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 Passion / Madame DuBarry
(1919)
Cast / Credits / Reviews (From the Turner Classic Movies Database)
Before he became world-famous for his sophisticated sex farces,
Ernst Lubitsch was
primarily a director of outsized German "spectaculars." One such was Madame Du
Barry, an operatic version of the life, loves and death of
the legendary 18th-century
French courtesan. Pola Negri plays DuBarry, who sleeps her way to the court of King Louis
XV (Emil Jannings), ultimately
becoming his mistress. Comes the revolution, and the rabble
demands DuBarry's head. This gives Negri plenty of opportunity for strenuous histrionics
as she's led to the guillotine. Small wonder that this film was retitled Passion for its
American release. -- Hal Erickson
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