Glamour in a Golden Age: Marlene Dietrich - Essay Example

Marlene Dietrich In 1999, the American Film Institute declared that Marlene Dietrich is the 9th greatest actress in American cinema of all time. This accolade is not without merit. From her stints in stage and silent films in her native Berlin during the 1920s, she was catapulted to stardom when she starred in the German film The Blue Angel. She was contracted to star in several Hollywood films afterward starring in a string of films that would make her one of the most unforgettable actresses that American cinema has ever produced. Her success has been widely credited to her star image. And because of this, she was able to effectively penetrate the international stage, with different film markets universally receptive to her star appeal. It is for this reason why some scholars suggest that Dietrich is one of the very first products of mass culture. The Dietrich Image Steven Bach once wrote that the biggest female stars in the world were based on their screen image and that Marlene is an example of this.1 The argument was that each of Dietrich films was a platform wherein she was able to let her audience constantly rediscover her or find something new in the roles she played and the performances she delivered. She was able to cultivate an image that people easily identify as her persona and, most importantly, an image that created a need based on the desires of the audience. Through the manner by which her image was carefully defined, scripted and invented, Dietrich was able to hold onto the material and spiritual power which allowed her image to exemplify “society producing the impasse into which it casts its members on the level of the libido as much as on the level of economics: the desire for what cannot be avoided without a radical rupture with the world that has formed us.”2 Consider how some critics point out that the success of The Blue Angel was not because of an excellent storyline or the genius of neither its director, Josef von Sternberg nor its sexual context. If one says that the film succeeded because of Lola’s legs, then those that featured the same theme with different actresses exploiting equally excellent thighs could have been as effective. But that is not the case. With the film, men were given an object of desire that is mostly according to what Dietrich had to give. Lola’s legs and her character did not merely become the foundation of the Dietrich image that movie audience carried in their heads. It was Dietrich’s acumen and sense of what she wanted and how she wanted to be seen and perceived that made the difference. As she made her films, Dietrich learned how to best represent herself, highlight her assets or make an aspect of persona prominent. This is demonstrated, for instance, in the invention of the so-called "Dietrich's face." In the earlier photographs of Dietrich, her upturned nose is quite obvious. As a matter of fact, this minor flaw has earned her the moniker "Ducknose" because it is stuck up like those of the duck’s.3 Critics were particularly focused on this aspect during Dietrich early career that is why she learned how to work around it. Later photographs would no longer show this weakness prompting some sectors to say she underwent facial surgery. This, of course, was not true because it was Dietrich herself who discovered how she could address the problem. Bach explained this in detail: She found it in an automatic photo booth in Berlin, the kind that prints out the cheap photograph on strips. She stepped into one to pose, actively searching for a look, and discovered that with a single overhead lamp, her hair went light, she had cheekbones, her pale blue eyes went dark, the upturned nose became straight. There would be sophisticated refinements of makeup and technique, but now the difficulty was getting cameramen to light her her way.4 One can say that Dietrich became a technician in this way. She would go against directions if the lighting is against her wishes. This “stubbornness” actually paid off. Besides appearing more pleasing, the actress found that playing with lights could actually make her more mysterious or enigmatic or glamorous (see photo on this page). It is clear from this example that Dietrich was proactive in the way her image has developed. Like Garbo The star image of Marlene Dietrich was created after those of Greta Garbos. Almost all of the academic works on Dietrich mention this. Indeed, throughout her career, this influence persisted. By imitating Garbo early in her career, she was able to successfully attract the interest of the German audience and, eventually, Paramount studio, which wanted a competition for the glamorous Garbo, who was then the MGM’s Swedish star. They found the German actress perfect for the role. Dietrich early films in her native Germany had unmistakable Garbo-like characters that the local media then found no difficulty in comparing and raring about their Weimar Garbo. Throughout her career, her star image would permanently be identified with the original Garboesque trademark elements of glamour, mystique, and world-weariness. Even when Dietrich finally found her own distinct star persona, the Garbo element would still persist. In the end, it would compliment the additional image elements that would characterize the Dietrich star image such as bisexuality and androgyny. These variables would collectively prove crucial in effectively promoting Dietrich in America and internationally. The Blue Angel Blue Angel is crucial in Dietrich career as well in her image. It is perhaps the most important film in the context of her dramatic rise to stardom and in building her star image. It established her star persona as a femme fatale and created an image that would linger in the public psyche. In contrast with the reserved glamour of Greta Garbo, Dietrich image was built on the exhibitionistic and the cabaret culture that is both fun and sexually charged. This aspect became the critical variable that would provide the differentiation between Dietrich and Garbo. McLean saw this in the Blue Angel film. In comparison with Garbo, he noted that in sex scenes, the roles that the actress played rendered her partners invisible as if she is in some autoerotic intimacy while Dietrich played with her men, manipulative of their weaknesses and follies and also calculating but always aware of them.5 The narrative was made more realistic and dramatic by Dietrich own experience in the cabaret during her early years. Her performance effectively depicted the kind of female sexuality that permeated Weimar Germany during the 1930s. Petro (2002) wrote about this explaining that Lola’s blasé sexuality – her seeming lack of effect, often described as coldness, though better understood as boredom – established Dietrich’s onscreen reputation as a sophisticated, knowing self-conscious, liberated and sexually decadent star.6 The film was unapologetic in its treatment of sex as a theme and how women are portrayed. A contemporary artist, Hannah Hoch, created a photomontage called Marlene in 1930, literally putting Dietrich’s legs on a pedestal while two men are looking in awe (see the image on this page). A woman’s smiling lips was also depicted in the upper right corner of the artwork. This reflected how Blue Angel and Dietrich came to be understood and accepted after the film’s release. Marlene and the image she portrayed in the movie solidified in the social discourse while the inclusion of both men and women in the artwork depicted the increasing allusion to the androgynous dimension to the Dietrich image. Humor and Americanization When Marlene Dietrich finally came to Hollywood, her star image was further reinforced. Building on the reputation she achieved from The Blue Angel, Hollywood studios played up her femme fatale persona, highlighting her bohemian and liberated onscreen character. For instance, Paramount’s publicity for her films has always included uncontrived photographs of Dietrich, showing her enjoying food with friends, frolicking in the pool and having fun all in all. Quoting James Beaman, McLean wrote that Dietrich was set apart because: “Her glamour is incredible, her beauty luminous, but it is made interesting,” since “there is an awareness that Marlene herself feels it is a ‘put on.’ That playfulness makes her real, sophisticated, and irresistible.”7 An important element in the creation of her star image in Hollywood is humor. There is a breath of fresh air in the way she was marketed, which effectively set her apart from the serious actresses of her time – those that were confined to a box and, hence, were limited and constrained in the way their image was sold to the public as commodities. Fun, bold and unapologetic – these traits enabled Dietrich to adapt and reinvent easily and to seize the imagination and interest of a society that is raring to be free or one that constantly fantasizes about breaking norms and challenging what is accepted. As Dietrich and her characters embraced decadence, uninhibited sexuality, aggressiveness, and those others the depicted previously unchartered territories, she became some sort of a symbol that people gravitated to in the early 1930s. Through the carefully scripted environment created by the Hollywood public relations machinery and Dietrich herself, the actress was able to offer something that can be desired. From the erotic and sophisticated glamour identified with the actress’s earlier onscreen persona, Hollywood added good humor and raw physicality. As Lola-Lola, Amy Jolly, Helen Faraday, Concha Perez and Frenchy in Destry Rides Again, Dietrich combined an aura of wry, stand-offish world-weariness with energetic and bawdy humor, which was later further enhanced by characters typified by a readiness to throw themselves into a brawl.8 Changes in Dietrich’s star image were also made to accommodate the social pressures of her time. For example, during the early 1930s, the American film industry came under attack from moralists who dominated the public discourse and affected the public and the censor boards’ tastes. This was the time when Dietrich came to be associated with sex comedy flicks. This would later evolve into sexually sophisticated characters in the late 1930s when America was coming out of the Great Depression. The upheavals of this period, however, left the audience tired with the exotic and erotic glamour heroines. Briefly, the Dietrich image suffered a setback. This lasted until her image was reinvented as the previously mentioned Americanized version of Lola-Lola. This was easy because the Dietrich persona was diverse. So when the time came to reinvent her image as one that loves fun, tempering on glamour and being subordinated to strong men, Dietrich did not encounter many difficulties. By 1940, Dietrich was no longer the languid siren the audience saw in her early films. Rather, her image was energized. Some say that this evolution marked the Americanization of Marlene Dietrich. This claim may be true for all the combined reasons cited previously. However, one must remember that even though her Hollywood characters were reinvented in order to appeal to the American public, the old Marlene Dietrich was still very present. The woman that director von Sternberg saw was still the same one mesmerizing Hollywood's public. In her American films, Dietrich's characters were not far from the cabaret-bred Marlene who sang, danced and seduced. If there are changes to the star image, they were merely augmentation and upgrades. Borrowing from the words of McLean, Dietrich – in re-establishing herself as a bankable star in the United States – merely became an energetic variation of Sternberg’s whore with a heart of gold.9 Androgyny and Lesbianism What enabled Dietrich to finally pull away from the shadow of Garbo was the insistence of her own personal character. Besides being a glamour girl, Dietrich became increasingly identified with her sexual preference and unique tastes in clothing. When the film Morocco was released, for instance, the movie-going public was finally treated to a different Marlene. In the now famous opening scene, she was surprisingly (at least in the context of the norms of the period) depicted clad in the tuxedo, performing in a bar, and later kissing a girl, a picture that scandalized and titillated the audience, making them intrigued and see Dietrich in a new light. This image is not without basis. The actress was known to have been involved in same-sex affairs in the past. This element would find its way to the Dietrich star image, being used as storylines for her films, themes for photo shoots and concepts for advertisements and public relations materials. It provided an additional dimension to her star persona, highlighting her exoticism, which was initially attributed to her being a European. The lesbianism or bisexuality aspects of Dietrich star image also highlights how her off-screen persona was exploited and integrated into her onscreen roles. While a good part of her private life was kept at arm's length from the public in order to strategically maintain enough mystery, Dietrich was never shy or hesitant in sharing her interest in women. Then, of course, there was the adoption of masculine dress, which started when director Josef von Sternberg outfitted Dietrich in male tuxedos in two motion pictures, carefully explaining: “the formal male finery fitted her with much charm, and I not only wished to touch lightly on a Lesbian accent… but also demonstrate that her sensual appeal was not entirely due to the classic formation of her legs.”10 The masculine attire and Dietrich physicality have created an androgynous aura and mystique in the actress image that both men and women were drawn to her and her characters. Hoch's photo montage identified earlier demonstrated this point clearly. In addition, the tuxedos, trousers and the male finery became an object of fascination for the media, prompting Paramount to exploit it further in its publicities. The efficacy of this move could be demonstrated in a news item written by Dietrich. To quote: "Marlene Dietrich created a mild sensation when she arrived at the El Mirador hotel in Palm Springs… She wore masculine attire for all occasions at the desert resort.”11 The androgynous look further enhanced Dietrich star appeal. According to Abrams, the images projected by the actress in men’s clothes spurred the public to connect the star’s romantic life to Hollywood life, particularly noting how an alluring woman wearing men’s clothing enabled different people to fantasize.12 Tasker also noted this by arguing that the cross-dressing – especially with Dietrich trademark top hat, white tie and tails – evoked the sexual ambiguity that became central to the actress star persona because the image as constructed by the spectators are based on "extra-textual rumors.”13 Indeed, there are several meanings that different people could identify in the androgyny of the Dietrich star image. The most important point here, however, is that because of this tactic, Dietrich was able to rise above the constraints and pettiness of both class and gender. She also shattered social limitations. These variables are, unarguably, very attractive and seductive to her audience. Conclusion All in all, Marlene Dietrich is highly successful in developing and managing her star image. Early in her career, she successfully attracted the attention of the audience and later on Paramount by using Greta Garbo as her peg. Capitalizing on the actress’ popularity, Dietrich ingratiated herself in the movie-going public’s minds. Later on, Dietrich would reinvent this image and reinforce it with her strengths and her own off-screen persona. When the social milieu proved hostile to the way her image was being marketed, she was able to transform herself and adapt. Through all these, it is clear that Dietrich is cognizant of the way her image becomes a material commodity. She was able to manipulate it in such a way that it functioned as the material power, which, according to Nichols, is also influential in gaining power over emotional and intellectual life.14 Dietrich successfully transformed her image as a commodity through textual production wherein she permeated social discourse and, in the process, created a need in the context of modern consumption. References Abrams, Brett. Hollywood Bohemians: transgressive sexuality and the selling of the movieland dream. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2008. Bach, Steven. Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minesotta Press, 2011. Cryer, Max, Love me tender: the stories behind the world's best-loved songs. London: Frances Lincoln Limited, 2008. McLean, Adrienne. Glamour in a Golden Age: Movie Stars of the 1930s. Piscataway, NJ: Ruthers University Press, 2011. Nichols, Bill. Movies and Methods. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. Petro, Patrice. Aftershocks of the new: feminism and film history. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Tasker, Yvonne, Working girls: gender and sexuality in popular cinema. London: Routledge, 1998. Read More