Pola Negri - Old News Page

Review of Tom Verlaine and Jimmy Rip: Music for
Experimental Film DVD in the "Music in Silent Films" section

Tom Verlaine? You mean that guitar player from the New York punk scene band Television? Yep, that's the one. Tom Verlaine has teamed up with fellow guitar player Jimmy Rip to create guitar soundtracks for a number of experimental silent shorts. These soundtracks and the shorts they accompany have been released by Kino Video on a DVD called Tom Verlaine and Jimmy Rip: Music for Experimental Film. This is probably the best introduction to experimental silent shorts you could ask for, because the soundtracks are so gorgeous. The soundtracks transform the films from abstract, artsy experiments to beautiful, romantic dreams that you don't want to wake up from.

December 13th is Tom Verlaine's and your webmaster's shared birthday, so in honor of that, I have added an in-depth review of the Tom Verlaine and Jimmy Rip: Music for Experimental Film DVD to the "Music in Silent Films" section of this site. You can read the review here. So Happy Birthday to Tom Verlaine and to yours truly, your not-so-humble webmaster!

Lady-fronted musical group releases full-length tribute
to singing German film star ZARAH LEANDER

2007 marks the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Zarah Leander, Nazi Germany’s singing Greta Garbo. As Joseph Goebbels began wanting to include propaganda in Pola Negri’s movies and Pola resisted, Swedish-born actress Zarah Leander picked up the banner where Pola Negri left off and became one of the most beloved singing stars of the Nazi era, having the advantage of being ten years younger than Pola and possessing a deep alto singing voice that is similar to Pola’s. Although many of the films of the Nazi period have become spurned or forgotten (and maybe justly so), Zarah’s films and music from the period continue to be loved by many in Germany and Europe in general to this day.

In August of 2007, a lady-fronted, cabaret-influenced Norwegian musical group named Einmal Kommt Die Liebe commemorated Zarah Leander’s 100^th birthday by releasing a full-length musical tribute to her. Entitled Wunderbar!, the album contains recreations of many of Zarah’s best-loved songs, as well as some original songs written about Zarah. The album is available on the Norwegian-based Provocateur Media label. I will be adding a review of this tribute album to the Pola site in time, but meanwhile you can click here to listen to songs from the album and click here to buy the album.

The Ophelia Orchestra's Sound and Smoke:
a sleazy, authentic reproduction of the music of Weimar Berlin

Approximately seven years of research went into the making of the album. The album features songs that represent all of the important movers and shakers of the period, and discusses the scene of the period in detail with numerous period photographs and very detailed liner notes. With this in mind, Sound and Smoke is an essential item for understanding Pola’s world, as this album faithfully and meticulously captures the music and the social scene she experienced and was part of during her tenure as a film star at UFA. Unfortunately, the album is going out of print and will only available for a limited time. I should have a review for this album forthcoming as well, but in the meantime, you can click here to buy the album.

More News (10-26-07):

Hi everybody! David Gasten, your webmaster, here. I really apologize about not being as available as I'd like to be here in Pola Land. The reason I've been unavailable is that I have been putting most of my energy into jump-starting a Saturday Night Swing Dance and a rocking, teenage Swing Band here in the Denver, Colorado, USA metro area. The Band has been seven years in the making and it will easily be the most intense and danceable band in the Neo-Swing genre once it gets going, but it will simultaneously avoid all the clichés that have beset other groups in the genre. The Dance is a little more established, but getting it going has been a year-long proposition of really hard work and sacrifices of all kinds along the way, hence why dear Pola isn't getting quite as much attention these days. The way I look at it is that if Pola started a Sarah Bernhardt or Ada Negri fan club and that's all she did other than work and raise a family, we'd never have Pola Negri as we know and love her today. And the same goes for your webmaster, for better or for worse.

By the way, if you're interested in seeing what we're up to in the world of Swing Dancing, check out this page. If you live in the Denver area, or happen to be passing through when we're having a dance, then you are personally invited to come join us; you'll have an amazing time!

But in the meantime, back to Pola and silent movie-related stuff--after all, that's why you're here. Here we go...

Last year, Reel Classic DVD released a really nice transfer of the 5-reel Kodascope print of The Spanish Dancer (1923) on DVD. It's nice to see this one released on DVD! Click here to read my review of Reel Classic DVD's release of The Spanish Dancer.

German author and film critic Frank Noack recently saw a screening of Bestia (aka The Polish Dancer), Pola's first film and Poland's first feature film, and has made his review of this film available to the Pola Negri Appreciation Site. You can read his review of Bestia here.

Have you ever heard of Alpha Video? Chances are good that if you live in the USA, you've seen budget releases of older films put out by Alpha Video in a bargain bin at a grocery store or somewhere like that. Well, in recent years, Alpha Video has been overrun by serious film fans, and these folks have gone about releasing all kinds of rare classics from the silent era at budget prices, stuff like the serial Tarzan The Tiger (1929), a compilation of the surviving material from the Italian Sci-fi epic L'Uomo Mecchanico (1926) and Will Rogers' 1922 version of The Headless Horseman, the 1913 and the 1926 version of the German film The Student of Prague (the '26 version is a MUST SEE--one of my favorite silent movies EVER), and the list goes on.

One of the items Alpha Video has released is Pola's The Eyes of the Mummy (1918). This makes that particular film the easiest (and cheapest) Pola silent to get by a long shot, so now you have no excuse. I haven't seen Alpha's version of The Eyes of the Mummy yet, but I'm guessing it's probably on par with the other versions that are currently available. You can buy it cheap from Amazon.com here.

I can't believe this has actually happened. Cecil B. DeMille, the creator of the big-budget exploitation film and the man who led the way in the American film industry's move onto the San Andreas fault line, released his last silent film, The Godless Girl, in 1929. For a long time, it has been unclear as to whether this film survived in a showable print, because one known surviving print, held by the UCLA, apparently was decomposed enough that it looked like The Battle of the Space Amoebas when screened. Well, of all things, The Godless Girl has gone from quasi-lost status to being restored by the George Eastman House from a print owned by DeMille himself, and is now available on DVD as part of the Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934 box set, which was released on October 16 of this year. This isn't quite as amazing as Beyond the Rocks (1922) going from lost status to being something you can find on the shelf at your local DVD store, but it's getting there.

If you have an all-region player and can afford the $68 US for the 4-DVD set (and the way the American Dollar is performing right now, that's probably quite doable if you live outside the US), you can now watch The Godless Girl on your DVD player anytime you want, instead of wondering if you'll ever get to see it, as many of us have for years. Here it is on Amazon.com.

January 3rd marks the 110th birthday of our beloved Pola!
Happy birthday, Pola; we love you!
XOXO

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.

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 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.

Special Offer for friends of the Pola Negri Appreciation Site: save $2 on every title in the Grapevine Video catalog! Click here for details on how to take advantage of this amazing offer!

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.