JOSEF VON STERNBERG September 8 - October 8, 2006 Raised in Vienna and New York, Josef Sternberg adopted the “von” when he went to Hollywood in the 1920s. He made expressionistic gangster movies and melodramas before finding his onscreen alter ego in Marlene Dietrich. “I am Marlene and Marlene is me,” said Sternberg, reflecting the playful tension between director and star while evoking the issues of gender, identity, control, and submission that permeate his films. Sternberg was not only Dietrich’s Svengali, he was Hollywood’s premier visual stylist. He filled his frames with glittering surfaces, jagged shadows, and opulent sets and costumes, yet his fascination with masks, irony, and artifice is at the service of a deep emotionalism that lies beneath the surface. All films directed by Josef von Sternberg. Shanghai Express Friday, September 8, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, September 9, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, September 10, 4:00 p.m. 1932, 82 mins., 35mm. With Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong. Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong are women of the night whose train is hijacked by rebel Chinese. The pre-Code sexuality of Shanghai Express is captured by Dietrich’s famous claim: “It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily.” The Blue Angel Saturday, September 9, 2:00 p.m. Sunday, September 10, 6:00 p.m. 1930, 106 mins., 35mm. With Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich. As cabaret performer Lola-Lola, object of a professor’s self-destructive obsession, Marlene Dietrich captivated international audiences. Based on a Heinrich Mann novel, this was the first of the seven Sternberg-Dietrich films in their remarkable five-year collaboration. Thunderbolt Saturday, September 9, 4:30 p.m. 1929, 85 mins., 35mm. With George Bancroft, Fay Wray. In his first talkie, a melodrama about a lovelorn crime boss on death row, Sternberg experimented with sound, using multiple sources to great dramatic effect. The Salvation Hunters Saturday, September 16, 3:00 p.m. Live music by Steve Sterner 1925, 65 mins., 16mm. With George K. Arthur, Georgia Hale. Sternberg’s directorial debut is a symbolic and atmospheric “visual poem” about three riverfront drifters: The Boy, The Girl, and The Brute. Underworld Saturday, September 16, 5:00 p.m. Live music by Steve Sterner 1927, 80 mins. New archival 35mm print from Paramount. With George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent. Often cited as the first gangster film, this fevered chronicle of shifting alliances in the crime world sealed Sternberg’s status as a major Hollywood director and won an Oscar for screenwriter—and former Chicago crime reporter—Ben Hecht. The Last Command Sunday, September 17, 2:00 p.m. Live music by Steve Sterner 1928, 88 mins. New archival 35mm print from Paramount. With Emil Jannings. When he is cast as an extra in a Hollywood movie about the Russian Revolution, a former Czarist general must confront his tortured past. Emil Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar for his stunning performance. The Docks of New York Sunday, September 17, 4:30 p.m. Live music by Steve Sterner 1928, 76 mins. 35mm print from The Museum of Modern Art. With George Bancroft, Betty Compson. Sternberg displays surprising warmth in this moody and expressionistic drama about a dockworker who saves a prostitute from drowning. The Saga of Anatahan Friday, September 22, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, September 23, 6:00 p.m. Sunday, September 24, 6:00 p.m. 1954, 92 mins. Imported 35mm print from Filmmuseum Berlin. With Akemi Negishi. With performances in Japanese and an English-language voiceover by Sternberg himself, this stylized film is based on a true story of marooned Japanese marines who discover a woman on their deserted island. Morocco Saturday, September 23, 2:00 p.m. Sunday, September 24, 4:00 p.m. 1930, 90 mins., 35mm. With Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich. In her first Hollywood film, released in the U.S. before The Blue Angel, Marlene Dietrich is a cabaret singer who loves Gary Cooper’s naive legionnaire and abuses Adolphe Menjou’s wealthy nightclub owner. Dishonored Saturday, September 23, 4:00 p.m. 1931, 91 mins., 35mm. With Marlene Dietrich, Victor McLaglen. In this sensational political parable based on Sternberg’s story “X27,” Marlene Dietrich loses her cool as a widow-turned-prostitute-turned-spy who falls for her adversary, a Russian secret agent. Sternberg’s mise-en-scène shines at a masked ball. An American Tragedy Sunday, September 24, 2:00 p.m. 1931, 96 mins., 35mm. With Phillips Homes, Sylvia Sidney. In this adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s novel (remade as A Place in the Sun), Sternberg focuses on the self-destructive sexuality of the hero, a poor young man whose social ambitions drive him towards murder. Blonde Venus Saturday, September 30, 2:00 p.m. 1932, 93 mins., 35mm. With Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant. In an unusually domestic role, Marlene Dietrich plays a self-sacrificing mother who leaves her husband for gangster Cary Grant and becomes a nightclub performer (singing “Hot Voodoo”). Preceded by The Town 1943, 10 mins. 16mm print from The Museum of Modern Art. This U.S. Office of War propaganda film celebrates life in a Midwestern town. The Scarlet Empress Saturday, September 30, 4:30 p.m. Sunday, October 1, 3:00 p.m. 1934, 104 mins., 35mm. With Marlene Dietrich, Sam Jaffe, John Lodge. This sexually and politically charged chronicle of Russia’s Catherine the Great was Sternberg’s most opulent film. Marlene Dietrich’s seven-year-old daughter Maria plays the young Catherine. Shown with Dietrich’s screen test for The Blue Angel. Jet Pilot Saturday, September 30, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, October 1, 5:30 p.m. 1957, 112 mins., 35mm. With John Wayne, Janet Leigh. Sternberg’s only color film, produced by Howard Hughes, is a Cold War-hysteric production starring John Wayne as an American Air Force pilot and Janet Leigh as a Russian spy pilot. The Devil Is a Woman Friday, October 6, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, October 8, 5:30 p.m. 1935, 77 mins., 35mm. With Marlene Dietrich, Cesar Romero, Lionel Atwill. A femme fatale pushes her victims—a younger and an older man—to the brink of insanity. Banned in Spain, this film is based on the same novel that Luis Bunuel adapted as That Obscure Object of Desire. Crime and Punishment Saturday, October 7, 2:00 p.m. 1935, 88 mins., 35mm. With Peter Lorre, Edward Arnold. His third film set in Russia, Sternberg’s adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s classic features a nuanced performance by Peter Lorre as Raskolnikov, brooding in eerie, cramped interiors. The Shanghai Gesture Saturday, October 7, 4:00 p.m. 1941, 106 mins. 35mm print from George Eastman House. With Gene Tierney, Walter Huston. In this delirious thriller, a Shanghai madam blackmails a British official who tries to close her brothel. Macao Sunday, October 8, 3:00 p.m. 1952, 81 mins., 35mm. With Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell. Nicholas Ray filmed the climactic fist fight in Sternberg’s decadent, fast-paced noir, which stars Jane Russell as an unemployed singer who crosses paths with down-and-out adventurer Robert Mitchum.