Marlene Dietrich in The Song of Songs: A bit of a muddle

Is this thing worth a watch?

If you're into 1930s studio gloss and watching Marlene Dietrich wear fabulous hats, sure. You'll probably enjoy it if you like old-school melodrama that doesn't ask for too much brainpower. If you need a plot that makes sense or characters who don't act like absolute fools, you might want to skip it.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Song of Songs (1933) through its definitive frames.

There's a scene near the beginning where Lily is just working at this dusty bookstore. The whole vibe is very quaint, maybe a little too much so. Then she meets the sculptor, and suddenly the movie turns into this weird, stiff dance of 'will-they-won't-they' that feels like it was written by someone who had never actually met a human being before.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Song of Songs (1933) through its definitive frames.

Dietrich is, well, Dietrich. She’s magnetic. She makes the most out of lines that feel like they were pulled from a bargain-bin novel. But then the sculptor leaves, and the movie sort of loses its way. It stops being a romance and starts being a collection of scenes where everyone looks sad in expensive furniture.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Song of Songs (1933) through its definitive frames.

I couldn't help but think about how different this is from the chaotic energy in something like Do the Dead Talk?. At least that one had some spirit! This feels like it's trying really hard to be 'art' while forgetting to be a movie.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Song of Songs (1933) through its definitive frames.

Small things that stuck out

• The way the light hits her face in the studio scenes. It’s almost too perfect, like a painting that hasn't dried yet.
• The sculptor's apartment. Who has that much space in the city? It looks like a warehouse for marble busts.
• The dialogue. Sometimes it’s so formal you feel like you’re watching a play from three centuries ago.

There’s this one moment where a character enters a room and just stands there for about ten seconds too long. It’s awkward. I think the director was trying to be mysterious, but it just felt like the actor forgot their next line. 🤷‍♂️

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Song of Songs (1933) through its definitive frames.

I’ve seen better performances in A Passport to Hell, honestly. Not that Dietrich is bad—she’s the only reason this doesn't collapse entirely. She carries the whole thing on her shoulders, even when the script is clearly doing its best to trip her up.

By the time we hit the third act, I was just checking my watch. It isn't a bad movie, but it’s definitely one of those films that just exists. It fills the space, it looks nice, but it doesn't leave much behind once the screen goes black.