{"id":5957,"date":"2008-10-27T11:40:36","date_gmt":"2008-10-27T18:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5957"},"modified":"2021-01-20T16:54:47","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T23:54:47","slug":"nana-1934","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5957","title":{"rendered":"Nana (1934)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I&#8217;ve made her a great success in the theater; she must live like a successful woman.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Nana-Poster-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Nana-Poster-1-151x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"151\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-64753\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Nana-Poster-1-151x300.jpg 151w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Nana-Poster-1-64x128.jpg 64w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Nana-Poster-1-136x270.jpg 136w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Nana-Poster-1.jpg 401w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 151px) 100vw, 151px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn 19th century France, a wealthy theatrical producer (Richard Bennett) becomes infatuated with a prostitute named Nana (Anna Sten) and helps her become a renowned actress &#8212; but Nana risks losing her benefactor&#8217;s support when she falls secretly in love with a handsome young soldier (Phillips Holmes) whose married brother (Lionel Atwill) disapproves of their relationship.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Actors and Actresses<\/li>\n<li>Dorothy Arzner Films<\/li>\n<li>Lionel Atwill Films<\/li>\n<li>Love Triangle<\/li>\n<li>Prostitutes and Gigolos<\/li>\n<li>Social Climbers<\/li>\n<li>Star-Crossed Lovers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nSwedish-Ukranian beauty Anna Sten was meant to be Samuel Goldwyn&#8217;s answer to Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, but her rising star faded quickly, and she&#8217;s only vaguely remembered (if at all) by film fanatics today. <em>Nana<\/em> &#8212; directed by Dorothy Arzner, and loosely based on Emile Zola&#8217;s novel of the same name &#8212; was the first of three English-language films Sten starred in, and shows ample evidence of her luminous looks but not much else. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/nana-sten2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/nana-sten2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5960\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To her credit, Arzner recognized the limitations of what she was given to work with; in a 1977 interview with Guy Flatley for <em>The New York Times<\/em>, she noted:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Goldwyn gave me everything I wanted in the way of sets, lighting, cameramen and costumes, but he also gave me the job of making Anna Sten look like a great actress. He had spent a year grooming her, telling everyone that she would be greater than Dietrich, greater than Garbo, and then when she opened her mouth, out came these monosyllables. The only thing I could do was not let her talk so much.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To be fair, Sten actually exhibits a flirty, emboldened charm appropriate for the character she&#8217;s playing; it&#8217;s her lackluster costars (Atwill in particular is regrettably wooden), and the stale, overly familiar plot &#8212; a much-sanitized version of Zola&#8217;s episodic novel &#8212; which really sink this film. Ultimately, only Gregg Toland&#8217;s stunning cinematography (see stills below) elevates <em>Nana<\/em> a notch above pedestrian.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gregg Toland&#8217;s luminous cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/nana-cross.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/nana-cross.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5959\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/nana-lamp.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/nana-lamp.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5961\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/nana-shadow.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/nana-shadow.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5962\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though film fanatics may be curious to see Sten in at least one film, and Toland&#8217;s camera work makes it not entirely unpleasant viewing. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0025555\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1934\/02\/02\/archives\/the-screen-anna-sten-makes-her-american-film-bow-in-a-picture.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/reviews\/63150\/nana.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve made her a great success in the theater; she must live like a successful woman.&#8221; Synopsis: In 19th century France, a wealthy theatrical producer (Richard Bennett) becomes infatuated with a prostitute named Nana (Anna Sten) and helps her become a renowned actress &#8212; but Nana risks losing her benefactor&#8217;s support when she falls secretly in love with a handsome young soldier (Phillips Holmes) whose married brother (Lionel Atwill) disapproves of their relationship. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Actors and&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5957\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5957"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64756,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957\/revisions\/64756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}