Recensioni degli utenti

In those years when the cinema had no voice it was truly an international medium. Stories from other lands could be brought to the screen by the movie industry of another country. One of Greta Garbo's sound films for MGM had her playing an English lady. And here Emil Jannings whose inability to speak the King's English and forced him to return to Germany plays that most English of monarchs Henry VIII. In this Jannings joined a great pantheon of English speaking players like Charles Laughton, Montagu Love, Charlton Heston, and Robert Shaw who all played the monarch who changed wives like some change underwear.

Jannings is an impressive looking and acting Henry VIII. A man whose pleasures mingled with his impassioned search for a woman to bear him a male heir and the politics of Europe. Henny Polen whose career spanned five decades in the German cinema plays the luckless Anne.

By the way another reviewer thought her not sexy enough to leave a king panting. In fact director Ernst Lubitsch must have seen Tudor era portraits of Anne because Polen look a lot like Boleyn.

The Lubitsch touch which everyone talks about in his talkie Hollywood films is not here as such. But Lubitsch was quite detailed in his sets and costumes in what must have cost many marks in post war Germany. They look very much Tudor England and compare them with those of Warner Brothers The Prince And The Pauper where Montagu Love was Henry VIII.

This is worth a look.

This movie earns a 7--because, for its time, it was a heck of a movie. The sets and costumes (mostly which were from the proper period--though some, to the trained eye, were not) are quite impressive. It's obvious that director Ernst Lubitsch was given a huge budget to create this film--and it's better looking than the Hollywood productions of the same period. In fact, today few would realize that the some of the most incredibly complex and expensive productions of this time were German--not American. It was only in the mid to late 1920s that the American films became the best-known and best made. You just can't find a film from 1920 or so that looks better.

Unfortunately, looks alone do NOT make a great film. For someone who wants the truth behind the second marriage of Henry VIII, this is NOT a great film--as many of the facts were clearly wrong. Despite what the movie shows, Anne was Henry's mistress for some time before he got around to marrying her AND the process by which the English separated from the authority of the Pope was NOT the quick process you see in the film--it took years. As a history teacher, this film isn't terrible historically--but it still should have been a lot better. And, if you are going to play fast and loose with the facts, then why not at least make the film more interesting? Overall, the film lumbers during its two hour air time and more recent films (NOT "The Other Bolyne Girl"--which was also a mess historically-speaking) such as "Anne of the Thousand Days" and "The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth" are more accurate and interesting.

Decent but far from as good as it could have been its sumptuous treatment. Plus, while a Lubitsch film, there's little trace of his famed "Lubitsch touch" here in this pretty but rather dull film.

Continuing with the exclusive film programme about complicated relationships in some European courts, last night in the Schloss theatre was shown "Anna Boleyn", a film directed by the great Teutonic film director Herr Ernst Lubitsch. The film depicts the terrible story of the Queen consort of the British King Henry VIII. She was executed by her husband ( well, not exactly, the King ordered the executioners to do his dirty work) not to mention that this marriage caused an important political and religious historical event, the English Reformation.

The film stars Dame Henny Porten, Germany's first screen superstar during those early years and Herr Emil Jannings, Germany's fattest actor in that silent era. Both play their characters in a suitable way; Dame Porten as an innocent aristocrat who becomes progressively interested in the power that the court offers her and Herr Jannings as the unscrupulous, whimsical and womanizing British monarch, a character very suitable for this German actor who overacts appropriately, given the extravagance and excessive personality of the character himself.

In the early film period Herr Lubitsch was known for his outstanding costume films, colossal productions with big budgets ( "Anna Boleyn" cost about 8 million marks, a fortune even for this German count ) taking great care in magnificent decors as can be seen during the coronation procession in Westminster Abbey scene which employed 4.000 extras ( idle Germans of that time were used, causing revolutionary workers to create a fuss when German President Friedrich Ebert visited the set during filming).

Besides the spectacle, one of the most important aspect of this and every film of Herr Lubitsch, even during his epic period, is the complex relationship between the main characters. We experience a game of different interests, double meanings, and the complicated art of flirting but what is treated lightly at first ends in tragedy. The importance of those historical facts is brought to bear in an effective way but Lubitsch is really more interested in the changing relationship between Henry VIII and Anna Boleyn.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must take care that one of his fat and rich heiress doesn't lose her head for this Teutonic aristocrat.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

Considering this movie is now 104 years old my first thought while watching it was that it's held up well, and whatever work of restoration/preservation was done to it was done very well because it's a very impressive looking movie. I also thought that both technically and based on the performances from its cast it's actually a better movie than most of what the early Hollywood silent film industry was putting out. This is a German production, telling the story of Anne Boleyn, beginning with her return to England from France through to her execution (although the beheading isn't actually depicted - she's just shown walking from her cell towards her fate.) Anne was played by a German actress named Henny Porten - unknown to me, but who had quite a long career, extending far beyond the end of World War II. Porten was quite effective in the role, but the movie really was stolen by Emil Jannings' performance as King Henry VIII. I'm familiar with Jannings as a name although a quick look at his filmography doesn't reveal anything I would have seen him in. But I thought his performance as Henry was very good. He portrayed Henry - not inaccurately - as a glutton and a lech who was also desperate for a male heir. The film takes us from his marriage to Catharine of Aragon to his budding marriage to Jane Seymour, following Anne (as the title implies) from being the "other woman" in Henry's first marriage to being supplanted by another "other woman."

The movie was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, who had already had a long career in the German film industry and who not long after "Anna Boleyn" made the move to the United States, where he became a very successful director. His abilities as a director are on display here.

I found it interesting that the German movie industry would produce such an "English" movie. I'm just speculating but I wonder if its release not very long after the end of World War I was almost a poke at the English, by offering this story (a very historically loose version, mind you) centering around the excesses of England's most notorious king - a king who long pre-dated the coming of the Hanovers as England's German royal dynasty.

1920's 'Anna Boleyn' was hardly one of those films doomed from the get go or anything. Ernst Lubitsch was a great director, whose best work in the 30s and 40s in principally comedy and romantic comedy is truly fantastic. Also think very highly of Emil Jannings, a silent film great and a regular of FW Murnau primarily. Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were two of the most interesting historical figures and monarchs, Anne Boleyn is the most well known of his six wives and it's no wonder.

So actually there was a good deal that 'Anna Boleyn' had going for it. My conclusions after seeing it fairly recently was that it was pretty decent with a lot of things working in its favour, it is an interesting film and worth seeing if you want to see Lubitsch early on in his career when he was doing silent films. Yet considering the director and subject, 'Anna Boleyn' also could have been better and there are far better representations of Lubitsch overall and even during this period.

Will start with the not so good things about 'Anna Boleyn'. The pace can be erratic, a lot of things are covered and the handling of all the events covered read of depict this event, do a little with it but not deeply enough and then suddenly go onto the next event in a jumpy way, which made some of the storytelling choppy.

It is slightly bland at times, the sophistication is there but that is pretty much it when it comes to how Lubitsch's style comes across here. This was at a point where he was still properly finding his style and his strengths and experimenting instead, and while his direction is actually pretty good there's not an awful lot that's distinct.

'Anna Boleyn' has a good deal of great things though. It looks mighty impressive, even now, with very lavish costumes and sets. Captured intimately, while keeping it simple, and fluidly on camera. Lubitsch's direction may not be distinct yet but it's hardly indifferent or ill at ease and handles the big moments quite well. Although Henny Porten is agreed too old for the title role, she is still regal and affecting and doesn't make Anne stock or a caricature (even if she does overdo it at times). Jannings is suitably imposing, one watches him in awe and fear portraying this fascinating yet difficult monarch.

They work beautifully together in regard to their chemistry. The acting didn't seem too histrionic or static and interaction seemed natural. The story is far from perfect by any stretch, but it compels enough and kept me entertained and moved enough. It's played straight which is appropriate for the subject. The outcome is not in doubt for anybody that knows anything about Anne Boleyn, but that doesn't stop the final moments leaving me misty-eyed. The music could have had more breathing space but did appreciate that it didn't go over the top in instrumentation or mood.

Overall, not great but worth a look for anybody interested in seeing early Lubitsch. 6.5/10

Silent historical drama based on the story of Anne Boleyn, newly arrived lady-in-waiting to the Queen who catches the lustful eye of Henry VIII, bad-tempered King of England who loves to feast, drink, hunt, be entertained by his court jester, watch jousts, and chase around after young beauties who jump out of cakes and assorted attractive females around the castle. Well, he's soon annulled his marriage, married Anne, and telling her it is her holy duty to produce a male heir. She fails on that score and he soon has his eye on yet another lady-in-waiting. Meanwhile, Anne spends pretty much the entire film looking hesitant, perturbed, or downright ready to burst into tears. She just doesn't come across as a happy camper (or is it just bad acting?!).

This film is a solid piece of entertainment, with an absorbing story that held my interest for two hours - plus I enjoyed seeing the very lavish medieval costuming featured here on a gorgeous sepia tinted print. Emil Jannings is quite striking and memorable in his well-done portrayal of King Henry the Eighth - he really seemed like he WAS Henry the Eighth. I am not so sure about the performance given by the actress who plays Anne, seemed a bit over the top. The DVD of this film features an appropriate, nicely done piano score that perfectly suits this story. Quite a good film.

The story is hard to follow unless you are quite familiar with the history of Henry VIII's reign. The picture seems more interested in spectacle than story telling. Wonderful costumes.

I wasn't impressed with Jannings. His Henry was mostly interested in eating, drinking, hunting and women.

This is a strange piece: a tale of late-medieval English history, made at a German studio, entirely produced and acted by Germans (plus one Swiss and one Norwegian). While we in the UK are quite used to Hollywood rewriting our history for us (Braveheart etc.) we don't expect it so much from our fellow Europeans. But back in the early 1920s the UFA studio in Berlin really was the Hollywood of Europe, and for a few years they had the cinematic prowess to tell whatever stories they liked.

The director here is Ernst Lubitsch, who later became well-known in the US for his sophisticated comedies, and back then he was primarily a comedy director too. Anna Boleyn sees him turning his many comical tricks to more dramatic effect. A favourite comedy technique of his was the pull-back-and-reveal, as used for example in the opening shot of The Oyster Princess (1919) to show the bloated Oyster King surrounded by his lackeys. That shot is duplicated here with the introduction to Henry VIII, the look slightly more realistic but just as revelatory of the character. And although Lubitsch's pictures are in a very different category to those of his fellow UFA luminaries Fritz Lang and FW Murnau, he shares with those directors a fascination with décor and architecture. He constantly composes shots in depth, looking down corridors or through into larger rooms, from the early moments at the harbour where a set of doors are opened onto a bustling street, to the haunting final view of the scaffold. This was a common way of emphasising a large space before the days of widescreen, but it also gives the whole thing a sense of dread and inevitability, as characters advance upon us from the distance or spy on each other into a room beyond.

Lubitsch also reveals himself to be a master of pacing within a sequence. For example after a handful of busy shots at the spring festival the scene, everything becomes slow, simple and a shade darker as Anna encounters Norris on the outskirts of the merrymaking. Throughout the picture the director encourages steady, measured performances, making some scenes move at a glacial pace but endowing them with atmosphere and fascinating detail, such as the eerie depiction of Anna and Henry's wedding night. Playing the king, the talented Emil Jannings is uncharacteristically restrained, giving us a menacing, moody king very different to Charles Laughton's flamboyant 1933 portrayal. Henny Porten is not quite as good in the title role, her performance consisting mostly of looking extremely disturbed. However she is able to make a good account of herself in the final few minutes, when it really matters. An honourable mention must also go to Paul Biensfeldt as the jester, who makes the most of his close-ups and gives us a sincere and dignified portrayal of this deceptively simple character.

Anna Boleyn is all in all a rather stunning feature, and actually somewhat better than most of the historical dramas coming out of Hollywood at the time. It seems that, during this crucial period when the full-length motion picture was beginning to grow up and things like screen acting and set design were becoming serious professions, the Germans had the edge with their strong theatrical, operatic and artistic traditions, upon which their cinematic industry was built. Lubitsch, Jannings, and almost every other member of the crew and cast had a background on the stage, as oppose to the technicians and entrepreneurs who were running Hollywood. In Germany they knew very well how to tell stories visually, how to merge production design and performance into a complete form of expression, and they had a large pool of people with the necessary experience. The supremacy of UFA would continue until the Americans gained the technological edge in the late 20s (not to mention poaching much of Germany's creative talent), but during this short period it was the most competent movie-making factory in the world. Anna Boleyn is not even the finest output of its time and place, and yet is still made with that powerful blend of storytelling knowledge and cinematic inventiveness, and is a drama of considerable stature and elegance.

The Tudors come across as an unattractive bunch of schemers in this lavishly costumed but otherwise empty pageant played out in Germanic-looking settings in which the Lubitsch touch is little in evidence. Top-billed Henny Porten is too old and plain for the title role, while Emil Jannings makes King Henry a cold-eyed sexual predator.

Nothing dull about this movie, which is held together by fully realized characters with some depth to them. Even the hooded torturers have body language. Jannings' performance is brilliant, all will, want and need. A Henry VIII as he must have been. Henny Porten is, maybe, nobler and purer than Anne Boleyn, but she plays the part as written: A victim caught in the jaws of a big (huge) baby.

Sparkuhl's cinematography is gorgeous in the restoration, the tints sensuous. Lubitsch lets these characters breathe and reveal their corruption down to the tiniest of meannesses. He takes his time, which can try the patience of an audience accustomed to being carried away by action, but the time is worth spending. Slow your heartbeat and watch this minor miracle of German silent film.

Am I the only one who thinks it's kind of weird that none of the intertitles re-Anglicize the names of Anne and Mary, leaving them as Anna and Marie, in this German rendition of the story of Anne Boleyn? It's just kind of weird. Anyway, Ernst Lubitsch continued his silent, historical epics with this tale of Henry VIII's second wife, from her return from France to her execution, and it's the same kind of handsome but distant affair his other films of this vein like Madame DuBarry and Sumurun had been. It's also another tale of a less powerful woman getting caught up in the passions of a more powerful man which had happened not only in his other historical epics, but also his smaller, quirkier affairs like The Doll. So, it fits the overall thematic focus of this early part of Lubitsch's career, but the famous Lubitsch touch is still distant, underdeveloped, and pushed aside for melodramatics that don't quite connect.

Anna Boleyn (Henny Porten) returns to England from France and meets her beau, Sir Henry Norris (Paul Hartmann) at the docks, pleased to be home and returns to the house of her father, the Duke of Norfolk (Ludwig Hartau) (no, Boleyn's real father wasn't a Duke, much less the Duke of Norfolk, but whatever). All seems well prepared for Anna to lead a nice little life on the edges of the English court. However, of course, all is not well in the kingdom since Henry VIII (Emil Jannings) only has a daughter, Princess Marie (Hilde Muller) from his wife Queen Catherine (Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein), and no male heir. He's also something of a womanizer and is happy to play around with servant girls out in the open.

One of the most interesting little additions to this well-known story (an addition that disappears at about the halfway point, unfortunately) is the role of a jester (Paul Biensfeldt) who openly chastises Henry for his infidelities, receives a beating, but keeps on acting as Henry's conscience. I was really hoping to see the jester play a larger role, especially later in the film when Henry grows tired of Anna in favor of her lady in waiting, Jane Seymour (Aud Egede-Nissen), but by Henry's wedding with Anna, he's gone. He does have a very good early moment when Henry brings Anna into a large bush removed from the garden and tennis party for the court where Henry tries to seduce Anna, but the jester interrupts it. There's a moment of recognition that what Henry is doing is wrong, and it provided a nice subtext to what was happening. However, le sigh, it was not to last. The jester simply disappears from the story. If Henry had had the jester killed, that might have been interesting, though.

Anna is one of the main problems in the story. She's massively passive. When she gets home from France, she's happy to accept the affections of her beau, Sir Henry Norris. When the king gains her attention, she just accepts it without much in the way of fervor or enthusiasm, but she accepts it. I mean, if the King of England wants a girl, is the girl going to wildly object? I wouldn't expect that, but she never says anything to anyone. Instead, she stands around moping a lot, and the effort seems to be to make her into a completely innocent waif. This not only strikes me as wrong historically (again, this is a movie that makes Anne Boleyn's father the Duke of Norfolk), but it makes her a really uninteresting character to anchor a whole film around. In fact, she's so massively passive that she gets pushed aside in the later parts of the narrative because she has so little to do. It's not like she has a lot to do early either, though. She mostly stands around while Henry lusts after her.

Another issue with the film is that it's another tale of intricate plotting, politics, and a lot of named characters that the silent medium can't support all that well. I didn't like Sumurun very much, but I was kind of amazed at how few intertitles there were, helped in no small part, I'm sure, by how the film really didn't rely on real world political figures to drive small points of plot forward. It was all historical melodrama. This, however, returns to the form of Madame DuBarry where we have to see the historical details to get to the next story beat, and the film suffers for it. It's made the worse here because Anna is passive where the titular character in the early film actually was kind of interesting to watch as she climbed the French social ladder. Making Anna completely innocent robs her of any agency in her rise to power.

By the end, as Henry is trying to justify another separation from another wife, Anna gets a few moments to seem active, but they're really only moments. At the trial for her supposed infidelities, the singer Marc Smeaton (Ferdinand von Alten) gets brought forward to assert an illicit relationship, and Anna stands up and protests her innocence. It's a nice change of pace from her moping around while the King of England lusts after her, dotes on her, and then dumps her for a younger model.

There is an interesting idea that gets played up briefly late where Anna is confronted with the fact that she's the new Catherine and Jane Seymour is the new Anna, that she's caught in a repeating cycle. However, because Anna was so passive in the participation of that cycle, it's little more than a realization of irony than a moral lesson for her. It's sort of interesting, but it just doesn't carry much weight.

Having said all of that, there is some stuff to enjoy. Henny Porten's performance as Anna may be one note (I think I'd blame direction and the writing mostly for this), however Emil Jannings is quite a sight as Henry VIII. He's energetic, animated, and passionate. The rest of the cast is pretty good, holding their own while surrounded by some great sets and decked out in intricate costumes. There are some large scale sequences, mostly around the wedding, and they're good spectacle.

It's a middling film, right in line with these other historical, melodramatic epics that Lubitsch was directing late in her German career. They must have been successful financially, and it's reported that it was one of Mary Pickford's favorite films (probably the reason she decided to work with Lubitsch to begin with and bring him over to America to direct Rosita), but the central character being so uninteresting drags it down a lot while losing itself in historical detail and forgetting the emotional journey (how silents worked best) keeps it from rising any higher.

Anna Boleyn becomes the lady in waiting for Catherine of Aragon, wife of King Henry VIII. Henry immediately puts the moves on Anna. When Catherine is unable to produce a son, Henry gets his marriage annulled and marries Anna. Then Henry puts the moves on Anna's lady in waiting, Jane Seymour. Anna produces a daughter, which does not thrill Henry. Anna is beheaded on trumped-up charges of infidelity.

This is a good-looking film, with an excellent performance by Jannings. Henny Porten is also good, particularly during the climax when her own uncle turns against her. The sets and costumes are first rate.

The film runs about two hours, but never drags. One weak spot was the jousting scene, which was a bit lame. This film is definitely worth a look.

I have always been surprised by the fact that the great German born director Ernst Lubitsch first made his reputation by a series of large scale silent costume dramas such as THE EYES OF THE MUMMY, MADAME DU BARRY (PASSION), and this film. Today he is remembered and revered for his comic touch in such talking films as NINOTCHKA and SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and that is how it should be. His epic films are gorgeous to look at with large scale sets, elaborate costumes, and hundreds of extras but nothing that D. W. Griffith hadn't done better a few years earlier.

Unfortunately the acting in most of these movies has dated badly and is so over the top that any sense of drama is quickly lost. That is especially true of ANNA BOLEYN (1920) one of four DVD releases from Kino highlighting Lubitsch in Berlin. Henny Porten as the title character is so emotionally overwrought as to be laughable which is clearly not the intention here. Emil Jannings, not exactly known as the subtlest of actors, seems positively restrained in comparison and it's clear to see where Charles Laughton got his portrayal of Henry VIII from.

It's a good thing that Lubitsch discovered comedy otherwise he would have wound up only a footnote in cinema history. For a look at where his true talent lay, check out the comic double bill THE OYSTER PRINCESS / I DON'T WANT TO BE A MAN also in this group of new releases along with THE WILDCAT. They are as funny today as they were in 1920 and point the way to the great Ernst Lubitsch of the future...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.