Cinema
Passion
Madame Dubarry
Ernst Lubitsch · 1919
Synopsis
Jeanne, a milliner at Madame Labille's in Paris, loves the student Armand de Foix but does not turn away the Spanish ambassador; Armand kills him in a duel and ends up in prison. Having become the mistress of Count Guillaume Dubarry, Jeanne goes to ask the minister Choiseul for money and catches the eye of Louis XV on the way. Married to the count's brother in order to be presented at court, she becomes the king's favourite and the most powerful woman in the kingdom, while Armand, whom she has had released, serves in the château guard.
Context
The film was shot in 1919 on the Ufa grounds, in front of the New Palace in Potsdam and at the Tempelhof studios, from a screenplay by Norbert Falk and Hanns Kräly, with Pola Negri and Emil Jannings. On 18 September 1919 it opened the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin. Released in New York in December 1920 under the title Passion, it made Lubitsch and Pola Negri known in the United States and broke the blockade that the Allied industries had imposed on German cinema. French critics of the time were indignant at seeing Germans film the history of France, while praising the execution.
Who it is for
A silent feature film of about one hour fifty minutes, in seven acts, with large crowd scenes.
Prizes and reception
Selected by the New York Times among the fifteen most important films of 1921; it opened the road to Hollywood for its director.