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MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE
the Devil is a Woman
Dir. Josef von Sternberg, 1935. 76 mins.
With Marlene Dietrich, Cesar Romero,
Lionel Atwill
Costumes by Travis Banton, wardrobe
by Henry West
We invited Kenneth Anger to tell us
which film we should program alongside
his Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
and he suggested “something by Travis
Banton for von Sternberg or DeMille”.
We took note. The Devil is a Woman,
close to Anger’s own vision in Inauguration,
makes masquerade its very leitmotif—from
Marlene Dietrich’s inexorably
made-up face to the near-grotesque
disguises worn by revellers at Seville’s
carnival during which this film is set.
Dietrich’s uber-sensuous character
Concha Perez enjoys a game of seduction
while unapologetically flaunting
Banton’s veils, outlandish headpieces,
fans and fringes.
sunDAY, April 17
Frame enlargement from The Devil is a Woman, dir.
Josef von Sternberg, 1935.
2:00pm
Dreams of Darkness and color
This program explores the role of costume
in several silent cinema journeys
into darkness, all of which are executed
in color.
Total running time: c.80 mins.
With an introduction by Eugenia Paulicelli.
Live music by Stephen Horne
the red spectre (le spectre rouge)
Dir. Segundo de Chomón, Pathé Frères,
1907, France
Costumes and sets by Segundo de
Chomón
(Stencil-colored)
In a dark cavern a devil-like magician
performs a series of tricks putting to
great use his magnificent cloak.
the pillar of Fire (la Danse du feu)
Dir. Georges Méliès, 1899, France
With Jeanne d’Alcy
Costumes and sets by Georges Méliès
(Hand-colored)
Based on H. Rider Haggard’s novel She,
a demon conjures a woman wearing a
voluminous white dress who performs a
dance à la Loïe Fuller.
The Butterflies (Le Farfalle)
Dir. unknown, 1907, Italy
(Tinted and hand-colored)
Frame enlargement from The Red Spectre, dir.
Segundo de Chomόn, 1907. Courtesy Lobster Films.
Geishas dance and play with a butterfly
woman whom they have imprisoned
within a cage. Her lover comes to rescue
her, only to find himself killed by
the group. A butterfly revenge ensues.
rapsodia satanica
Dir. Nino Oxilia, 1915, Italy
With Lyda Borelli, Andrea Habay, Ugo
Bazzini
Alba’s gowns by Mariano Fortuny
(Tinted and stencil-colored)
A prime example of the diva genre, Rapsodia
Satanica is a masterpiece of silent
Italian cinema. It features Lyda Borelli
as Alba d’Oltrevita in a Faustian tale of
a woman’s search for eternal youth and
worldly pleasures. The most persistent
themes punctuating the film are Alba’s
narcissism and her manipulation of
a thin, diaphanous veil in scenes of
seduction, reflection and melancholy.
Sensuous, the veil may evoke the craze
for exotic dances that swept European
and American stage and screen around
the turn of the century but in Alba’s
hands it is more introspective and
eerie than seductive. It assumes a life
of its own as it is moulded and layered
over her face and body, producing an
ethereal, phantasmic effect made even
more striking by the use of color. Alba’s
nemesis, the omnipresent devil, also
operates his vampire-style cloak to
great effect.
With grateful thanks to the Italian Cultural
Institute who have supported this
screening on the occasion of celebrating
the 150th Anniversary of the unification
of Italy.
Frame enlargement from Rapsodia Satanica, dir. Nino Oxilia, 1915/1917. Courtesy EYE Film Institute Netherlands.