Silent Reflections – Variety (1925)
by HELEN GEIB
Although obscure today, Variety is one of the major works of German Expressionism. It’s a crime of passion drama with a fine performance by Emil Jannings and the wonderful visual filmmaking that is the hallmark of the Expressionist movement. Variety was heavily censored for its American release; how it was changed makes it almost as interesting as a case study in film censorship as it is enjoyable as a movie.
The story (in the censored version screened at the theater) is a classic love triangle of husband (Emil Jannings), wife (Lya De Putti), and wife’s lover. There’s never any question that it will end in tragedy, since the film is bookmarked by a brief framing story showing the husband narrating the history of his crime from prison. Although there is some suspense to the story (whether the wife or the lover was the victim, and the manner of the killing, are left to be revealed at the end), the film’s focus from the start is on the character drama rather than the mechanics of the plot.
The three principals are the Three Artinellis, a high wire trapeze act. I never expected to see Jannings as a trapeze artist (see the still for my post on The Last Laugh for why); credibility is maintained by making him the catcher, a role defined by brute strength. The lover is the star and boss of the act who recruits the couple and initiates the affair with the wife. A questionable move considering the husband’s strong grip is the only thing between him and death, but then she is very beautiful.
The show the Three Artinellis headline is no mere carnival attraction. It’s more like the Cirque du Soleil of Berlin, c. 1925. No clowns or animals; yes acrobats and jugglers, and their routines are dazzling. The performers must have been the top acts of the day. The spectacle is staged in a theater with the high wire strung out across the auditorium. Extra thrills for the audience beneath the wire and for the movie audience as well, as we wonder if the husband will catch the other man – this time.
Variety illustrates the breadth of the stylistic umbrella that is German Expressionism. It lacks several of the motifs of key films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Last Laugh. The performance style is predominantly naturalistic. The lighting is also mostly naturalistic and the landscape and physical surroundings are familiar and commonplace. Special effects are used very sparingly (though to good effect). But while it lacks the stylized performances, visual distortions, and overall flashiness common in Expressionist films, Variety is distinguished by other significant elements of the movement. In particular, its heavy use of close-ups, fluid camera movements (Variety was photographed by Karl Freund, cinematographer of The Last Laugh and Metropolis), and propulsive editing rhythm.
There are many horror stories from the silent era and the first two decades of sound filmmaking of the censors cutting “offensive” scenes or lines of dialogue here and there, without regard to continuity, reducing a story into an incomprehensible mess; or combing through a film to cut out all the suggestive bits until it was made acceptably sexless. Variety is a less familiar case of the censors re-editing to create a finished product that is fully coherent and eminently watchable – you’d never guess Variety was abridged just from watching it – and yet so altered as to be a different film.
In its original version, Variety began with a lengthy section showing how Jannings fell in love with De Putti, left his wife for her, and created a trapeze act with his lover. This part of the story was excised completely by the American censors, and title cards added to redefine Jannings and De Putti as the married couple of the U.S. release version. The censors’ intent was to erase the plot point of casting adulterous lovers as the established couple in a love triangle. The effect was to far more radically transform the story. The unfaithful husband who is in his turn betrayed by his unfaithful lover is transformed into a sympathetic cuckold. The opportunistic temptress who catches two men only to end up with none is transformed into a young wife who succumbs to temptation. From unsparing morality play to conventional melodrama, courtesy of censorship.
Note: A few minutes of post-viewing web research suggests that the cut version is the only one readily available in the U.S., but that the original cut, or at least a substantially longer European release version, is extant and awaiting restoration. Variety is a prominent example of ‘twenties film censorship and I easily found several sources of credible information about the changes demanded by the review board.
