28 Feb. - 6 March 2002
Issue No.575
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 Feb. - 6 March 2002 Issue No.575 |
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Limelight
"Falling in love again"
The orchestra played on. The melodies of the familiar songs heightened the state of excitement. Then they played "Falling in Love Again". The public became hysterical. The heavy red velvet curtain with its rich gilded tassels was drawn slowly, the wild roar of the audience was thunderous. There she stood ever so slender, ever so glamorous and more desirable than she had ever been. The sultry siren of the silver screen seemed more seductive in her flesh coloured transparent Jean Louis gown with her floor-length feathered boa and those inviting green eyes. She stood still until the applause died down. She moved and once again the exhilarated shouts of joy were deafening. The world stood still -- a star of major proportions was born. The year was 1953. The place was the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, and the name of the enchanting new star was the silver screen's living legend Marlene Dietrich. She was only 51, launching a new career as a concert performer. She continued to sing, dance and enchant the world with her "cabaret" act, her unforgettable songs and her fabulous wardrobe of beaded gowns, topped with furs, feathers and her breathtaking swan coat, her black and white tuxedos, and her flirty top- hat dazzling both men and women around the globe. Marlene's "masculinity appealed to women and her sexuality appealed to men!" She was living proof that age is a state of mind and that glamour is ageless. Standing ovations after every performance greeted her from Las Vegas to New York, Australia, England, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Holland, France, Monaco, Italy, Japan, Russia, Argentina, Brazil and then her beloved, wild and wooly city of her early years, her native Berlin where it all started, before the world came crashing down around a shattered German nation.
Only a fortnight ago, at the 52nd Berlinale, that same city much older and wiser now, honoured their inimitable Marlene on the occasion of her 100th birthday. The city and the legend had finally come to terms with each other after a long and rocky separation that lasted over 60 years. J. David Riva, the grandson of "La Dietrich", presented his own loving portrait of his grandmother in a documentary entitled Her Own Song. He told of her love affair with Berlin and her resistance to the Nazi movement. According to Riva "this is what mattered to her the most". During her singing tour Marlene returned to Berlin with her act in 1960. The crowds were divided, some cheered, others jeered. She was deeply hurt, "the Germans and I no longer speak the same language". She never returned.
Her one-woman concert tour lasted till 1975, when at the young age of 73 she was forced to leave the show after a bad accident on stage in Sydney. She packed her 68 costumes, flew back to her apartment in Paris on the Avenue Montaigne and never set foot on the stage again. Riva claims in Her Own Song, that she may have left Berlin but Berlin never left her. She remained a Berliner all her life. She entitled her autobiography (1987) "Ich bin, Gott sei dank, Berlinerin" -- I am, thank God, a Berliner. The Berlin of her youth was a city in a class by itself.
With the birth of the 20th century came the birth of film. Berlin became the centre of Germany's fledgling film industry, and by 1905 there were 16 movie theatres in the city. German artists and technicians were pioneers in the new film art. German film became a model for a distinctive technique and style of filmmaking. Hollywood adapted German sound techniques, lighting, set designs and story-telling and their early films became the artistic forerunners that led Hollywood from flat lighting and mundane settings, to the more artistic light and shadow of "film noir".
Hollywood would not be what it is today without the German/Austrian technical know-how. Directors such as Lang, Lubitsch, Preminger and Wilder and actors such as Paul Henried, Hedy Lamar and Peter Lorre have had an incalculable effect on Hollywood moviemaking. Berlin was the centre of the artistic world. The city's theatres and film productions rivaled those of America and outshone the rest of Europe. It was a pulsating city of infinite variety. Art and experimentation were the order of the day. They called it "Der Berliner Luft" - "The Berlin Air". In that scintillating, captivating, energetic city, the Blue Angel was born on December 27, 1901. She was given the angelic name, Maria Magdalene. She cut out the middle and called herself Marlena (Lay-na).
Sex goddess of the century
She lost her father when she was only five and her stepfather when she was 11. War snatched away at all that the family held dear, their wealth, their social standing and their innocence. She put away the violin, which she had learned to play beautifully and joined a chorus line to earn a living. She sang, she danced, and she worked as an extra in several films, always showing those fabulous legs. She was spotted by a handsome assistant director Rudy Sieber, who helped her land bigger roles. They were soon married and had a daughter Maria in 1924. Marlene took no time off working in one picture after another. She had her first leading role in 1929. Jonas Sternberg, an Austrian Jew had fled to Hollywood, changed his name to Josef Von Sternberg and made a fine reputation for himself as a film director. He returned to Germany to make Der Blaue Engel. He was introduced to Marlene and together they made The Blue Angel in 1930. It's success was tremendous. Paramount, in an effort to compete with MGM's Greta Garbo, signed Dietrich to a lucrative contract. She left for Hollywood. She was the highest paid actress of her time and remains Germany's only world star. On the American Film Institute's list of the greatest actresses of all time she finished 9th. The association with Sternberg ended after 7 films in 1935. It never ended for Sternberg who could not get his career back on track and was forever obsessed with "his Blue Angel". I can personally attest to that. My seat at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1965 was next to his and for the duration of the festival he could speak of nothing else but "his Dietrich". Marlene, oblivious to all this, went on to make 50 films with the finest directors including Mamoulian, Wilder, Hitchcock, Welles and Kramer.
When film roles became scarcer, she re-invented herself and started a new career. She sang in three languages, danced, thrilled and enchanted for another quarter century until she was well into her seventies. Her repertoire of over 50 songs includes such gems as "Lili Marleen", "Golden Earrings" and her own sultry version of Piaf's "La Vie en Rose". It was Hemingway who said of his "Kraut", "if she had nothing more than her voice, she could break your heart with it!"
Weak tired and alone, the legend left us on May 6th 1992. It is no surprise that she requested to be buried in her beloved Berlin next to her mother. In a posthumous gesture of love and forgiveness to her city and her people, she bequeathed her vast memorabilia collection of over 300,000 items, including 80 pieces of luggage, 400 hats and 3,000 gowns. This treasure is now displayed at Stiftung Deutsch Kinematik Museum in Berlin.
The strains of her trademark song from the "Blue Angel" again fills "Der Berliner Luft": Once more her sexy, barely audible, husky whisper laments:
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