Morocco (1930)

 Josef von Sternberg's "Morocco"

After the success of "The Blue Angel," Josef von Sternberg took Marlene Dietrich to Hollywood to become Paramount's newest acting sensation. The first film that American audiences saw of Dietrich was 1930's "Morocco." The film would go on to have critical and commercial success and even saw von Sternberg getting nominated for Best Director and Dietrich for Best Actress. The film itself is known for having taboo sequences, including a scene in which Dietrich dresses as a man for a performances and even kisses another woman. The film would go on to make Dietrich the newest Hollywood 'it' girl. Morocco was also well known for its accurate depiction of the North African country. The Moroccan government even ran ads in the New York Times inviting American tourists to come and be seduced by the great country just as Gary Cooper did in the film. 

Morocco tells the story of a world weary Chanteuse named Amy Jolly who arrives on in Morocco on the same ship as a wealthy playboy named La Bessiere. She gets a job working at a local club and attracts the attention of a womanizing Legionnaire soldier named Tom Brown, who visits her after performance. The two long after each other, but are arrested in their own demeaning views of themselves. They decide that it is in their best interest to not be together, so Amy decides to marry La Bessiere. However, the feelings between Amy and Tom cannot go overlooked while Tom is forced to march away with his unit. 

The film takes place during the Rif War in the 1920s, when Moroccan guerilla tribes attempted to ward off the colonial powers of France and Spain. The reminders of the colonialization of the country are scattered throughout the film. The French bourgeois are presented in very eloquent spaces with high-rise rooms that are filled with extravagance. All the while,  the Moroccan people are reserved for more urban spaces and are even allocated to the lower tiers of the nightclub while the French and Spanish gets to sit in the higher tier seats to watch Amy. The opulence of the French is directly contrasted with the resentfulness and sometimes violence of the Moroccan people. 

Sternberg employs a fantastic realism to the picture. The setting and story are very much grounded in realism while the use of abstractions in the piece add a fabric of fantasy. Sternberg's use of lighting employs a fantastical element. Most of Sternberg's film up until this point have been very darkly light pictures. These stark contrasts between light and dark in his pictures conveys elements of expressionism that convey the character's internal psychosis. Here is no different, only this time there isn't much darkness. Rather, light is utilized more extremely than darkness. This oversaturation of light creates almost a dream-like quality to the piece where everything seems to sparkle. 

The characters themselves employ a fantastical intentionality to their very real world. The French and Spanish want to continue their oppression over the Moroccan people so they can continue to live inside the bright lights of this fantasy land they've created. Both Amy and Tom are stuck in this colonial machine, each being made to perform for these colonial oppressors. Amy must entertain the bourgeoise French at her nightclub and Tom must act as a solider to enable their power. However, these two protagonist deeply desire to live inside the fantasy of the other person as they attempt to drown out the reality of the world they find themselves. Not only this, they see themselves in a very demeaning light. Amy has a mysterious past that indicates that she's fallen from grace - and has treated her previous lovers very badly. Tom also belittles himself for being a womanizer, however his sincere honesty creates something safe for Amy. Because of this, the characters find salvation through each other, each seeing each other as being greater than they see themselves. Thereby, their attraction creates a fantastical reality where they can reside to battle their past mistakes and current circumstances. 

Because the camera doesn't move much, Sternberg crafts layers to the frame to diversify visual interests. An example of this comes during Amy's performance at her nightclub. The visual opulence of the images is created by having so many objects in the frame, as the nightclub is filled with an array of visual spectacle. Not only are the set decorations visually diverse, but the tiered seating arrangements allow a breadth of visual variation in the image. Sternberg wants you looking at one thing while being aware that the space is completely full with others. 

Sternberg also uses visual reference to convey sub textual understanding. For instance, Amy's room is filled with pictures on the wall and cloth dolls on her stands. This provides a visual understanding that Amy is surrounding herself with feigned human connection. This directly contrasts with the understanding that Amy is very much in a solitary point in her life. That fact that she is so mysterious and uses very little exposition about herself provides no context about her to the viewer. However, the visual space she surrounds herself with creates an understanding that, despite her closed-off demeanor, she very much desires human connection. The point about dialogue not providing context can also be found not just with Amy, but with the rest of the film as well. Sternberg doesn't use dialogue to convey meaning. Rather, he uses moments of visual interpretation to convey subtext. Rather than Tom audibly acknowledging that he is chickening out of leaving his post with Amy, he writes on her mirror. And rather than admitting to Amy that he is still in love with her at the end, she sees that he has written their names in a heart on the table once he has left the room. Sternberg doesn't allow the characters to explain themselves. Rather, the characters are presented as unknowable. The visual spaces they occupy and the actions they make convey much more than words could ever say. 

At the end of the film, Tom must leave with his unit. Amy watches him leave off into the desert. At this moment, the film completely abandons all realism and chooses fantasy by having Amy kick off her heels and start following behind the platoon into the desert, following her man. Obviously, it doesn't make realistic sense for her to travers kilometers of desert with nothing but the clothes on the back, but the point is made moot. The film abandons reality and choose to live inside the fantasy.