One of the most important directors in early film history. Ernest Lubitsch started out in silent films in Germany and made the transition to sound films in the United States until his death from a heart attack. Lubitisch is chiefly remembered as a director who was good with intimate stories of love and romance. But for whatever reason, probably just to show he could do it, he made a few epic films. The Loves of Pharaoh is one of these.
The film stars one of the biggest stars in silent cinema Emil Jannings. He was big stuff for a while until World War II when he starred in a lot of propaganda films for the Nazis during the war. This didn't really work out very well for him. After the war he was finished in the film business due to his association with the Nazi party.
Well anyway Jannings plays the Pharaoh of Egypt who happens to fall in love with a slave girl and all hell breaks lose as only it can in one of these larger than life stories. This story was shot on a massive production level with huge sets and large scale battle scenes. The film is well staged by Lubitsch who for a man who preferred to make more intimate stories did a very good job on this larger than life story. The Loves of Pharaoh is certainly worth a look for the production values and battle scenes alone.
The film was written by Norbert Falk and Hanns Kräly. The film exists on YouTube in a very good copy. The running time is 100 minutes.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment