Nov. 8 movie: Ecstasy. 1933 Czech/Austrian film shocked the world with a teenage Hedy Lamarr (or Hedwig Kiesler as she was then known) scampering naked through the woods. The film was condemned by the Vatican and heavily edited for US release, but the fine folks at TCM have restored it, allowing us to see Lamarr in all her glory. The film also includes the raunchiest love scene (adulterous, no less) I have ever seen in an early film, with a close-up on Lamarr's face during orgasm.
The film is actually drab and plodding when it's not being totally hot. It weirdly ends with a long scene that reminded us of Soviet propaganda films: smiling workers swinging pick-axes and bountiful fields of wheat, that sort of thing. The movie also came across like a silent film with sound: there was some dialogue, but sometimes the movie would go for 20 minutes or more without anyone speaking. Most of the narrative was handled visually as in silent films. It's interesting because it seems to me that most American directors of the time, when first confronted with sound, treated movies like plays: lots of scenes of people standing around talking to each other. I wonder if the transition to sound was handled differently in Europe or if it was just this director.
But really, who am I kidding. There's one reason to watch this movie and it's Hedy Lamarr in the nude. There's a brief glimpse of full frontal, plus several lingering close-ups on her bare breasts. Hubba hubba. Robert Osborne said that when Lamarr moved to Hollywood she had to change her name to disassociate from the infamy of this film. Which makes a nice sound bite, but I think young Hedwig Kiesler would have been given a stage name regardless.
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