_{Day 40 of Project Glowing Rectangle, in which I try to divert some of my daily doomscrolling time back towards a more nourishing oblong: Cinema.}

Title: Varieté
Director: E.A. Dupont
Writer: E.A. Dupont, Leo Birinski
Year: 1925
Country: Germany

Format: BD
Length: 95 minutes
Seen: 2 March 2026
First viewing

This afternoon’s film was Varieté (1925), a silent drama directed by E.A. Dupont. It stars Emil Jannings as a prisoner telling his tragic story to a warden. As his story begins, Jannings was a carnival boss and a retired trapeze artist. But when a young vamp (Lya de Putti) joins the carnival, her beauty tempts him away from his wife and daughter, back to highwire acrobatics. With Artinelli (Warwick Ward) they form a successful new trapeze trio—but the story inevitably ends in jealousy and tragedy.

This is a fairly predictable tale of lust, infidelity and murderous revenge. But thanks to the inventive camerawork of Karl Freund (Metropolis, Dracula) and solid performances from the central cast, it’s surprisingly stirring. Not essential viewing but recommended if you’re in the mood for a lesser-known silent film.

My copy came with a choice of three musical scores—which is just as well, because the first one I tried was so irritating, I restarted the film with different music after a couple of minutes! That first score was by the Tiger Lillies, featuring lyrics that narrate the plot, complete with spoilers. Thankfully the score by Stephen Horne was more traditional and less distracting.