After all these years, I finally have watched Salomé (1922) with Alla Nazimova, Nigel de Brulier, Mitchell Lewis, Rose Dione, and others. I had been forewarned in many, many articles and books, but I still wasn't ready for what hit me. About ten minutes into the show my wife joined me and began a MST3000 banter that she continued with until the end. Very fitting! The best thing about the show was the costuming, the incredible costumes designed by Natasha Rambova. The tight fitting skirt Nazimova wore during the dance she did so that her step-father Herod (Lewis) would accede to his oath to give her whatever she wished for was straight out of the late 60s, early 70s - not only far ahead of its time, but probably as scandalous as could be in 1922 when skirts began to rise and rise and flappers ruled the roost. It was so tight that Nazimova's veins showed through the material. Her arteries looked as if they might be belts. Her breaths were the jumping she was calling dancing.
The film is based on Oscar Wilde's play from 1895, and it deals with the biblical story of John the Baptist being kept in a solitary place - in a prison - hidden away from those of his own race who wish to kill him - by Tetrarch Herod, leader of Judea. Herod has murdered his brother and married his brother's wife. He's beginning to fall in love - read lust - with his step-daughter Salomé. Salomé has become infatuated with the prisoner, Jokanaan (John the Baptist), but he has utterly rejected her. She now wishes his head on a platter - a silver charger - so that she can kiss him on the lips.
Utterly watchable non-watchable stuff. Acting technique is more like watching some sort of comic ballet, but it's done for real. You'll love it whether you want to or not. It's not lovable, and you'll wish to have it on a platter, but you'll kiss its carcass anyway, the same way Nazimova kissed the head of Jokanaan. By the way Jokanaan is played by Nigel de Brulier, who never looked so gaunt and sickly. Herod is Mitchell Lewis.
This is in the Blu-Ray set "Pioneers: First Women Film-makers" on disc 6.
Coda: An almost unbelievable fact: Alla Nazimova, the director-star of this camp of herself and Rambova, was already 43 years old when she played this young daughter of Herodias (Rose Dione, who was only 2 years older than Nazimova in real life!). There are scenes when you'll believe Nazimova is Dione's mother. And I shouldn't forget to mention that Dione's hair in the film looks like the cone of a cone-shaped mountain, one where the fourth quadrant allows for a face to stick out.
Possibly the closest type of thing to this film is the German kammerspiel, an intimate theater technique that did indeed reach film in the early 20s in things like "Hintertreppe" (1921). "Sappho" (1921) also is close to the stylization. Both are outstanding films, with genuinely realized technique, great writing, great acting, great directing. Salomé is more like watching a grotesque burlesque of the form.
The film is based on Oscar Wilde's play from 1895, and it deals with the biblical story of John the Baptist being kept in a solitary place - in a prison - hidden away from those of his own race who wish to kill him - by Tetrarch Herod, leader of Judea. Herod has murdered his brother and married his brother's wife. He's beginning to fall in love - read lust - with his step-daughter Salomé. Salomé has become infatuated with the prisoner, Jokanaan (John the Baptist), but he has utterly rejected her. She now wishes his head on a platter - a silver charger - so that she can kiss him on the lips.
Utterly watchable non-watchable stuff. Acting technique is more like watching some sort of comic ballet, but it's done for real. You'll love it whether you want to or not. It's not lovable, and you'll wish to have it on a platter, but you'll kiss its carcass anyway, the same way Nazimova kissed the head of Jokanaan. By the way Jokanaan is played by Nigel de Brulier, who never looked so gaunt and sickly. Herod is Mitchell Lewis.
This is in the Blu-Ray set "Pioneers: First Women Film-makers" on disc 6.
Coda: An almost unbelievable fact: Alla Nazimova, the director-star of this camp of herself and Rambova, was already 43 years old when she played this young daughter of Herodias (Rose Dione, who was only 2 years older than Nazimova in real life!). There are scenes when you'll believe Nazimova is Dione's mother. And I shouldn't forget to mention that Dione's hair in the film looks like the cone of a cone-shaped mountain, one where the fourth quadrant allows for a face to stick out.
Possibly the closest type of thing to this film is the German kammerspiel, an intimate theater technique that did indeed reach film in the early 20s in things like "Hintertreppe" (1921). "Sappho" (1921) also is close to the stylization. Both are outstanding films, with genuinely realized technique, great writing, great acting, great directing. Salomé is more like watching a grotesque burlesque of the form.