In a small-town music hall, gorgeous Lola, who is forever “falling in love again”, does a chansonette act every night. Amongst the admirers of her erotically-spiced delivery are several grammar-schoolboys. When strict Professor Rath finds out about his pupils′ dubious source of entertainment, he decides to pay a visit to the disreputable establishment himself. To his surprise, he finds Lola – despite her ambiguous act – to be a woman with a heart, and he helplessly falls in love with her. Their precipitate marriage makes the professor a social outcast and brings him ever further down the ladder of human degradation. His destruction is complete when the former scholar appears on stage as a clown at whom raw eggs are thrown. His life has lost all meaning, and, in desperation, he goes his somber way into hopelessness.

Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH

Credits
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Screenplay: Robert Liebmann, Karl Vollmoeller
Director of photography: Günther Rittau
Editing: Sam Winston, Walter Klee
Music: Friedrich Hollaender (Unter Verwendung fremder Kompositionen)

Cast: 
Emil Jannings    Prof. Immanuel Rath
Marlene Dietrich    Lola Lola
Kurt Gerron    Zauberkünstler Kiepert
Rosa Valetti    Guste Kiepert
Hans Albers    Mazeppa
Reinhold Bernt    Clown
Eduard von Winterstein    Schuldirektor
Johannes Roth    Pedell
Rolf Müller    Gymnasiast Angst
Roland Varno    Gymnasiast Lohmann
Carl Balhaus    Gymnasiast Ertzum
Robert Klein-Lörck    Gymnasiast Goldstaub
Karl Huszar-Puffy    Wirt
Wilhelm Diegelmann    Kapitän
Gerhard Bienert    Polizist
Ilse Fürstenberg    Raths Wirtschafterin
Friedrich Hollaender    Pianist

Production Company: Universum-Film AG (UFA) (Berlin)
Producer: Erich Pommer

Onna ga kaidan o agaru toki, 1960 (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs)

TakamineEvery afternoon, a young widow named Keiko (Hideko Takamine) walks from her modest apartment to her job as a senior hostess in a Ginza bar. Compassionate and courteous, she is affectionately called “mama” by the younger hostesses who see her graciousness and charm as an unattainable ideal. At a glance, the beautiful and demure Keiko, impeccably dressed in a traditional kimono, seems unsuited for her profession. The bar manager, Kenichi (Tatsuya Nakadai) further supports her virtuous reputation by recounting an episode, revealed in confidence, of Keiko’s pleas to the burial priest to have her love letter placed with the body of her late husband. Kenichi is devoted to Keiko, but keeps his respectful distance and instead, has a meaningless affair with a brash, ambitious young barmaid named Junko (Reiko Dan). The times are rapidly changing, and although other bars have resorted to unpalatable tactics in order to attract business in the increasingly competitive market, Keiko refuses to succumb to the trend of resorting to modern attire or welcoming the unwanted advances of patrons. As Keiko narrates with dispassionate reflection the daily routine of a bar hostess, it is clear that her dignity and perseverance separate her from the other hostesses in the Ginza district: “Around midnight, Tokyo’s 16,000 bar women go home. The best go home by car. Second-rate ones by streetcar. The worst go home with their customers.” However, at the relative “old age” of thirty and burdened with increasing financial responsibilities for her aging mother and hapless brother, Keiko is at a personal and professional crossroads. To open her own bar requires financial assistance from clients who, in turn, undoubtedly expect reprehensible favors in return. To remarry is to break her solemn vow to her beloved husband.

Mikio Naruse creates an exquisitely realized, somber, and deeply affecting portrait of dignity and perseverance in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. Using the recurring image of Keiko ascending the stairs that lead to the bar, Naruse reflects Keiko’s symbolic transcendence from her increasingly disreputable profession. It is a strength of character that is reflected in her early narrative: “After it gets dark, I have to climb the stairs, and that’s what I hate. But once I’m up, I can take whatever happens.” Inevitably, the daunting stairs provide a reassuring ritual from crushing disillusionment and personal tragedy – a validation of courage and resilience in facing the unknown – a quiet triumph of the human spirit. Source: www.filmref.com

Credits
Director: Mikio Naruse
Screenplay: Ryuzo Kikushima
Cinematography: Masao Tamai
Editing: Eiji Ooi
Sound: Masao Fujiyoshi, Nao Shimonaga
Music: Toshiro Mayuzumi
Production: Toho International
Year: 1960
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Runtime: 110′
B/W

The Earrings of Madame de…/ Madame de…

Synopsis
French master Max Ophüls’s most cherished work, The Earrings of Madame de… is an emotionally profound, cinematographically adventurous tale of false opulence and tragic romance. When the aristocratic woman known only as Madame de (the extraordinary Danielle Darrieux) sells her earrings, unbeknownst to her husband (Charles Boyer), in order to pay personal debts, she sets off a chain reaction, the financial and carnal consequences of which can only end in despair. Ophuls adapts Louise de Vilmorin’s incisive fin de siècle novel with virtuosic camera work so elegant and precise it’s been called the equal to that of Orson Welles. The Criterion Collection | Source: http://mubi.com/

France – 1953 – 105′ – b&w

Directed by: Max Ophuls
Screenplay: Marcel Achard, Max Ophuls, Annette Wademant, based by the novel by Louise de Vilmorin
Cinematography: Christian Matras
Editing: Borys Lewin
Cast: Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica, Jean Debucourt, Jean Galland.

Casablanca

Synopsis
One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the early part of WWII. Despite pressure from the local authorities, notably the crafty Capt. Renault (Claude Rains), Rick’s café has become a haven for refugees looking to purchase illicit letters of transit which will allow them to escape to America. AMCTV

United States/ 1942/ 102 Min/ b&w / French, German, English

Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, based on play by Murray Burnett – Joan Alison “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”
Production: Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner    .
Cinematography:  Arthur Edeson
Music: Max Steiner (3time Academy Awarded)

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Dooley Wilson