Sternberg's attitude towards his male protagonists is less ambiguous. Both the pathetic old Don Pasqual and the virile young Antonio are regarded more with irony than sympathy: each are "symbols of the endless futility of passion...[t]hey are the last lovers Sternberg postulated for Dietrich’s screen incarnation and their absurdity only marks the death of desire." Film critic Andrew Sarris described The Devil Is a Woman as the "coldest" of Sternberg's films in its uncompromising, yet humorously cynical, appraisal of romantic self-deception. This, despite the film's "sumptuous surface". Silver remarks upon the film's "diamond-like hardness", where romanticism is trumped by "cynical introspection and fatalism". On Dietrich's character, Concha Perez, Cecelia Ager, film critic for Variety, was "particularly lucid on the subject": Sarris summed up the film this way: "Sternberg did not know it at the time, but his sun was setting, and it has never really risen again...Still, as a goodbye to Dietrich, The Devil Is Woman is a more gallant gesture to one's once beloved than Orson Welles’ murderous adieu to Rita Hayworth in The Lady From Shanghai." Awards and honors The film won the Award for Best Cinematography at the Venice Film Festival in 1935. References Sources Malcolm, Derek. 2000. Josef von Sternberg: The Scarlet Empress in The Guardian, May 25, 2000. Retrieved April 14, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/may/25/artsfeatures Sennwald, André. 1935. The Devil is A Woman in The New York Times, May 4, 1935. Reprinted in American Movie Critics: An Anthology From The Silents Until Now. p. 85–86. Ed. Phillip Lopate. The Library of America. New York, New York. Sarris, Andrew. 1966. The Films of Josef von Sternberg. Museum of Modern Art/Doubleday. New York City. Stafford, Jeff. 2018. The Devil is A Woman in Turner Movie Classics film review, May 17, 2017. Retrieved on April 14, 2017. http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/410471%7C87829/The-Devil-Is-a-Woman.html The Film Sufi: The Devil is a Woman by Josef von Sternberg (1935) in The Film Sufi, July 22, 2015. Retrieved April 14, 2018.http://www.filmsufi.com/2015/07/the-devil-is-woman-josef-von-sternberg.html External links 1935 films 1930s historical romance films 1935 romantic drama films American historical romance films American romantic drama films American black-and-white films Films based on French novels Romantic period films Films set in Spain Films set in the 19th century Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Josef von Sternberg Films based on works by Pierre Louÿs 1930s English-language films 1930s American films