alr

Angel

Screening on Film
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
With Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Melvyn Douglas.
US, 1937, 35mm, black & white, 91 min.
Print source: Universal

Despite being made in the era of the screwball comedy, Lubitsch’s adaptation of Melchior Lengyel’s play quiets the original’s laughs down to a knowing smirk. The masked reactions of Lubitsch’s polite characters caught in an uncomfortable love triangle belie more colorful pasts and passions. Within what is considered a transitional work before hitting his stride, Lubitsch begins to patiently tamper with assumptions and judgments, appearance and identity, through subtle ironies—exhibited everywhere from Marlene Dietrich’s array of enigmatic smiles to the set design. His discreet social commentary manifests by undercutting dramatic scenes of aristocrats with the comic versions already played out by servants; allowing women of both classes a certain sexual liberation; and transforming the titular object of desire into a more complex being than either man is willing to initially behold.

Part of film series

Read more

That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst Lubitsch

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

Read more

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

Read more
a double-exposed image that includes a 16th century Russian man being fed grapes by another amid decadent decor

Wings of a Serf

Read more
a close-up of a Bissau-Guinean woman wearing a scarf on her head and looking directly at the camera with a slight smile

Le Dépays + Sans soleil

Read more
Peter Sellers wearing a large hat with "ME" embroidered on it, and gripping a Pilgrim-like collar

Carol for Another Christmas

Read more

Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy