Shanghai Express

tidal waif

Surely iconic, Shanghai Express is to be watched in a psychotropic mood of fascination or terminal, bridge-burning melancholy. Formal, uncommitted, an-intense, non-seducing, transported beyond critical negativity (its human interactions are either arthritic like society games of manners or wearing their hearts on starched sleeves) & positive feedback, it is a piece of film DNA & early example of hyperrealism that may

Lights in the Dusk

Viewed through the prism of von Trier's Europa, which took influence from it, the train becomes a microcosm; its characters as political representations. Both films treat historical conflict as psychological conditions; their respective destinations less geographical realities than a state of mind. Both films are coded, stylised & have a dreamlike feeling of characters sleepwalking through another person's existence.

Bilouaustria

Is it a remarkable script ? Probably not. But nobody filmed a woman like Josef von Sternberg used to capture Dietrich on film. Of course Lee Garmes (cinematography for Hawks, Hitchcock, Ophüls and Ray) is to be thanked a thousand times for the sublime light. The scene where she prays is to be engraved in your mind for a long time. The rest, the story in itself reminded me of Maupassant's short story "Boule de suif".

Jason

The combination of two actresses of blazing potency, bits of smart (and smarting) dialogue from Furthman's script, the photography (which we must attribute to both Lee Garmes and von Sternberg), radical cutting, and of course the busy mise-en-scène, mean that SHANGHAI EXPRESS found me w/ my jaw regularly gaping. You wouldn't think it possible, but von Sternberg takes his peerless work w/ light to a whole new level.

Duncan Gray

After an underwhelming run of catching up on this year's Oscar contenders, it was refreshing to revisit a classic of pre-Code Hollywood weirdness. Don't go into a Sternberg movie expecting an airtight tale of intrigue. His method is more to drop a woman like Marlene Dietrich—not to mention Anna May Wong—into the middle of a flimsy plot whose action is ostensibly driven by (much less interesting) men. A wet nightmare.

Black Irish

After having rewatched this last night, all I can think is: There was Hollywood and then there was von Sternberg.

Roscoe

Grand decadent fun -- kick back and enjoy some of the most beautiful black and white cinematography you'll ever see.

Ethan

Marlene Dietrich gives an alluring performance in this gem of a film from the early 30s that would set the tone for films like Stagecoach and The Lady Vanishes. This film has an otherwordly feel that only the Europeans in Hollywood could capture.