Even minor Stroheim is considerably better than most other filmmakers' major work.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
It is the love scenes, played beneath shimmering apple blossoms in lyrical soft focus, that stick in the memory, ironically turning what is now the film's ending into one of the director's most bitterly pessimistic scenes.
– Geoff Andrew,
Time Out,
26 Jan 2006
rotten:
Because of what they are called upon to do and not because of the performances of the players the characters are not much more human than a troupe of Robots.
– Mordaunt Hall,
New York Times,
25 Mar 2006
fresh:
One of the most eccentric and fascinating vanity projects in the history of film.
– John Monaghan,
Detroit Free Press,
31 Mar 2006
fresh:
As this extravagant, wickedly ironic 1928 melodrama shows, Erich von Stroheim was not only a supreme (if typecast) actor but one of the greatest silent-era directors.