42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Notorious Art Classic, October 27, 2003
This review is from: Salome / Lot in Sodom (DVD)
Oscar Wilde's 1892 retelling of the Bible story of Salome, who danced before Herod to win the death of John the Baptist, was considered so depraved that the High Lord Chamberlain of England refused to grant it a license for public performance--and in the wake of Wilde's scandalous exposure as a homosexual and his subsequent imprisonment, all of Wilde's plays were swept from the stage. Wilde, who died in 1900, never saw his play publicly performed.
The worth of Wilde's plays were reestablished by the 1920s, but even so SALOME, with its convoluted and exotic language and hothouse sense of depravity, remained something of a theatrical untouchable--and certainly so where the screen was concerned. No one dared consider it until Russian-born Alla Nazimova, who is generally credited with bringing Stanislaski technique to the New York stage, decided to film it in 1923.
It proved a disaster. Theatergoers in large cities might be prepared to accept Wilde's lighter plays, but Main Street America was an entirely different matter--especially where the notorious SALOME was concerned, particularly when the film was dogged hints of Nazimova's lesbianism and by the rumor that it had been done with an "all Gay cast" in honor of Wilde himself. Critics, censors, and the public damned the film right and left. It received only limited distribution and faded quickly from view. Even so, the legend of both the film and its exotic star grew over time. And so now, some eighty years after its creation, Nazimova's SALOME is at last widely available to the public in this DVD release, which packages it alongside the 1933 art-short LOT IN SODOM.
Given that much of the original play's power is in Wilde's language, SALOME suffers from translation to silent film--the title cards are often awkwardly long, and in general fail to convey the tone of Wilde's voice; moreover, the convolutions of the original have been necessarily simplified for the silent form. Even so, it is a remarkable thing in a purely visual sense. Directed in a deliberately flat style by Charles Bryant and designed by Natacha Rambova (wife of Valentino, she would also design Nazimova's silent CAMILLE), the look of the film seeks to reproduce the playscript's equally infamous illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley--and succeeds to a remarkable degree.
And then there is Nazimova herself. Well into her forties at the time she played the teenage Salome, Nazimova is an electric presence: while she often shows her years in close up, she is remarkably effective in capturing the willful, petulant, and ultimately depraved Salome in facial expression and body posture, balancing an over-the-top style with moments of quiet realism to most remarkable effect. The supporting cast is also quite memorable, with Mitchell Lewis (Herod) and Rose Dione (Herodias) particularly notable.
The accompanying LOT IN SODOM is related to SALOME only in the sense that it too has a Biblical theme. Created by J.S. Watson and Melville Webber, this 1933 film is less "art" than "experimental," and consists largely of double, triple, and quadruple exposures of writing and often seminude bodies--and while it clearly influenced later experimental filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger, it is perhaps best regarded as an interesting curiosity.
SALOME is not, perhaps, a "great" film in the traditional sense--and given the technical limitations and social restrictions of the era it never could have been--but it is not for want of trying, and it is worth noting that its designs and style have cast a very long shadow; indeed, when Ken Russell set out to film SALOME as a "play within a play" for the film THE LAST DANCE OF SALOME, he borrowed ideas quite liberally from Nazimova's original. While it is no more likely to appeal to today's rank-and-file viewer than it did eighty years ago, it is a must-own for those interested in silent film, who will likely find it fascinating and frustrating in equal degrees.
LOT IN SODOM does not appear to have been significantly restored in any way, and the short film is riddled with scratches and blips and assorted artifacts. SALOME, however, has been restored; even so, the film was neglected for many years, and the restoration represents a "best case" situation rather than "mint." The DVD offers the option of two soundtracks for SALOME; for myself, I preferred the Garza-O'Meara score performed by Silent Orchestra, but both are quite good, each in its own way. Recommended to silent film fans with a taste for the unexpected.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly Bizarre Double Bill, July 24, 2003
This review is from: Salome / Lot in Sodom (DVD)
If proof were ever needed that silent films were an art form unto themselves as opposed to just a primitive warm up to the talkies then Alla Nazimova's SALOME' is it. Even 80 years after its initial release SALOME' remains art with a capital A. This is not necessarily a good thing as works that fall into that category are more often than not appreciated only by a select few.
The production is based on Aubrey Beardsley's scandalous drawings of Oscar Wilde's even more scandalous play. In this respect the film is a complete success with credit for the design going to Natacha Rambova (Valentino's wife who was originally born Winifred Shaughnessy Hudnut) who worked closely with Nazimova to create what is probably the most stylized film ever made. It is this ultra stylization which makes the film so utterly bizarre even to today's audiences.
Once seen the film cannot be forgotten as there are enough memorable images in it to fill 10 movies. Nazimova is utterly mesmerizing as Salome' with Mitchell Lewis' Herod one of the most decadent looking figures you'll ever see (Fellini MUST have seen this movie) while Nigel De Brulier's Jokaanan radiates spirituality.
The film was a notorious flop in its day so special thanks go to Image Entertainment and all who worked on this restoration to make the film available once again as very few people have ever seen it. It has some signs of minor decomposition but these are hardly noticeable and with 2 scores to choose from you get to pick the one that works best for you.
The second part of the double bill is the experimental short film LOT IN SODOM which was made in 1933. While just as artistic in its expression as SALOME', it lacks the delirious visuals that make Nazimova's film so memorable but it makes a nice companion piece for the DVD. An excellent disc for the silent film enthusiast and the more discriminating movie buff.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
La Nazimova, November 28, 2004
This review is from: Salome / Lot in Sodom (DVD)
Charles Bryant's SALOME is a gaudy, glittering, fantastical adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play of the same name; his `historical phantasy' of the Jewish princess who danced and demanded as payment the head of John the Baptist.
Wilde's play is faithfully, perhaps too faithfully, rendered. All the action takes place on one large set, and it very much feels like we're watching a stage play. The actors sway and swoop, arch their backs and throw back their heads to portray the pangs of unrequited love. Great stuff if you're sitting in the back row of a large auditorium, but a bit too much when the actors are photographed in full shot and closer. I enjoyed it, but I can imagine being turned off by the artificiality of it all. The costumes, based on illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, are pretty loud as well. Salome (Alla Nazimova, simply billed as Nazimova in this one) wears what looks like small, glittering Christmas tree bulbs in her wig, and when she's pictured in her peacock gown it look as if she's embedded on a page from Beardsley's sketch book.
The second film on the dvd, LOT IN SODOM, is a whole different kettle of fish. Although made in the sound era (1933), there's no dialogue, save for an off-screen prayer and other stray bits of words, in its thirty minutes. Just about everything is thrown into this one - multiple exposures, prismatic lens effects, cascaded and rotated images. Everything save coherence. If, as I think may have been the case, this was an experiment in telling a story using only filmed images, pure film storytelling, I'd called it a mixed success. If you don't know the biblical story of Lot this will probably seem very confusing. LOT IN SODOM isn't much more than a 30-minute montage, interesting and uninvolving.
Both movies are taken from acceptable to good source prints (SALOME seems to have come from multiple source prints). As an added bonus, SALOME comes with two music tracks, each of which give the movie a different emotional feel.
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