Customer Reviews

Ernst Lubitsch's Eternal Love

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Eternal love ~ what a premise! And in this terrific film it comes delivered to you via two star-crossed lovers Ciglia (Camilla Horn) and Marcus (Barrymore). Marcus prefers the wild mountainsides outside of his Swiss village only somewhat less than the pure and beautiful preacher's daughter Ciglia, whom he desires very much to marry. Uncle Tass (Hobart Bosworth) has other ideas, wishing for Ciglia the more staid and proper Lorenz (Victor Varconi), while wild mountain girl Pia (Mona Rico) has her own designs on Marcus, desiring him very much for herself. Pia seduces Marcus through some truly dishonourable conniving, dooming Marcus to marry her. Ciglia settles with Lorenz in an effort to heal her crushed heart, but of course this does nothing of the sort ~ Marcus and Ciglia hold blazing torches that no twists of fate can quell. Thus, the movie moves toward its devastating finale.

During a blizzard, Marcus becomes lost on the mountains. Pia, desperate to find him, implores Lorenz and Ciglia for help. Distraught at this news, Ciglia slips her facade for an instant arousing the suspicions of her husband. When Marcus arrives safely home, the jealous Lorenz bribes Marcus to take his leave from the village and from Ciglia once and for all. Marcus refuses, and Lorenz seeks a final, deadly revenge, during which he is mortally wounded. Marcus is now a marked man, and Ciglia's pleas of his innocence only serves to inflame the villagers to seek their own revenge on what they perceive as an adulterous couple.

What happens next adds a satisfying 'drama' to this melodrama, and contains a twist equal to the larger-than-life affections of Marcus and Ciglia, whose only real crime was loving each other despite, and in spite, of any and all circumstances.

This film should appeal to anyone with even a speck of the romantic, an appreciative eye for splendid scenery (filmed on location in the Canadian Rockies), and the taste for a rousing good story. Barrymore is a smouldering hero, his magnetism unabashedly evident in the love scenes. Camilla Horn is a gorgeous heroine that one cannot help aching with and for. The conniving Pia, on the other hand, is an absolute terror, and plays the bad girl to the hilt.

This DVD includes the original score to the film, and the picture quality is astonishing. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 'Eternal Love' was his last silent film.

At the beginning of the film there is a disclaimer that due to the lack of the original film elements, this print is not up to standards. I guess it is a little less clear than some of the most recently restored films, but it is quite clear considering the state of many silent films. There are no extras on this disc, it is the film and some chapter stops and that is it.

I'm pretty familiar with Barrymore's silent work, but other than "Lady Windemere's Fan" I had never seen a silent Lubitsch film before. It was not what I was expecting and that does not mean I was unpleasantly surprised. Lubitsch is well known for his unique "touch", and in my experience of watching his sound films that meant incorporating clever dialogue with insinuation. Without the power of speech, this Lubitsch silent film has all of the power of one of his talking films by using facial expression and some well-placed props.

Barrymore plays a hunter who is basically a loner who is in love with Ciglia, the niece of the town priest. How two such different people could fall in love is not shown in the film, but early on they do declare their love to one another, the occupying French army is driven from the area, and all seems to be well. The problem is that there is a wild girl of the village that has her heart set on capturing Barrymore by any means. Compounding difficulties is a respectable but bland fellow who also loves Ciglia and wants to marry her. These two rivals can't seem to understand that love can't be bought and it can't be trapped. The French being driven from the town is the cause of a great celebration that involves a masked ball and a great deal of liquor. It is this celebration that sets off a series of catastrophes for the young lovers.

What really stood out for me in this film were the very few intertitles used. The film really doesn't need them. As some other reviewers mentioned, 1929 was the last year that silent films were being made in the U.S. with the exception of a few holdouts like Murnau and Chaplin. It's interesting to look at this film and then compare it to "The Love Parade", a Lubitsch sound film made at the end of the same year - 1929. It is so sophisticated in its technique you'd think Lubitsch had been making sound films for ten years. His special touch was not hindered by the coming of sound - he didn't miss a step.

Surprisingly good and entertaining. Based on the Novel from Christoph Heer "Der König der Bernina" (The King of The Bernina), set in the Swiss Alps during the Napoleon Wars about 1809.
I am from Austria (Tyrol) an I was amazed from the set decor: the houses, the costumes, the surroundings. It really looks like in the Swiss (or Tyrol) Alps although the picture was filmed in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The Set- and decor-departement made a really fine job.
Although a (late) Silent Movie from 1929, the story is very thrilling. And the acting is superb! John Barrymore as restless loner and hero is first class. Also Camilla Horn as the beloved one, married to the wrong guy (Victor Varconi, also very good)). And there is a lot of action: shootings, jealousy, avalanches,..
For Silent Movie Fans and John Barrymore aficionados a MUST.

Although the title might suggest an over-sentimental or fairytale-style love story, "Eternal Love" is actually quite a powerful and realistic drama, and the only fairytale element is the beautiful setting of a Swiss hamlet in the year 1806. Filmed not in Switzerland but in the Canadian Rockies, renowned German director Ernst Lubitsch makes the most of both setting and starring actors, John Barrymore and Camilla Horn, with the smooth style and careful editing for which he became famous in the US. Lubitsch's earlier work back in Germany showed his skill in various kinds of comedies (see Kino Video's "Lubitsch in Berlin" series) and while "Eternal Love" is quite serious, the Lubitsch sophistication is definitely there. The focus is on the wild character Marcus, dynamically portrayed by John Barrymore, and his love for the genteel niece of the local minister, also perfectly played by Camilla Horn. But as in real life, sometimes the jealousy of others can destroy a couple's happy plans, and in this story there are two jealous rivals: a wildcat, the complete opposite of the minister's niece, who schemes to have Marcus for herself - and succeeds - and the patient suitor of the minister's niece who later also displays a nasty jealous streak when he realizes she still loves Marcus after all. "Eternal Love" is not a long or involved film at all, and events move rather quickly but never rushed, and always involving the audience in the tragically separated lovers' dilemma until the climactic ending. The picture quality is very good and clear throughout, and even the original sound disc has been restored, giving us today the same experience as audiences in 1929 when, on the verge of the sound era, many silent films were being made with a recorded musical score especially made to suit the film. This one is a nice classical, orchestral score with a few appropriate sound effects here and there. With such a charming and beautiful setting and Barrymore's performance under Lubitsch's expert direction, "Eternal Love" counts as one of the many precious gems of the silent era and deserves a place in every silent film collection.

1929 was pretty much the end of the road for the silent picture, apart from a handful of films made for theatres still not wired for sound in the very early Thirties (and, more famously, Chaplin's last stands in 1931 and 1936). Most 1929 silents didn't make as much money as the late silents of 1927 and 1928, and the survival rate for these very late silents is so low because most of them were pulled in and out of circulation in a very short time, without any real thought, care, or concern for their quality. While it's true that many of these final silents are long overdue for a critical re-evaluation (particularly since most silents coming out in 1929 were panned just because they didn't have sound, the novelty everyone was clamouring for regardless of the quality of these new sound pictures), this one in particular isn't one of my favorite silents from 1929 I've seen.

The film begins in Switzerland in 1806, when the French have occupied the village in which the story is set. All of the locals are ordered to turn over their firearms, but wild untamed mountain man Marcus (John Barrymore) alone refuses to surrender his weapon, unwilling to have a part of himself, representing his free spirit, taken away. He only reluctantly agrees to do it out of love for Ciglia (Camilla Horn, who was previously teamed with him in 1928's 'Eternal Love'). (I'm assuming that her name is pronounced Cheel-ya or Seel-ya.) These two are in love, but Ciglia's priest uncle and the vamping Pia, who wants Marcus all to herself, oppose their union. After Ciglia spurns him after he has made a fool of himself at a local masquerade ball, Pia traps him into a compromising situation at his house. (Meanwhile the French are no longer occupying the village; that potentially dramatic and interesting part of the plot was really thrown away and not even developed!) Soon afterwards, Ciglia forgives him and gets her uncle to agree to the marriage, but Pia and her equally scheming mother are already on their way over to the priest's to tell him what happened and to trap him into marrying Pia. (It's never really spelt out just why Marcus has to marry her; is this a shotgun marriage, or is he just being made to marry her because they presumably slept together without being married and thus "compromised" themselves? Have they had some prior relationship that we're never really told about, as seems to be suggested? This angle of the story doesn't really hold up well for the average modern viewer.) With Marcus out of the way, Ciglia's other suitor, Lorenz, steps in, hoping to win her for himself. Hurting and on the rebound, she agrees to this marriage. Both marriages are soon exposed as loveless, for Marcus and Ciglia still love one another, and this causes a lot of trouble, not only for them and their spouses but also for the villagers, who believe they're being immoral by continuing to associate with and even love one another. Things may not end well for anyone.

I did want to like this film more, particularly because it stars John Barrymore (who is as great as always, though he does have on a bit too much makeup), but something about it just didn't satisfy me. Maybe if it had been a couple of reels longer, the story could have been more developed instead of only really getting more interesting and dramatic towards the end. Things just seemed to happen too quickly, with no real development and tension in between some pretty important events. And the opening story about this small village under occupation by the French was really wasted, and tossed aside by the next scene, never mentioned again, with no bearing on the rest of the story but to establish Marcus's independent nature. The plot also descends into soap opera territory, and I was rather disappointed in the ending. Although the photography is pretty good, the acting is wonderful, and the story interesting enough. I just wish it had been developed more and been given more substance and dramatic tension.

Ernst Lubitsch was a famous Hollywood director{"Ninotchka" and "The Merry Widow" in the 1930's). John Barrymore stunned the world in 1922 with his Broadway "Hamlet". What a coo to combine these two entertainment giants in 1929, with "Eternal Love". I don't think so...Barrymore had starred in the first sound film, "Don Juan" in 1926. Audiences clamored for SOUND, not another silent. This would be the last for both. "Eternal Love" is the slow-moving tale of Marcus, a gruff mountain man who drinks too much. His lover is played by the German Camilla Horn(the producer Joe Schenk's mistress). The exquisite mountain photography of Baanf and the Canadian rockies cannot off-set the eternal soap-opera and Barrymore's ashen make-up. A critical and financial flop, United Artists shuttled it in and out of theatres quickly. Lubitsch's innuendo and deft touch are here, but it's not enough. To really enjoy the Shakespearean-trained Barrymore, see(and hear) his "Svengali", filmed at Warners in 1931. Or pick up "Grand Hotel(1932), the MGM classic where he woos Greta Garbo. Both are on DVD. UCLA did a magnificent restoration on "Eternal Love". But UCLA can't restore what was never there...