Der blaue Engel (1930) is one of the best known and influential films to emerge from Wiemar Germany, say Kosta (German studies, U. of Arizona), but American film historians tend to give it
little more attention than as the vehicle that launched actress Dietrich's Hollywood career. She looks deeper, fitting the work into the culture of its time and place but also through the lens
of recent feminist and other theories of art criticism. Her topics include mass entertainment and serious culture; distraction, deception, and visuality; Wiemar's modern women; the seductions
of sound; and the actuality of The Blue Angel. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
