''Anna Boleyn,'' also known as ''Deception'', is a 1920 German
historical film
A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swa ...
directed by
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...
. It stars
Henny Porten as
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...
and
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a Swiss born German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' The La ...
as
King Henry VIII.
The film was produced by
Paul Davidson's
Union Film, a subsidiary of the giant German company
UFA
Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital city, capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya River (Kama), Belaya and Ufa River, Ufa rivers, in the centre-n ...
. It was shot at the
Tempelhof Studios
The Tempelhof Studios are a film studio located in Tempelhof in the German capital of Berlin. They were founded in 1912, during the silent era, by German film pioneer Alfred Duskes, who built a glass-roofed studio on the site with financial bac ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. The film's sets were designed by the
art director Kurt Richter
Kurt Paul Otto Joseph Richter (24 November 1900 – 29 December 1969) was a German chess International Master and chess writer.
Chess achievements
In 1922, Richter for the first time won the Berlin City Chess Championship. In 1928, he tie ...
. The film cost an estimated 8 million
marks
Marks may refer to:
Business
* Mark's, a Canadian retail chain
* Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain
* Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members
* Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel ...
to make, but was able to recoup this from the sale of the American rights alone which brought in $200,000 (14 million marks).
Cast
Reception
''Anna Boleyn'' was among
Mary Pickford
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...
's favorite films, calling it "an example of superb direction and splendid acting, especially that of Emil Jannings. It was the first time on the screen that a King had been made human. It has subtle, satirical humor."
Home media
The film was released in the US by
Kino Lorber
Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...
as part of the box set "Lubitsch in Berlin" in 2005–2007 with English intertitles. It was also released in the UK by Eureka's
Masters of Cinema
Masters of Cinema is a line of DVD and Blu-ray releases published through Eureka Entertainment. Because of the uniformly branded and spine-numbered packaging and the standard inclusion of booklets and analysis by recurring film historians, the ...
series as part of the box set "Lubitsch in Berlin: Fairy-Tales, Melodramas, and Sex Comedies" in 2010 with German intertitles and English subtitles.
See also
*
Anne Boleyn in popular culture
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
*
1920 films
1920s biographical films
1920s historical films
Cultural depictions of Anne Boleyn
Cultural depictions of Catherine of Aragon
German black-and-white films
Films about Henry VIII
Films directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Films of the Weimar Republic
Films set in the 1530s
Films set in Tudor England
German biographical films
German epic films
German historical films
German silent feature films
Epic films based on actual events
Historical epic films
UFA GmbH films
Films shot at Tempelhof Studios
Silent adventure films
1920s German films
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