VARIETY with Emil Jannings
RP Faiola
I'm wondering what the preservation status of the picture is. I just got a
16mm print of the "Variety" episode of HISTORY OF THE MOTION PICTURE and was
VERY impressed. I'd love to see the complete feature.
Max Nineteennineteen
I bought the Grapevine tape of the version available in the US, which
runs about 55 minutes. Story seems complete enough, quality is good
enough to show you what a great version would look like.
Apparently a restoration was done some time back to the 80-ish minute
running time which is supposed to look so fine, but for whatever
reasons it's never made video or to my knowledge even toured around.
This certainly seems like one of the top remaining German silents in
terms of name recognition, not to mention the number of movies which
have been made which were directly inspired by it in some fashion
(Ford's Flesh, Bergman's Sawdust and Tinsel, Allen's Shadows and Fog,
etc.) so one can hope....
Foto28
>running time which is supposed to look so fine, but for whatever
>reasons it's never made video or to my knowledge even toured around.
>This certainly seems like one of the top remaining German silents in
>terms of name recognition
I've wondered about this too. It would seem to fit into Kino's terrific output
from the German archives. Jessica, any thoughts on this?
===============
Danny Burk
www.dannyburk.com - fine art photography, drum scanning, and instructional
workshops
If you wish to email me, make an obvious correction to the address posted
above.
Henry Nicolella
> running time which is supposed to look so fine, but for whatever
> reasons it's never made video or to my knowledge even toured around.
> This certainly seems like one of the top remaining German silents in
> terms of name recognition, not to mention the number of movies which
> have been made which were directly inspired by it in some fashion
> (Ford's Flesh, Bergman's Sawdust and Tinsel, Allen's Shadows and Fog,
> etc.) so one can hope....
The restored version played on German tv some years back and ran
about 100 minutes. Very nice quality though the music track left much
to be desired.. A dvd version of this wonderful film would be great..
Henry Nicolella
Ben Model
> >Apparently a restoration was done some time back to the 80-ish minute
> >running time which is supposed to look so fine, but for whatever
> >reasons it's never made video or to my knowledge even toured around.
> >This certainly seems like one of the top remaining German silents in
> >terms of name recognition
This would be worthwhile, as the 6-reel edition usually shown is the
version released in the USA by Paramount who, I remember reading
somewhere, changed the story and who the characters were by re-writing
some of the intertitles. It's a powerful film...I remember the
audience gasping during the trapeze scene last time I played for this
film at MoMA.
Ben
Eric Stott
Ben Model wrote:
Paramount cut a lengthy flashback, and altered an important plot point. In the cut version, Jannings' wife
cheats on him. In the full version he leaves his wife to go with her, and THEN she cheats on him. Aside
from this major sop to moralizing, period reviews, and some present day opinions, say that the cut version
is an improvement in that it moves much faster. (it seems a lot of reaction shots were cut)
Stott
ChaneyFan
running time which is supposed to look so fine, but for whatever
reasons it's never made video or to my knowledge even toured around.
I seem to recall that Rohauer had the 80-min version, so Tim might want to
comment on whether this is something Douris has either material or rights on.
If so, this would at least be a good Cinecon or Cinefest title.
===============================
Jon Mirsalis
e-mail: Chan...@aol.com
Lon Chaney Home Page: http://members.aol.com/ChaneyFan
Jon's Film Sites: http://members.aol.com/ChaneyFan/jonfilm.htm
DourisOh
We had rights through Transit up until '96 or so. I know Kino had acquired
certain rights to many of the German titles we previously had, so maybe Jessica
has a word on this. As to material, we have 16MM prints, but they run 55
minutes.
Best,
Tim
Max Nineteennineteen
out there, what I initially referred to as "the 80 minute version" and
what was subsequently said to be around 100 minutes are the same
thing. My recollection was that it was about a third again as long as
the common 55-minute or so US version, but apparently it's closer to
double.