Product Details

• Actors: John Barrymore, Camilla Horn, Victor Varconi, Hobart Bosworth, Bodil Rosing
• Directors: Ernst Lubitsch
• Format: Black & White, DVD, Silent, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: April 24, 2001
• Run Time: 71 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005AFSU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,056 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Ernst Lubitsch's Eternal Love" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

ETERNAL LOVE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Last Lubitsch Silent Loses A Little., July 7, 2001

By 

Chip Kaufmann (Asheville, N.C. United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ernst Lubitsch's Eternal Love (DVD)

Ernst Lubitsch is remembered today as "the man with the golden touch". His droll and witty comedies of the sexes from the 30's and 40's such as TROUBLE IN PARADISE and TO BE OR NOT TO BE certainly deserve their place in movie history. So do his silent films which thanks to present day technology are being made available to new generations of film lovers. MGM released one of his best known silent films THE STUDENT PRINCE IN OLD HEIDELBERG (1927) back in 1991. Image Entertainment released THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE (1924) in 2000. Now Milestone Films have released ETERNAL LOVE on DVD.

Made at the end of the silent era (1929) with music and sound effects discs, the film has been beautifully restored with original materials by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. I was surprised not only at its beauty but also by the power of its simple story. Ill-fated love stories have been around forever but here I found it unexpectedly moving. It takes place in a village in Switzerland (it was filmed in the Canadian Rockies) and deals with love, individuality, honor, and small town morality. The ending, though expected, was still very effective.

John Barrymore, while giving power and dignity to his character, is guilty of chewing the scenery from time to time. I was also quite surprised by the heavy makeup he used in the first half of the film. Camilla Horn, who was Gretchen in F.W. Murnau's FAUST, makes a beautiful and believable heroine. The supporting roles were well acted with Mexican actress Mona Rico as the "bad girl" a real standout. While ETERNAL LOVE is no masterpiece, it is well made by master craftsman Lubitsch who says farewell to the silent era in style.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Restored and pleasing, July 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Ernst Lubitsch's Eternal Love (DVD)

I'll admit, I have been a silents fan for many years, but am still a novice, but I did enjoy this movie, and was surprised by the UCLA 'disclaimer' that this restoration was not up to their usual standards (or some such note). If that is the case, I would like to see their best standards! After years of suffering through bad copies of silents, with equally hideous "soundtracks" (of which there are a few exceptions), I was glad to see this movie restored to a good speed and brilliant contrasts of light and dark. Barrymore is elegant and graceful, mixing both outrageous humor (the scenes of his drunken revelry at the town party are funny, and a bit disheartening, much like Dinner At Eight), and brilliant drama (the lone scene of his finding the 'evil woman' had entered his room is incredibly portrayed with a few surprised, heavy heaves of the chest and narrowing eyes, more sexy to me than any obvious modern bedroom scene!)
Overall, there are much better stories, but to see Barrymore at his hearty best and Lubitsch's modern use of camera movement and beautiful mountain scenery, make this a worthwhile viewing.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars European Film-making via Hollywood, September 4, 2001

By 

Robert M. Fells "Mr. Arliss's Official Biogra... (Centreville, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ernst Lubitsch's Eternal Love (DVD)

The very late silent film era in Hollywood, 1927-28, saw a number of artistic films made by European directors that could have been right out of Ufa's studio in Germany. SUNRISE is perhaps the most obvious example, but ETERNAL LOVE is definitely in that category. Not really a "lost" film, ETERNAL LOVE was safely secured among Mary Pickford's own films that she refused to circulate. Bootleg prints of this film have been in circulation for years but I was disappointed that the quality of this print wasn't more impressive. Good yes, impressive No. The introduction alerts the viewer that the print is "substandard" - too bad they didn't place that notice on the box. I would have bought it anyway. The film is intelligently written, directed and acted but it seems a little too doom-laden for its own good. John Barrymore railed for years against the happy endings that always got tacked on to his films so at least in his last silent he got the tragedy he wanted. A Barrymore-Lubitsch collaboration should have given us a sparkling romantic comedy - and that loss is a real tragedy!