is well-known for a trilogy of films; "Varieté" (1925), "Moulin Rouge" (1928) und "Piccadilly" (1929); they all explore troubled relationships against a background of twenties popular entertainment (music-hall, cabarets, vaudeville). Of these, "Varieté" is certainly the best and Herr Dupont's masterpiece, an excellent film that maintains intact its virtues and cinematic merits after so many years, This Herr Graf revisited it recently and found that it had lost none of its power.

The love story involves Herr "Boss" Huller ( Herr Emil Jannings ) and the seductive orphan Frau Berta-Marie ( Fay Lya de Putti ) Once a famous trapeze artist, "Boss" has been reduced to managing a sordid fairground attraction together with his wife ( Frau Maly Delschaft ). He falls madly in love with Berta-Marie and seeks to start a new life with his lover, leaving his wife and child behind.

The virtuosity in the dramatic use of the camera-work together with film narrative by Herr Dupont is simply great. Through the eyes of "Boss'", Dupont skilfully compares the young and vital Berta-Marie and the faded and worn wife. Later the camera shoots from behind Huller's back to depict a desperate man utterly defeated and broken. The expressive close-ups wherein hidden feelings are made transparent are also superb as is the portrait of the people of Berlin, inhabitants of a decadent but thrilling city. The frenzied nightlife of Weimar Berlin (Wintergarten, Vaudeville Theater, fairgrounds) is vividly captured by the camera-work of Herr Karl Freund und Herr Carl Hoffmann.

The camera-work is especially impressive during the trapeze sequences wherein Herr Dupont, with the aid of optical special effects by Herr Ernst Kunstmann, employs many different camera angles to emphasize the riskiness of the trapeze act and the riskiness of the relationship between "Boss", Berta-Marie and their partner, the famous artist Herr Artinelli ( Herr Warwick Ward ) . The tension builds during the performance because we know that Herr "Boss" has discovered that Berte-Marie and Artinelli have become lovers.

The actors are splendid, specially Herr Jannings who, when properly directed , can express powerfully the most inner and divergent human feelings, Frau Lya de Putti, is no femme fatale type at all but that certainly is the point; she's attractive enough but common, someone easily charmed by a stylish man like Herr Artinelli.

"Varieté" is an exemplary work wherein all the achievements and virtuosity of German cinema of that time are on display. You have Expressionism intertwined with social comment, a fascinating portrait of the times. Dupont's wavers a bit at the end and allows a minor concession which is forgivable and by no means fatal to the film as a whole.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must refuse a splendid offer to be a fairground attraction.