The
POLA NEGRI
Appreciation Site
POLA POLA POLA!
POLA
NEGRI: the silent and early talkie film actress who was:
-
Born in Poland, "made" in Germany, stolen by Hollywood.
-
A celebrity in America, an artist in Europe.
-
Lover to Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, and Rod La Roque;
wife to a count and a prince. -
A high-grossing Nazi film star who would not bow to the idol of fascism.
-
A "vamp" by reputation, a tragedienne in practice, but
a stunningly gifted actress in truth.
The Pola Negri Appreciation Site is dedicated to preserving the memory of
one of the great actresses of the early film.
_____
News (5-13-09):
Get
Grapevine Video's release of Pola's Hi Diddle Diddle for $3.95
plus
shipping (no kidding!)
 |
Grapevine
Video just released Hi Diddle Diddle (1943), Pola Negri's second to
last film, on DVD May 8th, and it will be available for $3.95
to friends of the Pola Negri Appreciation Site until May
26th! Shipping is $2.00 in the USA and only slightly
higher to the UK and Europe. Grapevine's Hi Diddle Diddle
comes from an exceptional 16 mm print with surprisingly good detail and
definition.
I'll have a review of this DVD up soon; the movie is really funny and
quite unusual for its time. The film contains a lot of "fifth
wall"-breaking devices that didn't come into common usage until
the 1990's. One example is putting a pretty girl in scene after
scene in ways that don't make sense, and then having the characters admit in
the film that the director did this because the girl was a friend of
his. Another is this intentionally painful opera sing-along which sends
Wagner and his family running for the hills--literally. (The Wagner animation
was nominated for an Academy Award, by the way.)
(subtitles and watermark
not present in Grapevine DVD version)
|
To order your $3.95 copy of Hi Diddle Diddle: |
1.
Go
to Grapevine Video's catalog entry on Hi
Diddle Diddle.
2. Click the "Add To
Cart" button, and an e-shopping cart page will come up.
3. In the "Customer Code" box
in the e-shopping cart page, type the letters "PNAS"
(for "Pola Negri Appreciation
Site") to receive a discount that will recalculate your subtotal to
$3.95.
From here, you can either check out or continue shopping. You may want
to continue shopping because you will also receive a:
(exclusive
offer from the Pola Negri Appreciation Site!)
For
a limited time, Grapevine Video is offering $2 off every title in their
catalog ordered through the Pola Negri Appreciation Site! This
is not $2 off the total order either--this is $2
off every individual title!
Grapevine Video is a high-quality mail order DVD retailer that specializes
in rare and hard to find silent movies. Many of the titles they
offer are not available anywhere else. Grapevine offers a total of SEVEN
Pola Negri titles and dozens of other titles from throughout the silent
era, including an extensive list of rare
European Silent titles.
|
To take advantage of this amazing offer: |
1.
Go to
Grapevine
Video's Website
(or any of the category pages listed above) and start
shopping. Grapevine has their titles listed in categories on the
left hand side of the screen.
2.
When you see a title you want to buy, click the "Add to Cart"
button and an
e-shopping cart page will come up.
3. In the "Customer Code" box
in the e-shopping cart page, type the letters "PNAS"
(for "Pola Negri Appreciation
Site") to receive a $2 discount off every title you
purchase! The e-shopping cart will guide you from there.
All of Grapevine Video's DVD's are Region 0, so playable worldwide. There is no limit on the number of titles you purchase either. This is an exclusive offer available only through the Pola Negri Appreciation Site. It is our way of saying thank you for supporting us and Pola Negri, and encouraging you to delve deeper into the wonderful world of silent movies.
Pola
Negri's Sappho (1921) to be released on DVD!
I can't believe that this is happening. Pola's Negri's extremely rare German drama Sappho (1921) is to be released in June or July of this year on DVD by Grapevine Video. The film will be released under the title Ladies of the German Screen, and will be featured alongside Backstairs starring Henny Porten, which was also released in 1921. Grapevine are giving his particular release a lot of extra attention, and your webmaster has written liner notes for the DVD, created the title of the release, donated photos for the DVD artwork, and advised on the music score (which is going to be devastating, by the way). Watch this space and we will let you know when this DVD is released as soon as we receive word.
Lost
film from Pola's Polish period FOUND!
According
to the New/Polski Radio, "An early (and thus far unnamed) Pola
Negri vehicle has been discovered at Rome’s Centro
Sperimentale di Cinematografia by the husband-and-wife team of Marek
and Malgorzata Hendrykowski from Poznan University.
Dating from the 1910s, the Polish production is a detective story set in
Warsaw. The print has Italian subtitles and is said to be in good
condition." (Click
here for more information.)
I have not been able to ascertain which title from Pola's
Polish period this is, but I am guessing that it is one from the
"Mysteries in Warsaw" film series, which consisted of POKOJ
NR. 13 (Room #13), ARABELLA, and TAJEMNICA ALEI
UJAZDOWSKIOCH (Mystery of Uyazdovsky Lane). If anyone
knows, feel free to contact me and I will publish the information.
Thanks to my friends Carmen Hillebrew, Peter Kalm, and Bruce Calvert for
alerting me of this information!
Munich Filmmuseum reconstruction of The Joyless Street (1925) finally released on DVD!
 |
|
Greta Garbo in The Joyless Street (1925). |
Since the
inception of this site, the Pola Negri Appreciation Site has linked to an
obscure article about the Munich Filmmuseum's reconstruction of the
1925 film The
Joyless Street (aka Die freudlose Gasse). This
German silent stars Asta Nielsen and Greta Garbo, and was directed by G.
W. Pabst of Pandora's Box fame. The Joyless Street
may well be one of the most censored movies of all time, as film boards in
every region of the world found something offensive in this film to edit
out. Because of this, all copies of the film that survive are
severely botched, making The
Joyless Street a confusing mess to watch--until
now.
 |
|
Asta Nielsen (left, seated) in The Joyless Street. |
In the mid-1990's,
a team of
three German researchers spent a year and a half working
on reconstructing The Joyless Street from various print sources from around the
world, and arose with a version that completely reorganizes the storyline
and, in the process, "giv[es] the film a previously
unrecognized depth." And after sitting in the archives for
thirteen years, we are elated to report that this labor of love will
finally be released on DVD in Europe. I'm expecting that we will see a
US release soon thereafter since Greta Garbo is on the bill.
The deluxe, 2-DVD Region 2 release of the reconstructed The
Joyless Street will contain the film itself, two documentaries,
outtakes from the film, and a gallery of stills and lobby cards. The
DVD will be available from Edition
Filmmuseum in July of 2009.
Life is a Dream in Cinema