Josef von Sternberg - 1932
The lighting is as before. I would like to say that the light is slowly moving from high behind to high in front of Dietrich, where there is a little truth in that. This is the first film I've seen where her eye actually catches the light at all; before they wer misty dark, here it can be in the very top. It sparkles off the soft lens and the sequins.
This film is also literally darker, using less frontlight and quite a bit of sollouhette. Not only does Marlene not have continous glamour, she does some housework, slightly surreally, but as perfectly as ever. It of course makes sense that Dietrich drinks beer. There is that masculine sense with Dietrich, not just in the male dress, but in the low voice. She is quite boyish. Also in that she is not skinny by any means.
This actually has a story. It shows Marlene being punished for trying to work, trying to help someone, as before. Added in his the comment on women being abused by society when wanting to live one way. The 'woman punished' is obviously an ideology of a patriarchal cinema, and the board of review award means we have here some hoops to be gine through. But our deep sympathy for Marlene; it's her film, we're on her side (not the oddly characterless Cary Grant, with others), so this doesn't fit neatly into Hollywood misogyny (I need to reread Mulvey).
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