Blonde Venus

This is one of the greatest films that show off life in the great depression. BLONDE VENUS concerns Helen (Marlene Dietrich) a young loving mother and wife. In order to help makes ends meet, she takes a job as a showgirl. She becomes more distant from her unhappy husband (Herbert Marshall), while taking up with a young playboy (Cary Grant) The film has a wwonderful dreamlike quality thanks to it's talented, visually oriegntated director- Josef von Sternberg. Our first visions of Dietrich, is of her swimming nude in a sunlit pond. The images are almost bleached out. When she takes the showgirl job, the sets are cluttered with plants, dresses and ladies underwear on hangers, junk. It's a basic exotic/erotic jungle. Everything ahs this unbeatable dreamlike look to it. This look is a visual metaphor for the entire film, which visually captures Helen's downward spiral, and rebirth.