Anna Boleyn

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch

Release Year: 1920
Running time: 100
Country: Germany
Language: English intertitles
Subjects: European History
$14.99 - Classroom Rights
MSRP: $29.95
$349.00 - With PPR
$499.00 - With DSL
$499.00 - With DSL and PPR
MSRP: $599.00
Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch

35mm Restoration by the F.W. Murnau Foundation

Before he became one of Hollywood's legendary directors, Ernst Lubitsch was among the leading figures in the German film industry during the silent era, known both for his biting comedies and his groundbreaking costume dramas. His historical epic Anna Boleyn found success at the American box office under the title Deception, and viewed today, it is a rare opportunity to see Lubitsch working in a genre other than his usual realm of sophisticated comedy.

The tragic story of the second wife of England's Henry VIII is given a first-class treatment by Lubitsch, complete with opulent sets and some beautifully-shot exterior sequences. Henny Porten (Kohlhiesel's Daughter, Backstairs) gives a memorable performance as Boleyn, but the film really belongs to Emil Jannings (The Last Laugh, The Blue Angel), one of Germany's greatest screen stars, playing Henry. Jannings's bravura performance conveys Henry's decadence through his insatiable appetite for both food and women, but never reduces him to caricature or pure villain. Jannings also establishes the screen model for Henry that would be further developed by Charles Laughton almost fifteen years later in The Private Life of Henry VIII.

Anna Boleyn was the second of Lubitsch's German films to be released in the U.S., following Madame Dubarry. It was a notable success with both the critics and the public, and helped to elevate Lubitsch's international reputation. After making three more films in Germany, Lubitsch accepted an invitation from Mary Pickford to come to Hollywood to direct her film Rosita and the rest, as they say, is history.

ANNA BOLEYN
(U.S. title: Deception) Germany
1920 Color Tinted 118 Min. 1.33:1
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Fred Orbing and Hanns Kraly
Cinematography: Theodor Sparkuhl
Production Design: Kurt Richter
With Henny Porten, Emil Jannings, Paul Hartmann, Aud Egede Nissen
Music by Javier Perez de Azpeitia
contents COPYRIGHT 1920 Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung