Discuss The Scarlet Empress
Discuss → Movies → The Scarlet Empress → General
Visually stunning biopic of the early life of Catherine the Great
posted by PT 100STAFFMOD on March 26, 2018 at 7:27 PM
Outstanding sets, lighting and camera work make this Josef von Sternberg film an abstract expressionist masterpiece. A bit slow in the middle, but otherwise an excellent film. Interestingly, there is sparse dialog, allowing the visuals to dominate to good effect. Sam Jaffe is wonderful as Peter--very creepy and screwy.
A piece of trivia: the actress who played Catherine as a child was actually Dietrich's daughter, Maria. She grew into a beautiful and talented adult actress and, at the age of 95, is still working in film at this writing.
Reply by rudely_murray
on March 26, 2018 at 8:23 PM
Completely agree - it's a superb film, dazzling to look at and with magnificent performances by Dietrich and Sam Jaffe as the mad Duke. It's a while since I saw it but I don't remember the pace flagging at all in the middle. I need to take another look at it.
I did not know that Dietrich's daughter was still around and still working!
Reply by tmdb53400018
on March 28, 2018 at 2:31 AM
It's a visually impressive film, most likely one of the ones that gave von Sternberg and Dietrich's partnership so much eminence.