German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/2. Photo: Parufamet / Ufa. Still with Emil Jannings as Mephisto and Yvette Guilbert as Marthe in
Faust (1926).
If Weimar cinema had one film star, then it was
Emil Jannings (1884-1950) for sure. He was a great actor in the silent era and won the first Oscar for Best Actor. Priceless are his performances as Louis XV in Lubitsch' Madame Dubarry (1919), as the doorman in Murnau's The Last Laugh (1924) and as Mephisto in his Faust (1926), as the jealous acrobat in Dupont's Variety (1925) and as the professor in Von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930). Too bad that during his later years he worked as a board member for the Ufa propaganda machine during the Third Reich. See also
filmstarpostcards.blogspot.com/2008/09/emil-jannings.html
Yvette Guilbert (1865 – 1944) was a French cabaret singer and actress of the Belle Époque. Her ingenuous delivery of songs charged with risqué meaning made her famous. She also appeared in some classic silent films, such as Faust (F.W. Murnau 1926) and L'argent (Marcel L'Herbier 1928).
