Pola Negri: Life Is a Dream
September 18–25, 2006

Pola Negri—born Barbara Apollonia Chalupiec in Janowa, Poland—was the first female European-Hollywood crossover star, paving the way for Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. A discovery of Max Reinhardt’s disciple Ernst Lubitsch, Negri (1894–1987) followed the great director to America in 1923. Although they had already made seven films together in Germany, their sole collaboration in the United States was Forbidden Paradise. Negri also worked with such major figures as Herbert Brenon, Raoul Walsh, Mauritz Stiller, and Rowland V. Lee, enhancing her reputation as an accomplished and exotic performer. Offscreen, Negri was engaged to both Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino. Less successful after the advent of sound pictures, she made films in France and Germany in the 1930s. She returned to America at the outbreak of World War II, and her final film was made for Walt Disney in 1964. The exhibition features the East Coast premiere of Mariusz Kotowski’s documentary Life Is a Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri, as well as films from the Museum’s collection featuring Negri.

Organized by Charles Silver, Associate Curator, Department of Film and Media.

Excerpt from Carmen (released in USA in 1921 as Gypsy Blood). 1918. Germany. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. 12 min. Madame DuBarry (released in USA in 1920 as Passion). 1919. Germany. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Screenplay by Fred Orbing, Hans Kraly. With Emil Jannings, Harry Liedtke. Set against a backdrop of Reinhardtian spectacle, this comic romance about Louis XV and his mistress opened the door for a wave of German films in the bitter aftermath of World War I. 89 min. Silent, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model.
Monday, September 18, 6:00; Friday, September 22, 6:00. T2

Life Is a Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri. 2006. USA. Directed by Mariusz Kotowski. With Hayley Mills, Eli Wallach. Narrated by Cindy Williams. A chronicle of the star’s life, with clips from rare films and interviews with friends, coworkers, and critics. 90 min. East Coast premiere.
Monday, September 18, 8:15 (introduced by Kotowski, Wallach); Sunday, September 24, 1:30. T2

Die Bergkatze. 1921. Germany. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Screenplay by Lubitsch, Hans Kraly. With Viktor Janson, Paul Heidemann. Negri plays a temperamental but comic wildcat in an arguable forerunner of Lubitsch’s later satirical musicals. 100 min. Silent, with piano accompaniment by Stuart Oderman.
Wednesday, September 20, 8:15; Friday, September 22, 8:00. T2

Outtakes from Woman on Trial. 1927. USA. Directed by Mauritz Stiller. 10 min.
Excerpt from A Woman Commands. 1932. Great Britain. Directed by Paul Czinner. 6 min.
A Woman of the World. 1925. USA. Directed by Mal St. Clair. Screenplay by Pierre Collings, based on Carl Van Vechten’s novel The Tattooed Countess. With Charles Emmett Mack, Holmes Herbert. An exotic European countess clashes with small-town American values. The resolution of the romantic plot involves the horse-whipping of a district attorney. 65 min. Program approx. 81 min. Silent, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model.
Thursday, September 21, 6:00; Monday, September 25, 8:00. T2

Hotel Imperial. 1927. USA. Directed by Mauritz Stiller. Screenplay by Jules Furthman, based on a work by Lajos Biro. With James Hall, George Siegmann. Romance and espionage in wartime Hungary during the Russian invasion of 1917—played out in high Paramount-studio style. 78 min. Silent, with piano accompaniment by Stuart Oderman.
Thursday, September 21, 8:00; Monday, September 25, 6:00. T2