The Devil Is a Woman

The story on which Luis Buñuel based his Obscure Object of Desire was earlier treated by Sternberg. The Devil Is a Woman is set against a backdrop of 19th century Spanish revolution, which pales in the face of the upheaval Marlene Dietrich causes in the men who ruin their lives for her elusive love. “The Devil Is a Woman is the ne plus ultra of Sternberg's art, a synthetic creation of unique and transcendent beauty. It hardly matters that the script reduces Pierre Louys' classic of sado-masochism to the most trivial level. Never has any woman looked as ravishingly beautiful on the screen, or seductively sexual - and compared to Dietrich the men are the ‘objects,' wooden characters: if it's sexist, it's sexist in a radically different manner than most Hollywood stereotypes, and worth seeing for eccentricity. Never has any director demonstrated such complete mastery of mise-en-scène: even the slow dissolves between scenes are inspired moments, dying images reflecting the evanescence of all things. A warning to those with no nostalgia for decadence, or no sense of humor: stay away.” Treasures from the UCLA Film Archives, PFA Publication

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