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Nana (1934)
Director: Dorothy Arzner
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Conceived by Sam Goldwyn as a vehicle to launch his protégée Anna Sten, this is a very loose and inevitably bowdlerised version of Zola's classic novel about a gamine from the gutters who becomes the most celebrated whore in Paris. With the sex and syphilis gone, it becomes a somewhat stolid if sumptuously designed romantic melodrama about a music-hall actress torn apart by her liaisons with brothers Holmes and Atwill. But Arzner treats her heroine sympathetically, while Gregg Toland's lustrous photography makes a fair stab at exoticising her into a Garbo/Dietrich figure. And her lacklustre reputation notwithstanding, Sten - albeit rather too wholesome for the part - is surprisingly affecting.Author: GA
Cast & crew
Director: Dorothy Arzner
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn
Cast: Anna Sten, Phillips Holmes, Lionel Atwill, Muriel Kirkland, Richard Bennett, Mae Clarke, Reginald Owen full cast
Duration: 86 mins
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