The Saint and Her Fool (1928)
Agnes Günther’s heart-rending fairy tale dazzled turn-of-the-century German audiences and sold hundreds of thousands of copies before being adapted into tonight’s tale of timeless passion, the beautiful The Saint and the Fool. The unapologetically sentimental classic was directed by Wilhelm Dieterle, who launched a successful career in Weimar cinema before becoming known for romantic, lush melodramas and technicolor extravaganzas, including 1945′s Marlene Dietrich unforgettable Love Letters. The dashing Dieterle himself plays Harrogate, Earl of Torstein, whose star-crossed love for the luminous Rosemarie of Brauneck (Lien Deyers, discovered by Fritz Lang) is further doomed by royal heroes and villains, the requisite evil stepmother, and fantastical elements that channel the intoxicating romance of Camille through the magic of the Brothers Grimm. Incredibly rare and beautifully restored, tonight’s Silent Treatment feature is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a film that celebrates the tumultuous emotions cinema has been capable of evoking since its inception.
Dir. William Dieterle, 1928, 35mm. (Archival restored print courtesy of the UCLA Film And Television Archive)
