The Blue Angel - 8,30pm Koha booking - Wellington Film Society

Thanks to the Goethe-Institut we are able to allow some non-members to attend this screening with koha. You must have a booking through this site to attend. Film Society members do not need to book.

We have a small number of seats available for the 6pm screening, and many more available for the 8.30pm screening. Seats are unallocated, we start films on time and do not play trailers.

The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel)

Josef von Sternberg • 1930 • Germany • 107 min

One of the Weimar Republic’s first major sound films, The Blue Angel marks the birth of Marlene Dietrich’s international stardom and remains a fierce portrait of social decay. Adapted from Heinrich Mann’s Professor Unrat, it chronicles the downfall of schoolteacher Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings), whose attempt to discipline students for idolising cabaret singer Lola Lola instead leads him into obsession, professional ruin, and humiliating submission within her troupe.

Far from a simple femme‑fatale tragedy, the film sits at the crossroads of major debates in film theory. While Laura Mulvey later positioned Sternberg’s Dietrich films as prime examples of the male gaze, other scholars such as Gaylyn Studlar argue for a “masochistic aesthetic,” reading Rath as a willing participant in a dynamic where Lola’s power lies in her indifference rather than seduction. These interpretations anticipate themes visible in modern works exploring dominance, identity, and the spectacle of gender.

Stylistically, the film riffs off German Expressionism, using chiaroscuro lighting, claustrophobic studio sets, and inventive early sound design to emphasise psychological collapse. It also helped shape the visual and thematic DNA of American film noir after German émigré artists relocated to Hollywood. Beyond theory, The Blue Angel stands as an allegory of Weimar cultural upheaval: Rath embodies rigid old‑world authority, while Lola represents the chaotic pull of modern mass entertainment – an imbalance that mirrors a society on the edge of catastrophe.

Find out more about the Wellington Film Society - https://wellingtonfilms.nz/