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==Theme== [[File:Morocco (film) 1930 Josef von Sternberg, director. Marlene Dietrich, cross dress, top hat.jpg|thumb|upright|"The purveyor of pansexuality and the supreme lover, male or female."{{sfn|Sarris|1966|p=29}}]] With ''Morocco'', Sternberg examines the "interchange of masculine and feminine characteristics" in a "genuine interplay between male and female."{{sfn|Sarris|1966|pp=29–30}} ===Tom Brown=== The character of Tom Brown was portrayed as an example of a lost soul, a tough, jaded American serving in the French Foreign Legion with a name that was so bland that it was clearly a pseudonym.{{sfn|Baxter|2010|p=125}} In the film, it is strongly implied that Brown was attempting to escape a painful past by enlisting in the French Foreign Legion, which famously "asks no questions" about an applicant's background.{{sfn|Baxter|2010|p=125}} Likewise, Brown seems to have no future beyond fighting for a cause that he does not believe in Morocco and seemingly sleeping with every women in sight.{{sfn|Baxter|2010|p=125}} It is only when he meets Amy that he finds someone that he actually cares about and a reason to be hopeful about the future.{{sfn|Baxter|2010|p=125}} Most notably, Brown who was portrayed as an entirely cynical, selfish character prior to meeting Amy displays an altruistic side as he encourages Amy to marry the rich man La Bessière who is more capable of supporting her financially than he is under his private's salary.{{sfn|Baxter|2010|p=129}} Despite his efforts to push Amy out of his life, when he is alone, he carves the "Amy Jolly" onto the table along with a heart. ==="When Love Dies": Dietrich's male impersonation=== Dietrich's "butch performance" dressed in "top hat, [[white tie]] and tails" includes a "mock seduction" of a pretty female cabaret patron, whom Dietrich "outrages with a kiss."{{sfn|Sarris|1966|pp=29–30}}{{sfn|Baxter|1971|p=79}} Dietrich's costume simultaneously mocks the pretensions of one lover (Menjou's La Bessière) and serves as an invitation to a handsome soldier-of-fortune (Cooper's Tom Brown), the two men being presented by Sternberg as contrasting conceptions of masculinity."{{sfn|Sarris|1966|pp=15, 29–30}}{{sfn|Baxter|1971|p=79}} This famous sequence provides an insight into Dietrich's character, Amy Jolly, as well as the director himself: "Dietrich's impersonation is an adventure, an act of bravado that subtly alters her conception of herself as a woman, and what begins as self-expression ends in self-sacrifice, perhaps the path also of Sternberg as an artist."{{sfn|Sarris|1966|p=29}} === La Bessière's humiliation=== Dietrich's devoted suitor, Menjou's La Bessière, "part stoic, part [[wikt:sybarite|sybarite]], part satanist", is destined to lose the object of his desire. Menjou's response to Dietrich's desertion reveals the nature of the man and presents a key thematic element of the film: <blockquote>In Menjou's pained politeness of expression is engraved the age-old tension between [[Apollonian and Dionysian]] demands of art, between pride in restraint and passion in excess ... when Dietrich kisses him goodbye, Menjou clutches her wrist in one last spasmodic reflex of passion, but the other hand retains its poise at his side, the gestures of form and feeling thus conflicting to the very end of the drama.{{sfn|Sarris|1966|p=30}}</blockquote> The La Bessière character has autobiographical overtones for Sternberg, as Menjou has looks and mannerisms that resemble the director.{{sfn|Baxter|1971|loc=p. 79: "... no doubt [Sternberg's] motive for casting Menjou ..."}} Critic [[Andrew Sarris]] observed: "Sternberg has never been as close to any character as he is to this elegant expatriate." ===Dietrich's high-heeled march into the dunes=== ''(There has been the criticism that an effect of a trek across the desert in high heels is unrealistic and while not noted would reach a definition of [[Camp (style)|camp]]. The observation is technically correct. Dietrich's character ''does'' set out in her society shoes but within yards breaks her stride and removes them.)''<br> The "absurdity" of the closing sequence, in which Dietrich, "sets out into the desert sands on spike heels in search of Gary Cooper", was noted by critics at the time of the film's release.{{sfn|Sarris|1966|loc=p. 29: "C.A. Lejeune of ''The London Observer''"}} The image, however odd, is part of the "dream décor" that abandoned "documentary certification" to create "a world of illusions." As Sarris points out, "The complaint that a woman in high heels would not walk off into the desert is nonetheless meaningless. A dream does not require endurance, only the will to act."{{sfn|Sarris|1966|pp=29–30}} Film historian Charles Silver considers the final scene as one that "no artist today would dare attempt": {{blockquote|"The film's unforgettable ending works dramatically because it comes at a moment of panic, one in a series of such moments that have brought Dietrich to the brink. Sternberg says, 'The average human being lives behind an impenetrable veil and will disclose his deep emotions only in a crisis which robs him of control.' Amy Jolly had hidden behind her veil for many years and many men, and her emergence, the sublimation of her fear and pride to her desire, is one of the most supremely romantic gestures in film."<ref name="moma"/>}}
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