In Varieté, the towering Emil Jannings plays Boss Hueller, a former trapeze artist living with his wife and child, whose career was ravaged by injury. However, when the young Berta –Marie (Lya De Putti) is brought into his life, Boss falls under her spell, and casts aside his family to relaunch his career. When Boss and Berta-Marie get their chance to make it big with the legendary acrobat Artinelli (Warwick Ward), they take it, inadvertently launching them into a vicious love triangle.
While the film chugs along with admirable pacing, the real excitement of the film lies in its indulgence of the magic of acrobatics. Boss and Berta-Marie’s first performance together is absolutely exquisite, utilizing extraordinary camera work far beyond its time. Achieving these angles with such accuracy should have been unobtainable for the time period, but cinematographers Karl Freund (Metropolis, Dracula) and Carl Hoffman (Faust,Dr. Mabuse der Spieler) were simply virtuosos. The acrobat sequences are still astonishing nearly one hundred years later, which is no small feat.
Even outside of the circus sequences, there is a remarkable flexibility with the camera. Expressive zoomes, quick pans, fluid movements, whip pans and kaleidoscopic effects pad the film with a palpable energy that help to overcome the banal story. Director E. A. Dupont possessed a distinct sense of style, and Varieté is certainly one of the most impressive technical achievements of the silent era. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film was a massive success upon its release, screening for 12 weeks in the United States, which to this day is an impressive accomplishment for a foreign film.
The digital restoration, courtesy of the fabulous F.W Murnau foundation is solid, allowing the films technical mastery to shine. There are three soundtracks to choose from, which significantly enhances replay value, and my particular preference was for the lovely Stephen Horne score. The American version of the film is also included, which is an interesting addition, and there is a booklet with new writings on the film and archival images. Disappointingly, there are no features about the making of the film, as it would have been fascinating to learn more accomplishing such impressive feats in the silent era.
With a strong audio and visual presentation, Varieté is given new life in the Masters of Cinema release. Though the films plot is forgettable, the films style is so audacious it almost doesn’t matter. In a filmmaking era so often defined by a stagnant camera, E. A. Dupont’s melodrama is a great achievement, and a more than worthy addition to the collection of fans of film history.
