Joseph Von Sternberg

Plagued by financial trouble throughout the 30's, Paramount studio depended on its stars more than before to give its picture a more expensive and lavish look. The better movies were the successful star-director partnerships such as between Joseph Von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich that lasted couple of years after seven movies. The Viennese born director was unquestionably one of the cinema's finest and most elaborate stylists. He was considered a modernist and achieved in his work a kind of mysterious splendor, a lushly decadent sensuality mingled with spiritual transcendence for his wonderfully egocentric characters. His films are extremely rich in metaphors, in symbolisms and in subconscious messages and signs. Its' rare to understand the full meaning of his art in one viewing: He was able to allude the most highly eroticized parts of Dietrich's body such as her legs and deals with themes, such as sexuality , fetishism, the erotic, love, passion, betrayal and manipulation, without being stopped by the censorship board. Sternberg, whose films are centered on psychological and sexual problems, put the accent intensively on the "Mise en scene" instead of the action to enhance the dynamics of desire. He was a master in making his picture more lavish than they actually were by putting great accent on the art direction (From the visual motives such as props to the costume and set design), the strategic lighting, the aesthetic of the camera (from the framing and the composition of a shot to the camera movements), the specific blocking of the actors and finally the use of sound. The essay will cover the "Mise en scene" of the Joseph von Sternberg-Dietrich films and will give example for some of his movies such as "The Blue Angel" (1929), " Shanghai Express"(1932), "The Scarlet Empress" (1934) and "the Devil is a woman" (1935).

Sternberg, especially with his Mise-en-scene and the utilization of the frame and narrative, managed to create a unique Stylized and complex world that is his own imagination. He only wanted to work in studios to have full control of his vision and to develop his work to new boundaries without having external interference. He was often considered as an expressionistic artist.

He always built his sets, from the narrow street of Germany in "The Blue Angel'', to the train station in China in "Shanghai Express", focusing on every detail and overloading the frame with all sort of objects and patterns to give his pictures a clutter effect where the visual information is jammed in space. The first images of "The Blue Angel" are the rooftops of houses crammed together in the wake of winter. It then cuts to the streets of Germany where we see the small shops and the people working. Then we find ourselves in the professor's apartment that is rather dark, dusty and surcharged with all kind of books and files: Those details give a sense of a heavy atmosphere of a man who lives for his knowledge and have no place for pleasure. The only place he seems to be heading towards is his classroom that is also well organized; where the objects are well aligned and have a specific place (Like the notebook that is always on the same side of the table). All those locations are in heavy contrast with the cabaret of Lola that is chaotic and that privilege the fun, the non sobriety and the temptations of vice. A man like the professor who has a specific well organized life style would immediately see it as a barbaric and non civilized place.

More over, Sternberg uses the props, the dйcor, the furniture and the visual motives in such an intelligent way that all those elements would often speak more of the film's themes and ideas than the plot could ever be allowed to. Those elements that are very symbolic often reveal to the spectator the destiny of the characters. For example in "The Blue Angel", the movie starts with a poster of Lola and a woman that is comparing herself to her: that underlines that the cabaret singer is very famous. Also the happy mood of the professor in the morning is interrupted by the death of his bird. Although his maid doesn't hesitate a second to throw it in the fire, the educated man seems very perplexed by it. The tragic end of this small animal foreshadows the end of the movie and his destiny. After that, the professor leaves his apartment and heads towards the classroom. The film cuts to a shot of a clock and a pigeon flying in front of it: This bird represents the naivety of the older man. Soon after, we see one of his students drawing his caricature on his notebook that underlines his next job in the cabaret with his grotesque "cocorico". Finally, the silent clown that roams around him when he visits Lola, the stuffed birds and the fake angels in her room all help predicting unconsciously the sad and dark future of Rath.

Also in "The Scarlet Empress", the binding of Catherine and Peter's hands at their marriage is later echoed by an unquestionably similar knot Catherine ties in a napkin she is fondling, and then tosses onto the table of she and Peter's last meal together. The initiation of their marriage and the initiation of its end are in this way linked, and the audience is forced to take into account the changes in both their characters.

Another very important aspect of Sternberg's "Mise en scene" is his lighting that is very expressive. It usually introduces the mood of the scene revealing and hiding important so the eyes of the spectator notice specific important details in the light and the obscure creating a haunting disturbing world that have expressive shadows and patterns. In "The Blue Angel", at the end of the film the professor dies in his dark classroom. The janitor who is using a flashlight discovers the body. He places the flash light in front of the corpse and tries to release the hand of the professor who's gripping his desk. The flash light creates a halo above Rath's head as if he became an angel. The tracking back stresses the idea of his spirit leaving his body.

Furthermore the gaze of Dietrich always confronted the viewer. That was primary due to the placement of the lighting that was always constant in her close ups and medium shots: Overhead lighting illuminating the sculptured look of her bone structure and her soft sensual lips (the use of sheen), with the use of just a key-light above in front, casting a downward light, and a back -light to silhouette the hair. "Dietrich was not a sex object but a sexual and sexualized subject" (1)

Sternberg took great care in composing his frame: he created most of the time a background, middle ground and foreground. In the opening sequence of "Shanghai express",

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