- The Docks of New York
As Ben Sachs noted last week, the Music Box has officially begun a three-month retrospective of the films both starring actress Marlene Dietrich and directed by Josef von Sternberg. If that wasn’t exciting enough, each film—seven titles in total—will screen on 35-millimeter. Sachs is dead-on when he writes that “few directors have been as obsessed as von Sternberg by the properties of light and shadow—watching his work on celluloid is comparable to attending a painting exhibition.”
- Shanghai Express (1932) Only recently available on DVD, this is perhaps the most underrated of the Dietrich/von Sternberg joints. The film is nearly pure mood, a lush and exotic ride peppered with romance and occasional danger, and the cinematography, per usual, is masterful.
