What Happened
I haven't seen the film but it looks good to me. The plot is sound, the actors are good ones, and it has a great director so I have to ask what went wrong?
shareI've heard that large portions of the film were destroyed in a fire prior to editing, and that Hemmings had to create a film out of what was left and a few extra scenes he managed to get filmed.
shareI don't believe that. It's a very complete film. Not disjointed at all.
But it is not everyone's cup of tea. Many people I've shown it to found the first hour to be boring.
This film is rather metaphoric for the city of West Berlin, in which it was shot. Bowie moves through the film like a ghost sometimes. I can't say "I like it" the way that I liked "The Blue Angel" (also set in the same time & place), but I think it's more comparable to "The Blue Angel" than to "Cabaret." I certainly appreciate it, though. It's a much more realistic film than "Cabaret" was.
What a pity "Just a Gigolo" isn't aired on Turner Network or one of the old classic movie television programs. It was Marlene Dietrich's swan song. She hadn't made a movie since "Witness for the Prosecution", and this was the last film she ever acted in. And that was back in '61 when she was only 60. I wonder why she opted for such a long hiatus. Mein Gott, she was such a beauty even in "Witness for the Prosecution", and at the height of her singing and thespian skills. The things that those German people had to suffer (those who were anti-Fascist, that is) were tortuous. Those years from 1930-1945 and even after that must have been the worst nightmares human beings had to endure. Thankfully we have icons like Marlene to show how wonderful "good" Germans were despite the heady intoxication of world domination they enjoyed during those pivotal years. In all honesty I'm so happy I was born after the war ended. God bless all those *(Marlene maintaining a high place on that list) that defied the signs of the times and maintained their opposition to Hitler and anything even remotely connected to that king of villains.
Marlene was such a great singer, too. Not comparable to Edith Piaf, but up there all the same. But of course they couldn't hold a candle to Lady Day, but I'm not a European. I wonder who's suffering was greater, Marlene or Billie Holiday. Racism sucks!!
Actually "Judgement at Nuremberg" was her last film before this
share