A straight-laced professor gets angry at his students for lusting after a sexy showgirl, but he feels a bit differently once he actually sees said showgirl. Unfortunately, her seeming reciprocation of his affections may only be an act. Early example of Marlene Dietrich’s innate magnetism.
I went into this thinking “it better be pretty darn good if it’s going to compensate for my bitterness at it winning the Best Picture Oscar over Pan’s Labyrinth.” And you know, it’s not better than Pan’s, but it IS pretty darn good. It’s the late 1980s in East Berlin; one main character is a [...]
The film itself is full of this quiet intensity…it hits all the necessary points, but doesn’t belabour any of them. There are no anvils here.
It’s a tour-de-force for Klaus Kinski, as the soldier who ends up king of all he surveys, but is it a victory? Glad I watched it, but not one I’d necessarily come back to, except possibly if studying Herzog.
