The Blue Angel
after "Professor Unrat" by Heinrich Mann, directed by Răzvan Mazilu
Cast
Professor Emanuel Raat
studentelev
Leonid Doni
Von Ertzum, student
Kieselack, student
Rosa Fröhlich, nicknamed Lola Lola
Maia Morgenstern
Guste
Kiepert
Helga
The mute clown
George Călin
Directed by
Stage design
Irina Solomon and Dragoș Buhagiar
Music
Friedrich Hollander
Lyrics
Robert Liebmann and Friedrich Hollander
Music
Petru Mărgineanu
“Words cannot describe a film sequence, words cannot describe an image. Nowadays, “The blue Angel” is used to describe nightclubs, escadrons and remakes: until I gave this title to my film, it had not existed”.
Sternberg changed the ending of Mann’s novel, that was a social story about a professor that marries Rosa Frohlich, a cabaret singer who has a child, and is accepted by the society after making a new career as cabaret singer.
Contemporary audience regarded “The Blue Angel” as a chronic of a decadence period that lasted in Germany for ten years.
“The Blue Angel” is a kind of apocalyptic premonition about the social force that will form the nucleus of the Nazi epoch. The changing of professor Raat’s name to Unrat (=filthiness) is an anticipation of the methods used in the concentration camps, and Rath’s pupils are models of young Nazi soldiers.
Press reviews
The performance at the Odeon theatre shows a highly refined lecture of Heinrich Mann’s novel, but also a huge memory, in which Marlene Dietrich and Friedrich Hollander’s songs defy time. In a few words, “The Blue Angel” is that kind of play that can bring audience into theatre halls again, because it is done after an infallible receipt: a very good text, exceptional actors, alert rhythm, breathtaking music, dance, emotion, humour, persiflation and a very, very truthful message and artistic act. Don’t miss “The Blue Angel” !
– Național
Opening night: March 30, 2001
PHOTO GALLERY
The Blue Angel - Poster
The Blue Angel
The Blue Angel
The Blue Angel
The Blue Angel
The Blue Angel