Images - The Scarlet Empress

<BODY bgcolor="#CCCC99"> <font size="4"><br>The Scarlet Empress</font> <font size="2"> <br>DVD review Gary Morris</font> <font size=3 face="Book Antiqua,Century Schoolbook,Times New Roman"> <p>The sixth of Josef von Sternberg’s seven collaborations with Marlene Dietrich, <i>The Scarlet Empress</i> is a highly unorthodox biopic of Sophia Fredericka, the naif who is brought from the provinces to the Russian court to marry Peter III and produce a male heir. Hints that this is no ordinary history come early in a startling montage of Tsarist Russia. Von Sternberg’s fetishism is in full flower here as he catalogs a shadowy array of blatantly sadomasochistic tableaux: bodies spilling out of iron maidens; nude women being burnt at the stake; a man strapped to a whirling wheel; and the piece de resistance, a bound, upside-down man used as a clapper in a gigantic bell. <p><a href="default-nf.htm">Go to the review</a></font> </body>