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.