Abaut Major Filmmakers - The two musical scenes in the Josef von Sternbeg movie “Morocco”

The movie “Morocco” by Josef von Sternberg shows Marlene Dietrich as the singer Ami Jolly in a cabaret. She falls in love with the soldier Tom Brown acted by Gary Cooper and is loved by the richest man in town La Bassier (Adolphe Menjou). La Bassier does everything to make her love him and even gives up at the end when Ami Jolly follows Tom Brown into the dessert.

The sequence with the two musical performances follows the introduction of the main characters. This is further split into two different parts. The first part shows Tom Brown, a soldier who arrives at a Moroccan town by foot. He is instantly attracted to a woman who is presented in the first couple of scenes and he makes a date with this woman. We are also introduced to La Bassier in this sequence, he arrives by ship and he is attracted to Ami Jolly. He tries to get her attention by helping her and giving her his calling card. She tears the calling card and throws it away. A comparison is drawn between the Moroccan woman and Ami Jolly in that Ami Jolly is presented as being more sophisticated than the Moroccan woman. This comparison can also be expanded to discuss the division between the rich and the poor. This can be seen in the way both men dressed and comported themselves. Tom Brown the soldier does not dress like a businessman like La Bassier does. In addition to this, La Bassier has a calling card; this calling card represents the class distinction that occurs between both men since only the rich had calling cards at this time. The first sequence is presented as a series of competition. It can be summarized as: Tom Brown versus La Bassier; Moroccan woman vs. Ami Jolly, coming by foot vs. coming by ship, no money vs. money and sexual success vs. no success. I think the movie is made to be a constant competition to show the subconscious rivalry that exists between men and women and also between money and love.

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The important sequence, where the only two musical scenes are presented starts with a shot, in which the viewer walks into the hall of the cabaret. This gives the viewer the impression that he is within the setting. Ami Jolli performs on stage in her two musical scenes. In this sequence we have again the comparison between La Bassier and Tom Brown. Now there are more people in this setting besides La Bassier, Tom Brown and Ami Jolly and they are Ms. Caesar, his wife and Lo Tinto the owner of the cabaret. La Bassier comes first on the screen. He walks to a table, where a woman introduces him to three other people. He walks to Sergeant Ms. Caesar and his wife Mme. Caesar. She makes a statement that she misses La Bassier, which gives us the impression, that these two people knew each other before she got married. This finishes the introduction of the characters.

Tom Brown walks into the cabaret and goes straight to a table in front of the stage; he does not look like he knows anybody. He greets Mme. Caesar, who seems to be one of Tom Browns acquaintances. She knows all three men, and it seems that her husband is the least important man in her life. Ms. Caesar does not know that she knows Tom Brown and he probably does not know that she knows La Bassier on a personal level. She gives the impression that she could be a singer who came on a boat, found an officer and married him. Interestingly, this is one of the advices Lo Tinto gave Ami Jolly, when he told her to look for a rich officer.

La Bassier knows more people in this setting than Tom Brown does. This makes him seem more sociable than Tom Brown. Comparing both sequences leads us to the impression that Tom Brown has less money and less prestige though he has more success with women. In the following scene, there are two dolls, one African and one Chinese. Ami Jolly stands in her dressing room and watches herself in the mirror. She wears trousers and a white shirt, which looks like a male dress coat. What she wears gives the impression that she is a woman of power. The first movement towards power was seen at the beginning when she tore the calling card.

She sits on the armrest and smokes her cigarette, which symbolizes male and female behavior. The way she sits is a symbol of femininity while her smoking a cigarette is symbol masculinity. She sings the French song “Quand l'amour meurt”. This is a song

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