#530: STERNBERG, Josef von: The Last Command (1928)

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3 SILENT CLASSICS BY JOSEF VON STERNBERG {Spine #528} OOP

STERNBERG, Josef von (United States)
The Last Command [1928]
Spine #530
DVD


Emil Jannings won the first best actor Academy Award for his performance as a sympathetic tyrant: an exiled Russian general turned Hollywood extra who lands a role playing a version of his former czarist self, bringing about his emotional downfall. Josef von Sternberg's The Last Command is a brilliantly realized silent melodrama and a witty send-up of the Hollywood machine, featuring virtuoso cinematography, grandly designed set and effects, and rousing Russian Revolution sequences. Towering above it all is the passionate, heartbreaking Jannings, whose portrayal of a man losing his grip on reality is one for the history books.

88 minutes
Black & White
Silent
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2010
Director/Writers


Story by Lajos Bíró.
Screenplay by John F. Goodrich.


The Extras

The Booklet

See Spine #528.

Commentary

None.

Two scores

One by Robert Israel and another by Alloy Orchestra.
Visual essay

By film scholar Tag Gallagher.

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