Films/DVD Asylum

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Don't like silent film? This one, "The Last Command," will change your mind.

Posted by tinear on September 29, 2010 at 13:39:04:
Pair director Josef von Sternberg with Emil Jannings and these two greats created a memorable film featuring a justly lauded and rewarded performance by Jannings (Oscar, Best Actor) at the height of his considerable powers. Evelyn Brent is sensational, with a "modern" performance as moving as any "talkie" role could be. William Powell, of "The Thin Man" fame, shows his range.
A Hollywood director, an emigre from Russia, sends out for an actor to portray a Russian general. A crestfallen, husk of an old man applies and the director recognizes he is the former head of the Russian military, a deadly enemy that once held his life in his hands.
The mob scenes are as good as I've ever seen, truly terrifying; Brent is gorgeous and heart-rending; the cinematography is first-rate--- and the DVD is very well (re)constructed.
But what makes this truly worth your time is Jannings' timeless performance. In what could have provided ample space for exaggerations and scenery-chewing, he relied on nuance and magnetism. Who today possibly could portray so convincingly such a tragic character, so powerfully yet so tenderly?
No one.