'Varieté', based on a 1923 novel by Felix Hollaender, 'Der Eid des Stephan Huller', has a pretty basic plot of adultery and jealousy that has seen service several times over the years, and is here embellished by being set amidst the exotic and dangerous world of trapeze artists. It's thus HOW the story is told rather that WHAT happens that gives 'Varieté' its lustre. It's certainly - along with most actual German silents - not an expressionist film; the backdrop is grubbily realistic in a way far more common to German films of the twenties rather than expressionist, and has been rendered super-stylish by cameraman Karl Freund (who shot this between 'Der letzte Mann' and 'Metropolis') and director E.A.Dupont through flamboyant staging and camera-work.
Emil Jannings is relatively restrained too, and wears far less makeup and facial hair than we are accustomed to, while amply demonstrating that he can still suggest violent menace just by staring and pursing his lips. Lya De Putti as the saucy little minx with her floppy, boyish hair and knowingly expressive face who Jannings leaves his wife for and then falls for creepy Warwick Ward still remains deliciously plausible as the cause of the destructive passion we witness over 90 years later.
BIG SPOILER COMING: The film seems to have been building up to Jannings allowing Ward to 'accidentally' fall to his death during their trapeze act, but he instead kills him afterwards in his hotel room and immediately hands himself over to the police without bothering to explain why he did it. I don't know how the original novel ended, but would have found a more satisfactory conclusion being Jannings committing the perfect murder by making Ward's death appear accidental and resuming married life with Ms De Putti, both their lives soured by the fact that she has lost her lover and is left unsure of whether his death really was an accident, while Jannings' life is forever tarnished by the fact of his wife's betrayal. However, this would have meant Jannings not going to jail, and the German censor had probably found more than enough to take issue with without adding such an amoral resolution to this already salty brew of lust and immorality.
Emil Jannings is relatively restrained too, and wears far less makeup and facial hair than we are accustomed to, while amply demonstrating that he can still suggest violent menace just by staring and pursing his lips. Lya De Putti as the saucy little minx with her floppy, boyish hair and knowingly expressive face who Jannings leaves his wife for and then falls for creepy Warwick Ward still remains deliciously plausible as the cause of the destructive passion we witness over 90 years later.
BIG SPOILER COMING: The film seems to have been building up to Jannings allowing Ward to 'accidentally' fall to his death during their trapeze act, but he instead kills him afterwards in his hotel room and immediately hands himself over to the police without bothering to explain why he did it. I don't know how the original novel ended, but would have found a more satisfactory conclusion being Jannings committing the perfect murder by making Ward's death appear accidental and resuming married life with Ms De Putti, both their lives soured by the fact that she has lost her lover and is left unsure of whether his death really was an accident, while Jannings' life is forever tarnished by the fact of his wife's betrayal. However, this would have meant Jannings not going to jail, and the German censor had probably found more than enough to take issue with without adding such an amoral resolution to this already salty brew of lust and immorality.