The Scarlet Empress (1934)
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The Scarlet Empress Movie Review
The Scarlet Empress is a 1934 historical drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich. It truly is one very weird, very authentic viewing experience.
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“There is no emperor. Only an empress“
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Josef von Sternberg is famous for being a director who favors style over substance and certainly that is the case with this film as well. The story here is not the greatest. It isn’t bad, it just isn’t great either. It is serviceable and overall solid. The emphasis is almost entirely on the technical aspects and the execution, and I have to say that I ultimately liked that.
The film is not particularly historically accurate, but this is a film, not a documentary so I do not care all too much about that. It is an interesting experiment that interestingly enough almost plays like a silent film. What I mean by that is that the dialogue is sparse, the story is simplified and the emphasis lies strongly on the visuals and on the writing cards. Although there are a lot of those cards, I still liked them as they explained the plot very well and reminded me pleasantly of books.
Marlene Dietrich shines in the main role as is expected from her caliber. This is even one of her more memorable, striking roles. Catherine the Great is a very interesting, fascinating historical figure and following her from an innocent, naive person to a sexual, confident and dominant person was very interesting and it was very well pulled off. Again the camera relies heavily on Marlene’s beauty and she truly lights up the screen every time.
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But the other characters are also very memorable and well established which goes to show that the character development and attention to detail is very strong in spite of short runtime and sparse dialogue. Peter II is portrayed too much as a crazy person, Alexey Razumovsky is very memorable and of course the highlight is Empress Elizaveta Petrovna whose hostile, bitchy and domineering personality led inarguably to a highly effective villain. The performance from Louise Dresser is superb.
The Scarlet Empress features fantastic direction from Josef von Sternberg and this is certainly one of his best directed and most polished works. The acting is great across the board and the editing is also very good. I would have liked to have seen less of those cards and loud musical cues, but the music still remains terrific here and it transports you to its time period successfully.
But the reason to see this film almost squarely lies in its technical aspects, particularly the visuals. The costume design is splendid as all costumes are memorable and well designed, but it is the sets that really stand out. Yes, the film is superbly shot and imbued with such a strong flair from the director, but the sets really do make the film a one of a kind experience.
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The approach here is obviously that of German Expressionism as the Russian palace (questionably and provocatively though) looks very dark, dangerous and filled with a sense of despair and inherent darkness. I adored the sets with those human figures in pain being the highlights as well as the various staircases and wonderfully constructed rooms. The film is very brutal, weird and sexually provocative in its tone and those sets in particular manage to convey that tone, brave approach and palpable madness in the air. I loved how they portrayed this time period in a dark way and how they criticized some of its customs.
Josef von Sternberg’s The Scarlet Empress favors style over substance per usual for the director and although the story is not the greatest, the film is so technically accomplished that it almost doesn’t matter. Marlene Dietrich is luminous in the role of Catherine the Great and the other characters are also very memorable. The silent film approach is very interesting in this film filled with such a strong sense of madness and darkness so strongly conveyed through those striking German Expressionist sets.
