1.) I have graduated from college and am currently living at home and trying (with minimal success) to find a job.
2.) While I had originally intended my next post to be a movie from the 1960s, I ended up not wanting to post until I saw this movie which happened to be another German film starring Emil Jannings. Oops.
So before I started breaking down the movie, I wanted to give a little lesson in types of live entertainment of the early 20th century since the different genres seem to get mashed together quite a bit in peoples' minds. This movie is about a cabaret. How is that different from vaudeville or burlesque? Let me explain.
Vaudeville was a type of theater performance popular from the 1880s to the 1930s. It consists of many unrelated acts that could feature comedians, dancers, singers, actors, animal trainers, short plays, magicians, etc. Think along the lines of the Marx Brothers in terms of comedy, some scenes from "Singing in the Rain" [1952], or the first half of "Gypsy" [1960] when they are trying to make it as a vaudeville trope. Vaudeville was generally wholesome entertainment for the whole family.
A subsection of vaudeville, there's also Minstrel Shows in which people performed songs or skits in black face. Yep. We look at it now as insanely offensive but that was once comedy. The best example of a minstrel show can be seen in the movie "The Jazz Singer" [1927] in which it is employed as a symbol of isolation from one's own culture.
Burlesque was a form popular from the 1860s to the 1940s that also feature a lot of different routines but was more focused on satirizing high society. Burlesque was generally more about risque humor from the male comedians and female dance routines that were more revealing and well, adult. The striptease of burlesque (yeah, with the pasties and such) was what they had before strippers. Obviously, burlesque is still around in some sense with people like Dita Von Tesse and nerd burlesque troops but it's pretty much just straight up striptease without any of the other stuff. For reference on this watch "Gypsy" [1962], not "Burlesque" [2010]. That movie is terrible.
Cabaret was popular from the 1880s to the 1950s or so (see, they're all around the same time period). Cabaret features a small stage inside a place that has tables for the patrons instead of the theater format of vaudeville and sometimes burlesque. The word cabaret itself refers both to the type of venue and the time of performance (burlesque is sometimes performed in a cabaret but the performance is not cabaret). Cabaret also features dancers, singers, comedians, magicians, and the like but with an edge like burlesque. However, cabaret, while still being adult entertainment, didn't really have the striptease aspect of burlesque although girls wearing essentially underwear and a tank top onstage was pretty much the common uniform. For a movie reference watch "Cabaret" [1973] (duh, and it's one of my favorite musicals and movies) or this movie I'm going to talk about, Josef von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel" [1930].
While cabarets and vaudeville are pretty much gone (with the slight exception of modern musicians who evoke the time periods of the 20s and 30s in their music and performance) and burlesque is pretty much just striptease (which still holds more dignity than stripping in a club) there is another form that seemed to be evoked in this movie that is still around today but is not technically performance.
Hostess Bars. Not many people have heard of them since they are only present in Japan and East Asian countries nowadays but they have existed for a long time in different forms since they are actually derived from cabarets. The hostess bar is a bar that employs women who are pretty, good conversationalists, and comfortable with raunchy conversation with men who essentially keep guys who come to the bar company and encourage them to buy drinks for themselves and the girls in order to make the bar more money. Hostesses can also go on paid dates and are sometimes expected to in order to encourage clients to come back. Whether or not sex happens is up to the hostess so it kind of teeters the prostitution line without technically being prostitution.
(If anyone knows where this picture comes from, you get a prize.)
I instantly thought of these bars when I watched this movie because it seems that in addition to performing, girls in cabarets were also doing the duties of hostesses in hostess bars. This could explain the whole backbone of the relationship in this movie between Prof. Rath and Lola.
Anyway, now that you have hopefully learned something, on with the show!
Here we have our main character Prof. Rath (Emil Jannings) enjoying his morning tea in his lonely apartment save for a bunch of books because as we all know, a house full of books means the person is smart. Aside from his books he has only a grumpy stereotypical German maid and a cannery that when revealed to be dead, the maid throws heartlessly into the furnace. Symbolism. Also, what a bitch.
Here we see the boys that
Porn. Obviously.
I don't know why they seem to genuinely enjoying having to work for their panty shot though when I'm sure effortless pornographic materials are available and being that they are in high school have probably seen a naked women before in some context but whatever.
Also, there's now an iPhone app exactly like this. You blow on the screen and the girl's skirt flies up. And yes, it was made in Japan. How did you know?
Clearly a man with a handkerchief that big means business. And will be annoying as hell to sit near in a movie theater.
Here we have the class whipping boy. Don't worry. Feeling the urge to laugh at him in totally natural.
Prof. Rath is an English teacher. This fact makes this movie mostly in English but with plenty of German scattered about because it does take place in Germany. I could not find good subtitles but I managed.
He is also part of the faculty at every university that is hired solely to act like the condescending, holier-than-thou genius teacher whose students are little worms under his expensive shoes.
Prof. Rath finds the picture and confiscates it. Make of that what you will because you will probably be right.
After the class whipping boy is tripped in front of Rath, more pictures of the same girl, Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich), fall out of whipping boy's bag and the professor asks to see him in his office.
The whipping boy says that the pictures were planted in his bag (sure) by the other boys who make fun of him for not visiting a cabaret called The Blue Angel where Lola Lola performs.
After inspecting the photos for purely scientific, scholarly reasons, Rath decides he is going to confront this Lola Lola about the frenzy she is causing in his classroom.
Welcome to the classiest cabaret in Germany!
REAL painted backdrops! SPARKLY costumes! A BAND! This place has EVERYTHING!
Apparently she just lets the boys from the school chill in her dressing room.
What is that dude on the left doing? Smoking a joint?
Rath smugly goes into the cabaret and scoffs at the commoners. Until the spotlight falls on him . . .
Oh, silly Lola! Picking on the one person who seems to not be having fun.
While she was doing this, she was singing a song about how she wants to find a regular man. Congrats? You did it.
Rath confronts her in her dressing room about her scandalous ways.
Lola is amused and dismissive of your judgment.
She says he can hang out in her dressing room if he wants. Then she drops her underwear on him. I can't decide if this is badass or slutty but either way, it's pretty darn funny.
Here we have Kiepert, the magician. I think he's in charge. Or he thinks he's in charge and everyone else just goes with it.
The class whipping boy gets spanked at night. Anyone else see homoerotic subtext here?
But in spite of their secret gay crushes on the class wimp, they still like to hang with Lola and bro out.
"I'm in love with you!"
"Nonsense!"
See, she totally knows.
*insert German stereotype joke here; something about beer and plump women*
Also, this woman (who I think is the magician's wife) is scolded after this scene for not getting enough of the patrons drinking. See: Hostess Bar above.
The next day Rath goes back to The Blue Angel under the guise of returning Lola's underwear that his students had slipped into his pocket.
Lola knows better, of course.
All things considered, you might be wondering why she is indulging the lonely old professor in his little crush. . .
It might be because her other suitors look like this.
Look at the fabulous hair on cigar boy over there. How could you resist that?
OMG, tubby, old man brawl!
Remember kids, jealousy can lead to light shoving.
And bitch-slapping magicians.
The police get involved for like, a second.
On Earth Hell can be like this-
The cooks are British
The police are German
The mechanics are French
The lovers are Swiss
And the bankers are Italian
Figured I get a bunch of stereotyping jokes into one.
Lola, a clown, and beerstein lady all comfort Rath after the traumatic shoving incident.
Then Marlene Dietrich performs "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)". Go give it a listen.
Rath, totally sure she is singing the song for him, smiles down at her from the balcony while the magician chuckles and rolls his eyes.
Do you know how awkward it is to wake up with someone else's stuffed animal in your bed? I once woke up with my apartment-mate's Roy Mustang plushie and I really didn't have a legitimate explanation. I think he crawled in there himself like the slutty plushie he is. He apparently creeps on her roommate all the time too.
If you couldn't tell by my side-tracking, Rath got laid.
If I was a teacher and I walked into my classroom and found something like this, I'd be less offended and more impressed. I'd probably be like, "Who's the amazing caricaturist? You have some talent. Now get the hell to the principal's office."
This totally doesn't look like a gang rape waiting to happen. Disturbing.
After making him breakfast, Lola kisses him goodbye and sends him off to work. Least awkward one-night stand ever.
The insanity that ensues from his tardiness, the pictures, and the boys shouting brings the principal in who is UNAMUSED and fires Rath on the spot. This must be a pretty fancy school to get up in arms over something so minor. My high school teachers used to get black out drunk at a bar my aunt tended and throw up all over the parking lot. Yay, public school!
Rath sits symbolically in his empty classroom and considers his next move.
Visit your one night stand with flowers! Obviously this is the best course of action.
And a marriage proposal. This can't end well . . .
Love Tip, Boys: If you ask a girl to marry you and she responds with wild laughter, you should probably just retract the proposal. Unless you proposed in a really silly way, like by streaking or something.
Wait. What the hell? She said "yes"? Well, that was improbable.
Shortly afterward, Rath has become a clown in the cabaret and Lola's clothes have gotten significantly less fabulous. It's like that scene towards the end of "Blow" [2001] where a once hot and sexy Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz are talking on her lawn in windbreaker tracksuits and he needs a haircut and she has a bad dye job. It's just sad.
Magician informs them that after four years have passed the troop is returning to The Blue Angel. Rath doesn't want to go and be humiliated by the people he once knew by revealing how far he has fallen.
Immediately after coming back to The Blue Angel, Lola is aggressively hit on by Mazeppa, the strongman.
Is the Bad Omen neon sign bright enough for you now?
Lola performs a song about how blonde women should be avoided.
Let the karma begin!
Like I said, Mazeppa is aggressive. Rath happened to look behind the curtain and see this. In truth, she was trying to push him away while she was sadly watching her husband being made a fool of but that sure isn't what this looks like.
Love Tip #2: Strangle first, ask questions later should not be your policy on cheating, even if your girl works in show business. Even if she really kissed another guy, you tried to kill her so you still lose.
After the cabaret folk tied him up for a bit, he snuck out.
And got to witness Lola performing "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" again. Is she singing now about the strongman or is she singing in reflection of her marrying Rath? Probably the latter.
Rath sneaks into the school he worked at and dies in his old desk symbolically.
The morale of this story?
Karma is a harsh mistress?
Don't date out of your age range?
Obsession does not equal love?
If you're with someone who sells themselves as a sex object, you have no right to jealousy?
All of the above!
In summation, I quite enjoyed this movie. Dietrich is so much fun to watch and Jannings is always a reliably good actor. Although you could say this movie is a downer, I think the fact that it is obviously doomed to fail from the beginning really mitigates the effect of the conclusion in a positive, not negative way.
All in all, I seriously wish cabarets still existed.
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