Josef von Sternberg

Josef von Sternberg

Birth : 1894-05-29, Vienna, Austria

Death : 1969-11-22

History

Josef von Sternberg, born Jonas Sternberg, 29 May 1894 – 22 December 1969, was an Austrian-American film director. He is considered one of the earliest 'auteur' filmmakers, having filled many other roles on his films including those of cinematographer, screenwriter, and editor. Sternberg's style influenced later directors, particularly those of the film noir period. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.

Profile

Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg

Movies

No Angel: A Life of Marlene Dietrich
Biography of Marlene Dietrich using interviews, film clips and rare footage of the actress, including her own home movies.
The Epic That Never Was
Himself - Director
The story of the aborted 1937 filming of "I, Claudius", starring Charles Laughton, with all of its surviving footage.
Josef von Sternberg, a Retrospective
Interviewee
An interview with film director Josef von Sternberg, produced for Belgium television.
Josef von Sternberg Interview
Self
Interview with Austrian-American director, Josef von Sternberg, recorded for Swedish television in 1968.
D'un silence l'autre - Josef von Sternberg
Self
Speaking as scenes from Anatahan are shown, for which he directed, photographed, wrote, and provided voiceover narration, film director Josef von Sternberg takes the viewer on a fantastic filmmaking journey in this presentation of Cinéastes de notre temps: Josef von Sternberg - From Silence Comes Another.
Jet Pilot
Director
John Wayne stars as U.S. Air Force aviator Jim Shannon, who's tasked with escorting a Soviet pilot (Janet Leigh) claiming -- at the height of the Cold War -- that she wants to defect. After falling in love with and wedding the fetching flyer, Shannon learns from his superiors that she's a spy on a mission to extract military secrets. To save his new wife from prison and deportation, Shannon devises a risky plan in this 1957 drama.
Anatahan
Executive Producer
Twelve Japanese seamen are stranded on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan for seven tense years of internal strife.
Anatahan
Screenplay
Twelve Japanese seamen are stranded on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan for seven tense years of internal strife.
Anatahan
Director of Photography
Twelve Japanese seamen are stranded on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan for seven tense years of internal strife.
Anatahan
Narrator (voice)
Twelve Japanese seamen are stranded on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan for seven tense years of internal strife.
Anatahan
Director
Twelve Japanese seamen are stranded on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan for seven tense years of internal strife.
Macao
Director
A man on the run in the Far East is mistaken for an undercover cop.
Duel in the Sun
Co-Director
Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad.
The Town
Director
The Town was a short propaganda film produced by the Office of War Information in 1945. It presents an idealized vision of American life, shown in microcosm by Madison, Indiana.
The Shanghai Gesture
Writer
A gambling queen uses blackmail to stop a British financier from closing her Chinese clip joint.
The Shanghai Gesture
Adaptation
A gambling queen uses blackmail to stop a British financier from closing her Chinese clip joint.
The Shanghai Gesture
Director
A gambling queen uses blackmail to stop a British financier from closing her Chinese clip joint.
I Take This Woman
Co-Director
On return from Europe Dr. Decker foils glamour girl Georgi from jumping overboard. At Decker's suggestion to keep busy, she assists at his clinic in the slums.
Sergeant Madden
Director
A dedicated police officer is torn between family and duty when his son turns to a life of crime.
The Great Waltz
Co-Director
Composer Johann Strauss risks his marriage over his infatuation with a beautiful singer.
The King Steps Out
Director
Princess is destined to marry the Emperor, until her sister steps in.
Crime and Punishment
Director
A man is haunted by a murder he's committed.
The Devil Is a Woman
Art Direction
In the carnival in Spain in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the exiled republican Antonio Galvan comes from Paris masquerade to enjoy the party and visit his friend Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar. However, he flirts with the mysterious Concha Perez and they schedule to meet each other later. When Antonio meets Pasqualito, his old friend discloses his frustrated relationship with the promiscuous Concha and her greedy mother and how his life was ruined by his obsession for the beautiful demimondaine. Pasqualito makes Antonio promise that he would not see Concha. However, when Antonio meets Concha, she seduces him and the long friendship between Antonio and Pasqualito is disrupted
The Devil Is a Woman
Cinematography
In the carnival in Spain in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the exiled republican Antonio Galvan comes from Paris masquerade to enjoy the party and visit his friend Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar. However, he flirts with the mysterious Concha Perez and they schedule to meet each other later. When Antonio meets Pasqualito, his old friend discloses his frustrated relationship with the promiscuous Concha and her greedy mother and how his life was ruined by his obsession for the beautiful demimondaine. Pasqualito makes Antonio promise that he would not see Concha. However, when Antonio meets Concha, she seduces him and the long friendship between Antonio and Pasqualito is disrupted
The Devil Is a Woman
Producer
In the carnival in Spain in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the exiled republican Antonio Galvan comes from Paris masquerade to enjoy the party and visit his friend Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar. However, he flirts with the mysterious Concha Perez and they schedule to meet each other later. When Antonio meets Pasqualito, his old friend discloses his frustrated relationship with the promiscuous Concha and her greedy mother and how his life was ruined by his obsession for the beautiful demimondaine. Pasqualito makes Antonio promise that he would not see Concha. However, when Antonio meets Concha, she seduces him and the long friendship between Antonio and Pasqualito is disrupted
The Devil Is a Woman
Director of Photography
In the carnival in Spain in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the exiled republican Antonio Galvan comes from Paris masquerade to enjoy the party and visit his friend Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar. However, he flirts with the mysterious Concha Perez and they schedule to meet each other later. When Antonio meets Pasqualito, his old friend discloses his frustrated relationship with the promiscuous Concha and her greedy mother and how his life was ruined by his obsession for the beautiful demimondaine. Pasqualito makes Antonio promise that he would not see Concha. However, when Antonio meets Concha, she seduces him and the long friendship between Antonio and Pasqualito is disrupted
The Devil Is a Woman
Director
In the carnival in Spain in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the exiled republican Antonio Galvan comes from Paris masquerade to enjoy the party and visit his friend Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar. However, he flirts with the mysterious Concha Perez and they schedule to meet each other later. When Antonio meets Pasqualito, his old friend discloses his frustrated relationship with the promiscuous Concha and her greedy mother and how his life was ruined by his obsession for the beautiful demimondaine. Pasqualito makes Antonio promise that he would not see Concha. However, when Antonio meets Concha, she seduces him and the long friendship between Antonio and Pasqualito is disrupted
The Scarlet Empress
Art Direction
During the 18th century, German noblewoman Sophia Frederica, who would later become Catherine the Great, travels to Moscow to marry the dimwitted Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. Their arranged marriage proves to be loveless, and Catherine takes many lovers, including the handsome Count Alexei, and bears a son. When the unstable Peter eventually ascends to the throne, Catherine plots to oust him from power.
The Scarlet Empress
Editor
During the 18th century, German noblewoman Sophia Frederica, who would later become Catherine the Great, travels to Moscow to marry the dimwitted Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. Their arranged marriage proves to be loveless, and Catherine takes many lovers, including the handsome Count Alexei, and bears a son. When the unstable Peter eventually ascends to the throne, Catherine plots to oust him from power.
The Scarlet Empress
Producer
During the 18th century, German noblewoman Sophia Frederica, who would later become Catherine the Great, travels to Moscow to marry the dimwitted Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. Their arranged marriage proves to be loveless, and Catherine takes many lovers, including the handsome Count Alexei, and bears a son. When the unstable Peter eventually ascends to the throne, Catherine plots to oust him from power.
The Scarlet Empress
Director
During the 18th century, German noblewoman Sophia Frederica, who would later become Catherine the Great, travels to Moscow to marry the dimwitted Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. Their arranged marriage proves to be loveless, and Catherine takes many lovers, including the handsome Count Alexei, and bears a son. When the unstable Peter eventually ascends to the throne, Catherine plots to oust him from power.
Blonde Venus
Writer
American chemist Ned Faraday marries a German entertainer and starts a family. However, he becomes poisoned with Radium and needs an expensive treatment in Germany to have any chance at being cured. Wife Helen returns to night club work to attempt to raise the money and becomes popular as the Blonde Venus. In an effort to get enough money sooner, she prostitutes herself to millionaire Nick Townsend.
Blonde Venus
Editor
American chemist Ned Faraday marries a German entertainer and starts a family. However, he becomes poisoned with Radium and needs an expensive treatment in Germany to have any chance at being cured. Wife Helen returns to night club work to attempt to raise the money and becomes popular as the Blonde Venus. In an effort to get enough money sooner, she prostitutes herself to millionaire Nick Townsend.
Blonde Venus
Producer
American chemist Ned Faraday marries a German entertainer and starts a family. However, he becomes poisoned with Radium and needs an expensive treatment in Germany to have any chance at being cured. Wife Helen returns to night club work to attempt to raise the money and becomes popular as the Blonde Venus. In an effort to get enough money sooner, she prostitutes herself to millionaire Nick Townsend.
Blonde Venus
Director
American chemist Ned Faraday marries a German entertainer and starts a family. However, he becomes poisoned with Radium and needs an expensive treatment in Germany to have any chance at being cured. Wife Helen returns to night club work to attempt to raise the money and becomes popular as the Blonde Venus. In an effort to get enough money sooner, she prostitutes herself to millionaire Nick Townsend.
Shanghai Express
Director
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
An American Tragedy
Producer
A social climber charms a debutante, seduces a factory worker and commits murder.
An American Tragedy
Writer
A social climber charms a debutante, seduces a factory worker and commits murder.
An American Tragedy
Director
A social climber charms a debutante, seduces a factory worker and commits murder.
Dishonored
Music
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
Dishonored
Additional Music
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
Dishonored
Editor
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
Dishonored
Writer
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
Dishonored
Director
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
Marlene Dietrich, “The Blue Angel” Screen Test
Director
Marlene Dietrich's acting tests for the film The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel) by Josef von Sternberg.
Morocco
Director
The Foreign Legion marches in to Mogador with booze and women in mind just as singer Amy Jolly arrives from Paris to work at Lo Tinto's cabaret. That night, insouciant legionnaire Tom Brown catches her inimitably seductive, tuxedo-clad act. Both bruised by their past lives, the two edge cautiously into a no-strings relationship while being pursued by others. But Tom must leave on a perilous mission: is it too late for them?
The Blue Angel
Writer
Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the young woman. However, his marriage to a coquette -- whose job is to entice men -- proves to be more difficult than Rath imagined.
The Blue Angel
Director
Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the young woman. However, his marriage to a coquette -- whose job is to entice men -- proves to be more difficult than Rath imagined.
Thunderbolt
Director
A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl, without knowing of their relationship. Thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young Moran for romancing his girl.
The Case of Lena Smith
Director
A peasant girl goes to great lengths to protect her child in 19th century Vienna. The film is considered lost, and only four minutes of footage are known to remain.
The Docks of New York
Producer
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
The Docks of New York
Director
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
Street of Sin
Story
The Drag Net
Director
A 1928 silent film crime drama produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Josef von Sternberg from an original screen story and starring George Bancroft and Evelyn Brent.
The Last Command
Story
A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.
The Last Command
Director
A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.
Underworld
Writer
Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.
Underworld
Director
Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.
The Exquisite Sinner
Writer
The Exquisite Sinner
Director
A Woman of the Sea
Writer
Joan and Magdalen are the daughters of a fisherman. Magdalen leaves her fiancé, Peter, to run off to the big city. Joan and Peter marry. Magdalen's return years later causes trouble for the marriage, but Joan and Peter remain together in the end.
A Woman of the Sea
Director
Joan and Magdalen are the daughters of a fisherman. Magdalen leaves her fiancé, Peter, to run off to the big city. Joan and Peter marry. Magdalen's return years later causes trouble for the marriage, but Joan and Peter remain together in the end.
The Masked Bride
Director
An American millionaire wants to reform a Parisian cabaret singer who moonlights as a jewel thief.
1925 Studio Tour
Self
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and gives viewers a glimpse at how movies are made.
The Salvation Hunters
Producer
A hopelessly hopeful drifter, a bitter young woman, and a helpless child live on the docks, spending their days in poverty and listless wandering. Overhead, a dredge hauls up mud and trash from the nearby seabed-- the same mud and trash from the day before. They finally decide to leave for the city to seek fulfillment, only to encounter further privation, destitution, temptation.
The Salvation Hunters
Editor
A hopelessly hopeful drifter, a bitter young woman, and a helpless child live on the docks, spending their days in poverty and listless wandering. Overhead, a dredge hauls up mud and trash from the nearby seabed-- the same mud and trash from the day before. They finally decide to leave for the city to seek fulfillment, only to encounter further privation, destitution, temptation.
The Salvation Hunters
Screenplay
A hopelessly hopeful drifter, a bitter young woman, and a helpless child live on the docks, spending their days in poverty and listless wandering. Overhead, a dredge hauls up mud and trash from the nearby seabed-- the same mud and trash from the day before. They finally decide to leave for the city to seek fulfillment, only to encounter further privation, destitution, temptation.
The Salvation Hunters
Director
A hopelessly hopeful drifter, a bitter young woman, and a helpless child live on the docks, spending their days in poverty and listless wandering. Overhead, a dredge hauls up mud and trash from the nearby seabed-- the same mud and trash from the day before. They finally decide to leave for the city to seek fulfillment, only to encounter further privation, destitution, temptation.
The Bohemian Girl
Assistant Director
A Polish officer posing as a gypsy loves a gypsy girl who is really the count's daughter.
The Highest Bidder
Assistant Director
Society miss Sally Raeburn is left penniless and is helped out by an older woman. The woman makes it clear that to repay her, Sally must marry wealth, so when the very well-heeled Lester comes to her village, Sally goes after him. Lester has been traveling incognito in the hopes that no one will discover him, so when Sally wins him she feels guilty and confesses that she knew who he was all along.
The Mystery of the Yellow Room
Assistant Director
The intrepid reporter and amateur sleuth Joseph Rouletabille becomes involved in the investigation of a hideous crime committed in a room painted yellow, whose door was locked from the inside…
A Girl's Folly
Cameraman (uncredited)
A restless young girl yearns to leave her rural environment and "get away from it all". One day she stumbles upon a film crew shooting a western near her home. She makes friends with the film's leading man, who encourages her to try her luck as an actress. So she leaves her small town and goes to the big city to break into the picture business. However, things don't turn out quite the way she planned.