Ecstasy (Extase)
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Movie Reviews of Ecstasy (Extase)
Movie Review: Classic Hedy Film
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this DVD after watching Turner Classic Movies on TV The host mentioned that it was the film that made Hollywood take note of Hedy. It is B&W with subtitles but easy to follow. I enjoyed it very much. A film classic that belongs in everyones library.Movie Review: Four and a half stars!
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie, starring a young Hedy Lamarr is proof of how sexual old films could be without showing much! Ecstasy is basically the story of a young girl who marries an old guy (though they don't really explain why she did in the first place). He isn't at all interested in her on their wedding night...he isn't really interested in her at all! The simple prettiness of Hedy makes her seem like a girl you yourself would know and it makes it that much easier to feel all the emotions she is feeling. I was a little confused as to why there were silent parts (without even the use of dialogue boxes) and also talking parts. I personally liked the silent scenes. Hedy was a wonderful actress and her face alone could tell the entire story.
Anyways, after she requests a divorce from her husband, she lives with her father and while out alone one day, she decides to go swimming in the nude (this scene was blown way out of proportion; yes, she was naked, but I thought it was done very tastefully and you really don't see much). I won't give away all that happens, but by the end of that scene she meets a very VERY handsome land surveyor, who is everything she's searching for. After this initial meeting she later goes to his home and this results in the first on-screen orgasm, which was done simply showing Hedy's face, and it became, in my opinion, the hottest love scene ever!
Overall, this movie was excellent, though it should probably be seen more than once to see every little erotic message the director put in there. I would have given it five stars, but I didn't care for the ending. But please don't let that keep you from seeing this film! It is still wonderful!
Movie Review: A Pleasant Surprise
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this flick because it has a notorious reputation, and my reaction was, "Yeah, Right. How wild could a 1932 movie be?" Admittedly, Heddy Lamarr is shown swimming and running through a forest in the nude, and there is a love scene where she reportedly has the first orgasm ever filmed, but these scenes really contribute to a sense of naturalness to the film that I didn't find nasty or lewd....just artful. The use of visual symbols throughout the film is rich, clever,and quite accessable to a modern mind, unlike other films approaching it's time. I'm not a great scholar of films from the 30's, but I was reminded of clips I had seen of Leni Riefenstal's film, "Olympia." There is little dialog, which is in German, although the film is subtitled, but that really removes what would otherwise distract one from enjoying the visual wealth of this film. The soundtrack is well in synchronized with the film in both timing and mood. Altogether and interesting addition to any collection.Movie Review: Schöner Beginn für einen österreichischen Weltstar
Summary: 4 Stars
Danke, daß es in USA diesen Film in Originalfassung gibt.
Deutsche Untertitel sind ja auf US-Filmen kaum vorhanden und
verringern den Kaufreiz erheblich !!
Movie Review: The Infamous ECSTASY is Only So-So
Summary: 3 Stars
Pope Pius XII publically denounced it. The Legion of Decency condemned it. The United States banned it from importation. It is easily one of the great scandals in cinema history: the 1933 ECSTASY.
An Austrian film directed by Gustav Machaty, ECSTASY is the story of Eve (Hedy Lamarr, billed here as Hedy Kiesler), who marries an older man named Emile (Zvonimir Rogoz.) After several days of inattention and disappointment, Eve returns to her father's home. One morning she goes for a naked swim--but her horse runs away with her clothes. Adam (Aribert Mog) comes to the rescue, and although Eve is angry that he has seen her naked, she can't stop thinking about him. Later that evening she goes to his cabin, where she enjoys his embrace. But unfortunately for all concerned, Emile has come in search of Eve, determined to take her home.
The film is done in a deliberately arty style. When Emile takes Eve for their honeymoon, for example, he has a tremendous problem getting the his key in the door lock--a bit of obvious imagery that does not portend well for the marriage. Later in the film Eve's pearls become yet another symbol, and indeed the movie abounds with snorting horses, trains, flowers, and the like, all of them intercut in the narrative. In theory, all this imagery is a commentary on sexuality; surprisingly, it actually works rather well. But the infamy of ECSTASY rests on two scenes: the bathing scene, in which Hedy Lamarr swims and then runs naked through the countryside, and the sex scene, in which the camera holds on Lamarr's face as she appears to have an orgasm.
Nudity in film was not unheard of in American film, and many silent films sported barebreasted maidens. The famous 1925 BEN-HUR not only featured such unclad women, it featured several unclad men as well. By 1933, however, censorship was on the rise, and while the scene is rife with strategically placed branches, Lamarr's nude scene was indeed considered shocking by standards of the day. But the real issue was the sex scene, which film historians describe as the first depiction of orgasm in a non-pornographic film. Lamarr later commented that her facial expression was acheived by the director, who stuck her with a pin to make her grimmace during the shoot. The notion of a woman enjoying sex horrified Americans from sea to shining sea.
ECSTASY was not only banned in the United States, it was also banned in Europe, although not for the same reasons. That same year Lamarr married Fritz Mandl, heir to Hirtenberger Patronen-Fabrik Armaments, and by many accounts the jealous Mandl did his level best to buy and destroy every copy of the film he could find. The film fared no better under the Nazis, for Lamarr was of Jewish descent. In spite of various bans, the unedited film was smuggled into America, where it existed in the hands of a few wealthy collectors; when Lamarr became an American screen star, however, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer worked hard to track down and destroy these prints. It is actually a little surprising that the film exists at all.
Watching the film today one may wonder what all the fuss was about. It is interesting in its juxtapositions of imagery, but it is also rather slow, and the dialogue doesn't help any: in theory a German-language film, ECSTASY is more akin to a silent film. Lamarr is an attractive young woman, but she was hardly the screen siren she later became, and while she runs naked with aplomb she isn't greatly memorable. As for the notorious sex scene--well, by today's standards it is scarcely more than a hoot and holler. The DVD print is not great, but it is watchable, and the DVD has no extras of any kind. Worth watching? If you are a film buff, yes. If not, you might be better off with WHITE CARGO or ZIEGFELD GIRL.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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