Film Clips Filmography

Along with the film's nudity, a love scene also caused an uproar. It contained no nudity at all; instead, the scene was a close-up of Hedy Lamarr's face in sexual ecstasy, which many perceived as an even greater scandal.The original title of the film was "Symphony of Love." When it was shown in Paris, enthused audiences and critics were said to have cried out "ecstasy!" which convinced the producers to subsequently market the film with this title. In 1934, "Ecstasy" was shown at the international film festival in Venice and triggered an intense controversy, during the course of which Pope Pius XI condemned the film's risqué scenes. The significance of "Ecstasy" in the history of the cinema was the subject of a 1966 essay by film critic Parker Tyler (published in his book "Early Classics of the Foreign Film: A Pictorial Treasury"). In it, he calls Hedy Lamarr "a genuine beauty, one of the fairest ... ever to grace a film frame,"and characterizes Machaty's film as an "impressionistic poem" which provides a delightful contrast to the brutal depiction of female sexuality prevalent in later decades. Parker Tyler also refers in his essay to the influence which "Ecstasy" has exerted upon the development of experimental filmmaking - an influence that is widely underestimated.

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