THE FILMS OF POLA NEGRI
Pola Negri made
approximately 58 pictures over the course of her
acting career, which stretched over forty-nine years, from 1915 to 1964. They
divide conveniently into five periods, which are outlined as follows:
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Pola in a
publicity still for Sappho (1921). |
The Polish Period
(1915-1917)
The German Silent Period (1918-1922)
The Paramount Period (1923-1928)
The “Rollercoaster” Period (includes the Nazi/Third
Reich Period) (1929-1938)
The Retirement Films (1943, 1964)
We agree with Joan Crawford’s assertion in
the book Conversations with Joan Crawford (1980) that the director
and/or the lead actor are not the beginning and end of a film, but rather
that a film is the collaborative effort of many talents both in front of
and behind the camera. This
especially holds true in the "assembly line" days of Hollywood pictures, when
the director was often little more than a stopwatch keeper and operative
supervisor over the entire film-making process rather than the omnipotent
overlord of the film that some would like to make him out to be.
Therefore we have included the names of the photographers, scenario
writers and sources, music writers, etc. as they have been available for
those who care to study the mechanics of Pola’s pictures to see what
made them work (or not work).
This is without a doubt the most complete and accurate
Pola Negri filmography on the web, but it is admittedly not as complete
nor as accurate as we’d like it to be.
It will be updated and revised as we come across more and better
information. If you have
anything to contribute (especially on the early Polish and German films) or notice any errors, please
email
the webmaster and include
your source information.
(Special thanks to Anita Nowacka, Astrid
Pohl, Jack Gardner, James de Menna, Professor Steven P. Hill, and Andrzej
Kawecki for providing the extra information.)
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