Film Review
The enormous worldwide success of
Madame Du Barry (1919)
established Ernst Lubitsch's international reputation and earned him
the epithet of Germany's D.W. Griffith. With the German film
studio UFA happy to write the very large cheques, Lubitsch would turn
out another four equally impressive historical blockbusters, before
crossing the Atlantic to begin an even more successful career in
America. The director made such an impact in Hollywood that his
German films were soon overlooked and it is only comparatively recently
that they have begin to earn the critical attention they deserve.
One of these lavish early German productions is
Anna Boleyn, an ambitious and
visually arresting account of the tragic life and death of Henry
Tudor's second wife, the mother of Elizabeth I and one of the most
ill-used women in history. It is incredible to think that the
film was made during a period of extreme economic hardship in Germany,
so grand is the film in its scale, so sumptuous are the sets and
costumes, and so crammed with activity and people are the bustling
crowd scenes. The wedding sequence, in which seemingly thousands
of ordinary folk throng and cheer at Anna Boleyn's marriage to Henry,
is one of the most extravagant to appear in any of Lubitsch's films.
The director's keen visual sense and his attention to detail are
perhaps nowhere more evident than in this film. Every shot is
composed with the eye of a consummate artist. The camera is used
not just to tell the story but to convey the interior mood of the
protagonists, a technique that underpinned German expressionist
filmmaking and one that would form the basis for subsequent cinema,
notably film noir. The subtly stylised sets and some daring iris
effects create a sense of mounting oppression, conveying the impression
that Anne's world is fast closing in on her, and we see her not as an
autonomous entity but rather as a mere pawn in a mechanical game
of court politics.
Henny Porten has been criticised for her emotionally restrained
performance, yet it is her restraint which makes her portrayal of the
doomed Anne Boleyn so powerful, particularly in the final
sequences. By contrast, no one could accuse Emil Jannings of
restraint in his interpretation of King Henry, and this is also to the
film's advantage. Jannings' Henry is a childlike tyrant who is
completely at the mercy of his highly developed earthly passions,
governed by a not unreasonable desire to obtain a male heir, but all
too easily manipulated by his courtiers. Anne, with her emotional
deficit, and Henry, the impulsive hyperactive hedonist, are a
tragically ill-matched couple, and Lubitsch's real achievement is not
to give us a grand spectacle but to wring our hearts by acquainting us
with the brutal pathos of this ill-fated mesalliance.
© James Travers 2010
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Next Ernst Lubitsch film:
Kohlhiesels Töchter (1920)
Film Synopsis
England in the early 1500s. Her education in France now finally over,
Anne Boleyn is appointed lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon,
the queen of King Henry VIII. By this time, Henry
has grown tired of his queen and resents the fact that
she has not yet supplied him with a son and heir to the
English throne. His intention is to divorce Catherine
and find himself another wife. With her youth and beauty, Anne quickly finds favour
with the king and it isn't long before he offers her a proposal
of marriage. How awkward it is that Anne has already fallen
in love - with Sir Henry Norris. Pope Clement VII's refusal
to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine incenses the king.
He immediately breaks of all ties with Rome and makes
himself the head of the newly established Church of England.
Now nothing can prevent Henry from ridding himself of the queen
he despises and putting his beloved Anne in her place.
The king is certain that Anne will provide him with a male
heir so that his dynasty will continue - but fate decides otherwise...
© James Travers
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