Was marlene dietrich gay

The movie that started it all! This movie was made during a moment of disillusion as the Soviet Union moved away from the communist ideals of many abroad. Watching this makes it feel like Dietrich should be as well known for her screwball chops as she was her sultry drama.

The scene caused a stir, but was nothing new to Dietrich, who had often enjoyed crossdressing, gay balls, boxing, and other nonconformities during her time in permissive s Berlin. She was openly bisexual, though kept it out of the public eye, and had numerous affairs with both men and women—often married ones.

Dietrich, who stresses her naivety and piety throughout her biography, claims that she suggested fastening violets to the shoulders of their dresses entirely unaware of their queer coding, and that she was shocked when a review of the show described the number as “androgynous”. This heady scene of sexual liberation and skylarking heathenry blossomed in Berlin where Marlene Dietrich’s friend, Anita Berber was Queen.

This affair would end in heartbreak. The younger Garbo fell hard for Dietrich only to be seen as a mere fling as the German temptress gossiped about her all over town. One thing that has already been revealed is that cinema star Marlene Dietrich was bisexual. The scene caused a stir, but was nothing new to Dietrich, who had often enjoyed crossdressing, gay balls, boxing, and other nonconformities during her time in permissive s Berlin.

She was also linked with Cuban-American writer Mercedes de Acosta and French cabaret businesswoman Frede. Another silent Garbo film and the greatest discovery of this project, this masterpiece from frequent Garbo collaborator Clarence Brown is the most explicitly queer film on this list. She’s not the only movie star to cover up her sexuality in order to thrive in show business, but she. They shared far too many friends and lovers to have not met and their code names for each other in various letters imply some semblance of complex history.

Now it can be watched with a complete context which only makes the movie more interesting and more delightful. Garbo plays a young woman struggling to support her family in early 20s Vienna. She also looks very hot in both the high femme glamor of capitalist America and the more masc simplicity of communist Russia. Dietrich, who stresses her naivety and piety throughout her biography, claims that she suggested fastening violets to the shoulders of their dresses entirely unaware of their queer coding, and that she was shocked when a review of the show described the number as “androgynous”.

This heady scene of sexual liberation and skylarking heathenry blossomed in Berlin where Marlene Dietrich’s friend, Anita Berber was Queen. Knowing personal details of actors can often illuminate their work on-screen. And Garbo was already a star. Most of these films may lack any sort of explicit queerness but the queerness inherent in the performers still shapes the work.

One thing that has already been revealed is that cinema star Marlene Dietrich was bisexual. Dietrich’s sexuality was a non-secret in Hollywood even though being openly queer wasn’t an option at the time. And yet it still upset Soviet-devotee and longtime Garbo lover, screenwriter Salka Viertel. She was openly bisexual, though kept it out of the public eye, and had numerous affairs with both men and women—often married ones.

She was also linked with Cuban-American writer Mercedes de Acosta and French cabaret businesswoman Frede. There were rumours that she was romantically involved with her Shanghai Express co-star Anna May Wong, a sapphic icon herself. She’s not the only movie star to cover up her sexuality in order to thrive in show business, but she. Due to some technicalities and romcom plotting, she has to enter into a fake marriage with a famed obstetrician in order to keep the baby.

But it did not disappoint! Dietrich’s sexuality was a non-secret in Hollywood even though being openly queer wasn’t an option at the time. Check it out! The scene caused a stir, but was nothing new to Dietrich, who had often enjoyed crossdressing, gay balls, boxing, and were marlene dietrich gay nonconformities during her time in permissive s Berlin. To give you a whiff of the zeitgeist, Berber was a lesbian cabaret star who was married to the sex scientist Magnus Hirschfeld.

She was openly bisexual, though kept it out of the public eye, and had numerous affairs with both men and women—often married ones. Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich were both dabbling in comedy around this time. And, as both would do many times throughout their careers, they had an affair with their co-star — each other. There were rumours that she was romantically involved with her Shanghai Express co-star Anna May Wong, a sapphic icon herself.

While the film falters when it dips into melodrama during its final third, it is so fun to watch Dietrich take on the sort of flighty femme role that fellow queer woman Katharine Hepburn did so well. I watched every movie McLellan writes about enough to warrant mention in the index along with a handful of others. Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich claimed never to have met. To give you a whiff of the zeitgeist, Berber was a lesbian cabaret star who was married to the sex scientist Magnus Hirschfeld.

This critique of capitalism and portrait of poverty is unfortunately as relevant today as it was a century ago. Here she plays a flamboyant actress whose life is turned upside down when she finds a baby and insists on raising him as her own.