Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

into the plot are as prostitutes or as paid-brigands who ineffectually
attack Gary Cooper.
Thus, Sternberg’s depiction of Moroccan society is not exactly
sensitive or sympathetic. It is, however, picturesque, and since this
particular director has never been accused of an interest in social
commentary, his respectful visualization of the otherness of Morocco
may be vindication in itself. As Sternberg sumptuously stylized the
Chinese Revolution in Shanghai Express, his ravishingly ersatz
Morocco, his heartfelt vision of its culture, compensates for its geopolitical
superficiality with its baring of the director’s artistic soul. In
Sternberg’s defense, too, it must be stated that rarely has Hollywood
so lavishly tried to create the illusion of an authentic colonial culture
as it did with Morocco. In fact, in a recent advertisement in “The New
York Times”, paid for by the Moroccan government, the following
quote appeared in tribute to the power of Sternberg’s vision:
“Representatives of Morocco’s tourism industry hope that visitors will
be seduced, just as Gary Cooper was, and will want to return again
and again to this country filled with unforgettable landscapes and
engaging people.”
Although it can be said with legitimacy that Morocco reinforces
colonialist stereotypes, I think it can also be argued that, as with
Murnau’s experience in Polynesia and the early German explorers in
Central Africa, Sternberg’s film opens up the possibility that a non-
Western view of reality, a different system of values, may be more
appealing and fulfilling than those imported by the imperial powers.
By using all the elements of his illusion-making craft at the height of
his artistic inspiration, Josef von Sternberg has created a Morocco in
which it is possible to believe that a European woman would give
into her suppressed emotions and violate all conventions of sociallyaccepted
behavior. Sternberg said, “the average human being lives
behind an impenetrable veil and will disclose his deep emotions only
in a crisis which robs him of control.” The crisis precipitated by
Dietrich’s final awareness of the depths of Cooper’s feelings for her
comes in the context of the atmosphere that the director has
painstakingly created throughout the film. Morocco, the country, the
colony, has lifted the impenetrable veil and offered Dietrich an
alternative social vision, unencumbered by European rigidity, which
subverts her preconceived values and those of the audience.
Although it may not have been part of Sternberg’s intended agenda,
the film brings into strong question any suggestion that the Western
colonial powers have all the answers, either for the subjugated
countries or, indeed, for themselves.
54 Journal of Film Preservation / 63 / 2001