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Ebertfest Preview
Ebertfest Preview The Last Command
9:00 pm Apr 15 - by Syd Slobodnik – buzz Writer
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The silent film at this year’s Ebertfest is the 1928 Josef von Sternberg classic, American made The Last Command, a film that stars Emil Jannings, the first actor to win the best actor Oscar in the first ceremony for films from 1927/1928. Jannings won for this film and his work in The Way of the Flesh.
In The Last Command Jannings plays Mr. Dolgorucki, a down on his luck former Russian general who is forced to work as a movie extra when he can’t find work in the U.S. Eventually he winds up in a film about the Russian revolution. Jannings, who was born in Brooklyn, but was raised in Germany where he became a star in the early golden era of German cinema in the ‘20s, specialized in sad roles of large, rather pathetic characters who have significant flaws and whose lives end tragically. This is especially true of the 1924 film The Last Laugh and the 1930 von Sternberg classic The Blue Angel. In the early 1930s Jannings was tempted by German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to remain in Germany and make exclusively pro-Nazi films. In 1941, Jannings was named Artist of the State, this despite the fact Jannings’ mother was Jewish. After the war Jannings was unable to find work in international films and died of cancer in 1950.
Von Sternberg’s work was noted mostly for his expressive camerawork and layered framing, typical of the German expressionism movement of the 1920s. Film historian Arthur Knight notes The Last Command’s “daring camera angles and extended dissolves” created a captivating cinematic experience.
Since no silent film was ever shown completely devoid of sound, the Alloy Orchestra will perform a live musical score at the Virginia Theater screening, which will be 4 p.m. on Friday, April 24, 2009. One last bit of Oscar trivia, because Jannings was out of the country when the first Academy Awards banquet occurred he was given his Oscar early. So he has the distinction of being the very first Oscar recipient and the first winner to be absent from the ceremonies.
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