The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Artwork for the 2001 Criterion Collection DVD Release

You can't really get away from her, both in character and out.

No one really flirts like Marlene Dietrich, not even Marilyn, and that makes her the perfect Catherine alongside Josef von Sternberg to advise her.

Whereas Marilyn is fun and fragile and sexy in her flirting, Dietrich manages to be sultry and sensual.  Hot enough to melt the paint, but not as much fun if you're on the toiling end of her mischievous ways.

It is this cruel and relentless, whatever the female version of womanizer is, that gives this film its best glimpses of raw and radiant energy.  Every frame has been methodically planned and executed, and it is ever so brilliant in the latter.

I first saw this film while studying film history before the Hay's code in Paris in 2005, and although I must confess that I completely forgot the context, the imagery stuck to my core.

The grotesque, but beautiful, and ever so judging Gothic statues and saints that adorn the palace.  The skeleton holding the cauldron.  The gigantic two headed griffon on the mast of the throne, it's all so lush and claustrophobic, even when nothing else occupies the frame.  It sets the Kremlin apart from Prussia in style and manner, even before a word is spoken.

This Russia is not welcoming, not to the nobles, not to it's peasants, and most definitely not to its future empress, and this is well before any of von Sternberg's tactless and brutally 'honest' inter-titles has its chance at the limelight.

In this conniving and paranoid Russia, you get the sense that the mise-en-scene is there to spy, not simply to create atmosphere.

For those, like myself and my wife, who either were not aware of the salaciousness of pre-code cinema (and I must thank the pristinely knowledgeable Katherine D'Alessandro here for her notes on the subject), The Scarlet Empress (1934) makes no qualms about it, and reminds you with a bucket of ice, how foolish you are.  There's nudity, overt mentions of infidelity and masochism, and casual mentions of lovers, swingers and otherwise.  But it's all done in style and stylized to the point of not mattering, you have other preoccupations here, and all that seems simply shallow.

The editing is spectacular.  The lighting is spot on.  The costume design is beautiful and enjoyable.  And von Sternberg's comedic timing, is spotless when needed.

In rare fashion, all its components function for a single goal.  Creating an ecstatic study in layers.  Lights and shadows.  Foreground and Background.  In focus and soft.  Soft textured materials and rough.  It is all delicious and beautiful.  Never out of place, always clamoring for your attention, never deterring it from the subject.

If you're looking for one of the most influential, and least recognizable directors, watch this film.  It has hints of Burton (he has mention von Sternberg as an influence) and hints of Marie Antoinette ().

Buy it now, if you can find a clean copy.  I watched the Criterion Collection DVD from 2001, and it was dirty and scratchy.

It is fun and sexy and smart and witty, just don't look at Dietrich to make love to you.  Pop in Marilyn for that.