Barbara Kosta, Willing Seduction: The Blue Angel, Marlene Dietrich, and Mass Culture

摘要

Josef von Sternberg's film The Blue Angel was released in 1930. It was one of Germany's first significant sound films. It is famous for having launched the film career of Marlene Dietrich and established her persona. Barbara Kosta studies the film in the context of the closing years of the Weimar Republic (1919-33). In this way she seeks to extend previous studies of the film by returning it to its own historical arena and the cultural politics of its period. In particular, she places The Blue Angel into the framework of prevalent attitudes to 'mass' culture and 'high' culture. 'Mass' culture was perceived by cultural conservatives as involving an Americanization of Germany and as undermining the cultural basis of German national identity.