Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1925)

22 Pictures and P/'c/\jrepoer FEBRUARY 1925 "For God's sake, shut up!" begged Ambrosia, " don't tell Jannings that !" But I replied that actors always stick together, it is a part of the ethics of this so ethical profession ! Jannings was very enthusiastic about America. He wanted to find out all about it, and I told him, among other things, how popular he is there. I told him how splendidly Passion had gone over, and also Deception. He was as pleased as a child. He quite beamed with pleasure and delight, and it was nice to see that delight so mirrored on the face of Mrs. Jannings, the tribute might well have been made direct to her. HPhen I asked him how he had visualised that splendid make-up for Henry the Eighth. He told me that he had got hold of the Holbein painting of Henry the Eighth, put it on his dressing table, and made up accordingly. He became, he said, as familiar with that famous painted figure as he might be with an intimate friend, whose every detail of costume, whose every shading of colour and line of expression was habitual and familiar to him. I know that many people wonder, and ask, whether screen actors are the same off the screen as they are, or appear to be on the screen. I think it is like most questions, largely a matter of the individual. Some of us are the same off the screen as we seem to be on, and others are quite surprising. Jannings Three specimens of Italian street I would call surprising. Off the screen, he is different from what I, personally, had imagined. Quite unassuming. Very good-natured. A man of about 42 or 43. Very big and husky. But looking at him without his make-up you would never realise that he is the splendid actor you have seen playing; Louis Fifteenth, Henry Eighth and Peter the Great. He has none of that dash lie has so admirably and unforgettably on the screen. His outstanding characteristic seemed to me to ho his good nature and a great sense of humour. I told him that in America they call him " King of Motion Pictures." He couldn't quite understand me, for the first time, and Mrs. Jannings explained it to him. He told his wife that what I was telling him was the greatest complement he had ever received in his life and he made the most perfect " retort courteous " by having her tell me that he was immensely pleased to have received this compliment from the " King of Screen Lovers " ! Gallant, too, you see. I must write more about him to-morrow. Rome, Sept. 8th. ""There is probably nothing in the world more interesting than talking " shop" with a man who is in the same " shop " with oneself. Thus it was that Emil Jannings and I talked Screen . . Screen .... Screen .... He had seen The Four Horsemen, although he has never been in America. As I recall it, I think he said that he saw it Rudolph Valentino's the Coliseum, Rome, is one spot of the ea in Paris. He was tremendously interested in the making of the film, in the remarkable way in which the film made me, and in all the details that led to my obtaining the part, my interpretation of the part once T did obtain it, etc. I told him how I read the book by Ibanez, and then simply lived the character for the weeks preceding the actual filming of the story. We agreed that the finest results are obtained by an actor entering into the skin of the role he is about to interpret. nriie restaurant is in the ancient villa and from where we sat we could see the whole panorama of Rome, a most gorgeous sight from that vantage point. After luncheon, Jannings had to get to work and so he left us to the care of Anibrosio, who took us around to see the interiors. musicians. imagination was thoroughly captured by near which this picture was taken. " It rth," he remarked, " of which lovers love to dream." They have ten or twelve studios in Rome, all very small saving the Cinesc studio. The others do not amount to anything at all, judged from our American standpoint, or, indeed, any standpoint at all. They have no lighting: to speak of. They have no equipment. Their laboratories are very bad indeed, and there is, in fact, none of the modern equipment we have in America at all. A mbrosio himself said to me that what ^^ they lack most of all is not only improved studio conditions, but directors. " If," he said, " we only had the directors you have in America. Our directors are nothing. It hampers us more, really, than anything else in developing: such talent as we have." On the way back to our hotel, we drove a bit through Rome, and learned that in the past thirty years or more many important changes have been effected, especially from the point of view of health and sanitation. There are new thoroughfares, wider streets almost everywhere, and there has been quite a general demolition of the old-time slums. This, in conjunction with the general, modernised sanitation, has caused Rome te be one of the most sanitary and healthiest cities in Europe. (Continued on page 76.)