Marlene Dietrich Shows You How to Be a Boss

Something a little different for the meme generation....

  
Marlene Dietrich's Best Boss B!tch Clips from Joseph Andrews on Vimeo.
***Also on YouTube***

RIP J. Michael Riva

5D Conference : Bigger Bang Pt 4 - J. Michael Riva from Dave Blass on Vimeo.
A few weeks ago, I watched the above video, whose views have skyrocketed after reports of J. Michael Riva's passing began circulating yesterday. In it, the talented Mr. Riva discussed production design and his career as a production designer, and he even shared some personal stories. He described his family as "theatrical," "dreamers," and "nutty as fruitcakes," yet he was understated enough not to name his grandmother, Marlene Dietrich, only calling her "an actress."

You know what? Even though Riva had a creative pedigree, his own professional achievements spoke for themselves. Most recently, Riva has worked on CGI-heavy superhero films with extraordinary visuals, such as the Iron Man and Spider-Man franchises. Although I have seen some of these movies, my vision's probably too jaded to appreciate them with the childlike wonder that Riva's work so successfully inspires. In fact, my favorite sets of Riva's are from movies that I watched countless times during my childhood--The Color Purple, The Goonies, and Radio Flyer. Riva played many other behind-the-scenes roles during his career, too, and I remember the Tales from the Crypt episode that he directed when it aired ("The Secret"), even though I certainly didn't know anything about Riva at the time. Some of its dark sets lit in blue reminded me of Beetlejuice, another one of my juvenile favorites. I find hypothetical situations trivial, but I now wonder what magic Riva could have conjured up had he collaborated with Tim Burton.

RIP J. Michael Riva.

Also, RIP Ray Bradbury, another man with quite an impressive imagination. I learned that he was photographed during his teenage years with Dietrich in 1935, which you can see in this slideshow.

Lady Gaga, Marlene Dietrich, and...Anna Swanson?

EDITED MAY 7, 2012 TO ADD: Looks like the video has been made private. What a pity!

when you wish upon a star from Cams Compsers on Vimeo.


While ritually Googling "marlene dietrich," I spotted a Carleton College Cinema & Media Studies (a.k.a. film school) events page, which literally highlighted Anna Swanson's presentation about herself, Lady Gaga, and Marlene Dietrich. I immediately thought, "Well, I want to watch it," and easily found it online, as you see above. It's more than a presentation, as the events page describes it. Swanson identifies it as "an experimental, historically re-interpretive, non-narrative, quasi-documentary piece on gender performativity and the construction of the female star." To me, it's a short film that cleverly splices audio and video of its subjects to address gender performativity and performance. Oh, and Swanson sounds a lot like My So-Called Life's Angela Chase, too!

When Swanson epiphanizes, "Marlene Dietrich may not be what I want her to be the way Lady Gaga is," and then cuts to Dietrich (as Mrs. Bertholt in Judgment of Nuremberg, a detail that I perhaps shouldn't bother to mention because it isn't relevant to Swanson's narrative) stating, "That's why it's so ironic," I can't help but wish that all the folks who ever professed that Dietrich was their feminist icon would watch Swanson's piece! Indeed, it is ironic because Dietrich's gendered performances have been so much more visibly striking overall than Lady Gaga's, whose only stand-out act was as Jo Calderone, yet we only know of Dietrich's vehemently anti-feminist ideology in Maximilian Schell's documentary Marlene, whereas Gaga has publicly spoken about feminist causes such as rising rates of HIV infection among women and self-identifies as a feminist.

There is, however, one caveat to this. As Swanson said, she is exploring Gaga and Dietrich's embodied self-expressions. Well, Dietrich's rant about women's lib was disembodied and perhaps intoxicated self-expression. What do we make of that? I feel as ambivalent--and possibly as naked--as Swanson does at the end of her short film. I don't feel uncomfortable, though! If Noel Coward could compare Dietrich to Helen of Troy, I have no qualms about comparing Dietrich to Lady Gaga and whoever else hits the scene years from now. I encourage the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.

British Pathé's Marlene Dietrich Collection

Pathé has amassed an extensive collection of footage featuring many subjects, including Marlene Dietrich. The French branch of the company keeps a closely guarded hoard, but British Pathé shares many free preview clips.

I've never heard or read about Dietrich's 1955 philanthropic efforts for the curiously named

( BLIND BABIES PARTY )

And at the end of this 1962 clip, Dietrich almost trips on the stairs:

( TAORMINA FILM FESTIVAL )

Grand Hotel

Over at The Platinum Blog Starring Jean Harlow, Lisa Burks tells the interesting story of what happened to the Grand Hotel Register, which was signed by all the guests as they arrived at the premiere for the film at Grauman's Chinese in April 1932.

Below is a page from the register, which survives in a private collection:

Guests "signed in" at the Grand Hotel, top to bottom:

Mr & Mrs Cecil B de Mille, Marlene, Rudi, Anita Loos, John Emerson (producer & husband of Anita Loos), Mr & Mrs ??? Barclay, Pat O' Brien, Jean Harlow, Paul Bern, Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone.

MGM made a promo short about the event, "Hollywood Premiere" - available on the Grand Hotel DVD, and also on youtube. Marlene only apprears briefly - this was MGM publicity, after all.