Blue Angel and The Blue Angel

This week, we'll screen The Blue Angel, the classic German film by Josef von Sternberg. I believe that you'll see some thematic and narrative similarities between this film and Francine Prose's novel. As you're aware by now, Prose's novel and Ted Swenson's first novel are both named after von Sternberg's film. The professor is played by a giant of German silent and sound cinema, Emil Jannings. But the truly huge star in the film was Marlene Dietrich who plays Lola Lola, the cabaret performer. Dietrich was an unknown at the time (she has second billing to Sternberg), but this is the film that made her a star. She was an international film actress, singer, and sex symbol.

The Blue Angel takes place in Weimer Republic Germany between WWI and II. Berlin, where the film is set, was a haven of liberalism and sexual freedom in the 1920s-30s, esp. in the cabaret culture dramatized in the film.

Some questions that I have:

• Lola Lola is one of the classic femme fatales of cinema. In what ways does Angela Argo seem similar to her?
• In the film, the professor gets into a scuffle w/ a ship captain over Lola Lola. What is the purpose of this scene? Why does Lola seem to be attracted to the professor, esp. since she's so much younger? At what point does she fall out of love w/ him? How would you connect their relationship to Swenson and Angela's? 
• What do you make of the relationships that Swenson has w/ other women in his life: his wife, his daughter, Magda? In that lunch scene w/ Magda (pp. 76-84) why do neither seem to be hungry? In what ways are those relationships different than the one he is developing w/ Angela?
• What did you think about the fact that Ted reads Angela's "dirty" poems and then immediately goes and has sex w/ his wife? 
• What questions do you have about the film or the novel?