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OLD
NEWS PAGE
This
page covers old news in the world of Pola as far back as I have it.
News
(1-1-07):
Happy Birthday, Pola!
January
3rd marks the 110th birthday of our beloved Pola!
Happy birthday, Pola; we love you!
XOXO
Transit
Films releases 6-DVD box set of Lubitsch films in Germany
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Transit
Films, the German releasing company that gave us the five movies
in Kino’s “Lubitsch in Berlin” series
(including the Pola movies Die Bergkatze/The Wildcat and
Sumurun), have released a 6-DVD box set in Germany of all five
of those films, one on each disc, plus a German-language
documentary about Lubitsch and his movies which appears on disc
six. The official
release date for this was November 22, 2006.
Keep in mind that this is a German language release, with
the movies being presented exactly as found in the Kino series
except with German intertitles instead of English intertitles.
You can order Transit’s Lubitsch box set here.
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New
article on the Kino DVD release of Die Bergkatze/The Wildcat
I’ve
also posted an in-depth review of the Kino DVD
release of Die Bergkatze/The Wildcat here;
you can also read my review of Kino’s DVD release of Sumurun here.
Grapevine
Video releases Gypsy Blood on DVD
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Grapevine
Video have finally released a DVD of Gypsy Blood (1918),
the last of the Pola Negri VHS titles they had available before
they pulled them out of production in 2003 that hadn't seen
a DVD reissue. Release
date was December 15th. I
do not yet know what this version looks like compared to Sunrise
Silents’ DVD version, but I would assume that it at
least contains the scenes that were missing in the Sunrise
version, because those scenes were intact on the original VHS
version that Grapevine carried.
Once
I get a copy, I will try to get a review of it up on the Pola
site. In the meantime, you
can order Grapevine’s Gypsy
Blood
here.
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The Winners
of the Pola DVD Giveaway
Our
Pola DVD giveaway is officially over, and I had a really weird thing
happen: the winners (selected at random, mind you) had extremely
similar names. Jonathan
Sanders in the UK won the DVD copy of Die Bergkatze, and John
Saunders from Canada won the DVD copy of Sumurun.
Congratulations, guys! I
have a couple of extra DVD copies of Die Bergkatze/The Wildcat and
Sumurun, so I will be doing another giveaway in a few months—watch
this space…
Collectible
Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy book released in its Second Edition
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Here’s a piece of
non-Pola news that I haven’t had a chance to share yet.
Back in 1976, The A.S. Barnes Company released a book
called The Films of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
that was pretty much the definitive work on the greatest musical
duo in movie history. The
book has been out of print for years and copies of the original
edition generally fetch $75-$200 today.
The good news is that
Knowles released an expanded, updated second edition
of this wonderful book on the Booksurge Publishing imprint that
includes over 100 extra pages of extra material.
(You’ll see my name in the acknowledgements too, which I
am really proud of.) You can buy the new edition of this magnificent book here. |
More
News (12-5-06):
Kino
releases Die Bergkatze (aka The Wildcat) and Sumurun
on DVD!
We
at the Pola Negri Appreciation Site have been waiting for this for a long
time. Die Bergkatze (1921; released as The Wildcat),
Pola's funniest and strangest movie, as well as one of the funniest silent
movies ever (yes, you heard right), was officially released on DVD today
(December 5, 2006) by Kino International, along with the amazing restoration of Pola's Sumurun
(1920; aka One Arabian Night). Die
Bergkazte/The Wildcat has, up to this point, been a criminally
unavailable lost masterpiece. There is literally no other movie like
it in existence, and it looks and plays like Monty Python fifty
years before Monty Python—literally. Sumurun has been
available before in its cut-down American release version One Arabian
Night, but now you can see it as director Ernst Lubitsch intended it—hilarious,
dramatic, sexy, and the starting point of Lubitsch's trademark directorial
style (aka "The Lubitsch Touch").
Kino
released Die
Bergkazte/The Wildcat and Sumurun as two parts of a four-DVD
series entitled "LUBITSCH IN BERLIN" today, all of which feature
movies directed by Ernst Lubitsch when he was working in Germany in the 1910's
and 1920's before he and Pola became the first director and star to be
imported to Hollywood from Europe. Also included in the series are
the costume tragedy Anna Boleyn (1920) starring Emil Jannings and
Henny Porten (Germany's Mary Pickford), and a double feature of the
comedies The Oyster Princess (1919) and I Don't Want To Be a Man
(1920), both starring Ossi Oswalda, whom Lubitsch used in his comedies
as routinely as he used Pola in his dramas. Click
here to read more about this amazing and much-needed DVD reissue series.
More
News (10-22-06):
We're happy to report that
the Pola Negri film festival at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on
September 18-25 of this year was an overwhelming success! Both of
the Pola documentary screenings were sold out and met with warm audience
reception.
POLA NEGRI FILM FESTIVAL in Chicago
Pola's posthumous
career continues to grow, and we are now pleased to announce that
another Pola Negri film festival is being co-hosted in Chicago on
November 6-9 by the Polish Film Festival of America and the Chicago Silent
Film Society. Here
is a listing of events:
| Monday, Nov. 6, 8:45 pm |
Life
is a Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri (2006) with introduction and
commentary by director Mariusz Kotowski |
| Tuesday, Nov. 7, 8:00 pm |
A
Woman of the World (1925) |
| Wednesday, Nov. 8, 8:00 pm |
Barbed
Wire (1927) |
| Thursday, Nov. 9, 8:00 pm |
Hotel
Imperial (1927) |
General
admission tickets are $10.00 per feature film and $8.50 for the
documentary film ($9.00 & $7.50 seniors & students). Tickets are
available in advance by phone at 773-486-9612 or online at www.pffamerica.com;
they are also available at the venues one hour prior to the screenings. For
further information, go to The
PFFA's online press release about the event.
New
Articles on the Pola Site
German
author and film critic Frank Noack has contributed translations of some
vintage German texts on Pola Negri's Mazurka period. This is
a fascinating collection of material, and you can read it here.
Also, I have added reviews of Sunrise
Silents' Gypsy Blood DVD release and Grapevine
Video's DVD release of Hotel Imperial, as well as a
review of the new F.W. Murnau Stiftung restoration of Sumurun and
Sunrise Silents' DVD release of One Arabian Night (all in one
article, which you can read here),
to the "Articles About Pola's Films"
section of the site.
POLA
NEGRI FILM FESTIVAL in New York!
Pola Negri is
returning to the screen in New York this month via a week-long festival
hosted by the Museum of Modern Art. Entited "Pola Negri: Life
is a Dream", the festival will run from September 18-25. The
crown jewel of the festival will be the East Coast premiere of the Mariusz
Kotowski-directed documentary on Pola's life entitled Life
is a Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri, which will feature an introduction
by the director and legendary actor Eli Wallach. Here
is a listing of events:
| Monday, Sept. 18, 6:00 pm |
Excerpt from Carmen (1918)
(piano acc. by Ben Model) |
| Monday, Sept. 18, 8:15 pm |
Life is a Dream in Cinema:
Pola Negri (2006), introduced by
director Mariusz Kotowski and actor Eli Wallach |
| Wednesday, Sept. 20, 8:15 pm |
Die Bergkatze (1921)
(piano acc. by Stuart Oderman) |
| Thursday, Sept. 21, 6:00 pm |
Outtakes from A Woman On
Trial (1927)
Excerpt from A Woman Commands (1932)
A Woman of the World (1925)
(piano acc. by Ben Model) |
| Thursday, Sept. 21, 8:00 pm |
Hotel Imperial (1927)
(piano acc. by Stuart Oderman) |
| Friday, Sept. 22, 6:00 pm |
Excerpt from Carmen (1918)
(piano acc. by Ben Model) |
| Friday, Sept. 22, 8:00 pm |
Die Bergkatze (1921)
(piano acc. by Stuart Oderman) |
| Sunday, September 24, 1:30 pm |
Life is a Dream in Cinema:
Pola Negri (2006) |
| Monday, September 25, 6:00 pm |
Hotel Imperial (1927)
(piano acc. by Stuart Oderman) |
| Monday, September 25, 8:00 pm |
Outtakes from A Woman On
Trial (1927)
Excerpt from A Woman Commands (1932)
A Woman of the World (1925)
(piano acc. by Ben Model) |
By
the way, the A Woman on Trial outtakes are the only known surviving
material from what is otherwise a lost film. For further
information, go to The
Museum of Modern Art's website.
Hotel
Imperial now on DVD!

Grapevine Video has reissued Pola Negri's film Hotel Imperial
(1927) on DVD. The DVD reissue features a brand new transfer from a
better-quality print with higher-quality equipment. Click
here for ordering information.
More
News (4-28-06):
Sunrise Silents releases CD-ROM of movie magazine
with Pola Negri theme
Silent
film distributor Sunrise
Silents have
been releasing a library of vintage movie magazines on CD-ROM in addition
to their high-quality DVD releases of silent films. The most recent
addition to their CD-ROM catalog has been the April
1925 Motion Picture magazine, which features Pola Negri on the
cover, and includes the cover article "The Mystery of Pola
Negri" by Harry Carr and a review of Pola's then-current film East
of Suez (1925). This CD-ROM release follows the 2005 releases of
their beautifully-packaged DVD's of Pola's films Gypsy
Blood (aka Carmen, 1918) and One
Arabian Night (aka Sumurun, 1920). Visit
Sunrise Silents' website for ordering information.
Grapevine
Video reissues Passion (1919),
Pola Negri's most important film
Silent
and early talkie film distributor Grapevine
Video has just reissued Passion
(aka Madame DuBarry, 1919) on DVD. Passion is
easily the most important and groundbreaking film Pola Negri appeared in,
and makes its debut on DVD at long last thanks to Grapevine's efforts.
If you saw the Life is a Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri documentary,
you may be interested to know that the clips of Madame DuBarry that
you saw in the film come directly from this release's source print.
This title was once available on VHS, but was pulled from circulation and
has been out of print until now. Follow
this link for ordering information.
More
News (3-15-06):
It's
finally here...
We've
promised for a while that Pola Negri will be making her triumphant return
to the big screen via a feature-length documentary about her life and
films. And now, the documentary is finally here! Life is a
Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri, directed by Mariusz Kotowski and produced
by Bright Shining City Productions, is making its World Premiere in Los
Angeles at Laemmle's Sunset 5 theatre as a featured entry in the highly
esteemed Polish Film
Festival of Los Angeles in the last weekend of April. The film
is a true labor of love from its Polish-born director, who invested three
years of work and a considerable personal fortune into bringing Pola back
to the screen. Click
here to see our new page about the documentary, and keep checking the
site for updates on future screenings.
"Pola Negri: The Unknown Years 1935-1938"
German
film critic and author Frank Noack wrote a wonderful article especially
for this site about Pola's Nazi/Third Reich period. It's entitled "Pola
Negri: The Unknown Years 1935-1938". It's a beautifully
written piece that not only contains many rare and little-known facts
about Pola's Nazi/Third Reich period, it is also an excellent introduction
to the German movies of the period for the English-speaking world, naming
and describing a number of Germany's biggest stars and movies from the
1930's and 40's. I illustrated the article with some very
rare photos from the period supplied to me by my friend Joop van Dijk.
Click here to read the article.
Sunrise
Silents releases Pola's One Arabian Night (1920)
Silent
film distributor Sunrise
Silents has
followed up their April 2005 release of Gypsy Blood (aka Carmen,
1918) with a November 2005 DVD release of Pola's 1920 film One
Arabian Night (aka Sumurun). This release includes a
wealth of bonus material, including the 1926 Lupino Lane short His
Private Life; the talking short The Voice of Hollywood (1929),
featuring Reginald Denny, Anita Page, and Mack Sennett amongst others; a
selection of Pola Negri portraits and glass advertising slides, and
commentary from Sunrise Silents proprietor Rich Oliveri about the possible
influences on Pola's Paramount-era roles.
Click here for
ordering information.
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