Product Details

• Actors: Pola Negri, Emil Jannings, Harry Liedtke
• Directors: Ernst Lubitsch
• Format: NTSC, Black & White
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Graoevine Video
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000NK2690
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,961 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

The story of Madame BuBarry, the mistress of Louis XV of France, and her loves in the time of the French Revolution.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Passion" could do with more of it from Lubitsch, April 5, 2010

By 

J. Faulk (New York NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Passion (aka Madame DuBarry) (DVD)

This print actually clocks at 109 minutes, not 99. Unfortunately, maybe 15 seconds are missing at the end; perhaps they showed the beheading and might have offended the American audience.

Ernst Lubitsch could impart only journeyman direction to this German costume epic, for his natural proclivity was toward lighter fare as proven out in his subsequent successes in America. In Passion, scene after scene emerges rather flat, the performances not much particularized.

Darling Jeanne (Pola Negri) from a Parisian millinery shop has a student boyfriend, Armand (Harry Lieptke). But she catches the eye of an aristocrat, then marries Count DuBarry to facilitate the move to Versailles as the mistress of Louis XV (Emil Jannings). Thanks to her charms, she manages to save Armand from execution and to get him raised to officer in the King's guards. Then Louis XV dies of smallpox.

At this point, the scenario writers say to hell with history as they ruthlessly compress events. Madam DuBarry is exiled to a country estate beyond Paris. The Paris populace is raging toward revolution, with Armand's help. They assault the Bastille, arrest Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, as well as Madame DuBarry, whom the Tribunal condemns to death with Armand's assent. In a change of heart, Armand tries to help his former sweetheart escape but is shot in the head. DuBarry is trundled off to the public guillotine and as she, standing, is strapped to the vertical board the film, before the hinged board can be lowered into beheading position, jumps to a still of a wall sconce. The End.

The added soundtrack of organ music meshes OK with the scenes but doesn't much punch up our involvement. Details in this print--in costumes, wigs, sets--have faded with time. Strikingly, the producer, Projektion-AG Union, continued its prolific film output both during WWI and thereafter.