A Dietrich Retrospective to Long For : Movies: American Cinematheque’s tribute to ‘the Empress of Desire’ includes several of her German silent films.

In her concert appearances during the last two decades of her career, Marlene Dietrich told audiences around the world that she was a “student” when she was “discovered” by Josef von Sternberg for the film “The Blue Angel.”

In truth, she was by then a full-fledged star of German silents who had throughout the ‘20s been constantly busy on stage and, beginning in 1923, on screen. Consequently, it is as fitting as it is fascinating that the American Cinematheque, as part of its weekend-long “Empress of Desire: The Films of Marlene Dietrich,” will present Friday at 7:15 p.m. at the Directors Guild “I Kiss Your Hand, Madame” (1929), followed by a condensed version of “Manon Lescaut” (1926) and, at 9:30 p.m., “The Woman One Longs For” (1929).

All three films are highly sophisticated entertainment with lavish production designs and, by coincidence, set in France. Robert Land’s Lubitsch-like “I Kiss Your Hand, Madame” finds Dietrich cast as a young divorcee who meets a waiter (Harry Liedtke) who works in a smart hotel restaurant and who introduces himself as a Russian count.

The period piece “Manon Lescaut” has superb baroque sets designed by Paul Leni, soon to become a talented director in Berlin and then Hollywood. Dietrich has a small but crucial role as a tart who betrays the tempestuous, ill-fated heroine, played by Lya de Putti, fresh from her triumphs in Griffith’s “The Sorrows of Satan” and E.A. Dupont’s classic “Variety.”

Interesting footnotes: “Manon Lescaut” was Dietrich’s first film to be released in America and one of its assistant cinematographers was Fred Zinnemann, subsequently one of Hollywood’s major directors. Since Liedtke sang the famous title song, dubbed by Richard Tauber, “I Kiss Your Hand, Madame” was regarded as Germany’s first talkie--shades of the largely silent “Jazz Singer”; unfortunately, this sound portion has been lost.

Only an actress with the innate star power of Dietrich could hope to get away with “The Woman One Longs For,” a romantic lady-in-distress melodrama based on Max Brod’s novel and directed by Kurt--later Curtis--Bernhardt and written by Ladislas Vajda (both of whom moved on to Hollywood with great success).

A young man (Uno Henning) has just married a woman (Edith Edwards) he likes rather than loves for her money, needed to save his family’s immense iron works. He sees Dietrich peering out a window in a train he and his bride are about to board for their honeymoon. Framed by a border of frost on the pane, Dietrich is so radiant she transfixes us as well as Henning. We instantly understand why he would throw everything away to try to protect her from the unwanted advances of her companion, the sleek but repellent Fritz Kortner (a splendid, authoritative actor who played a similar role opposite Louise Brooks’ Lulu in “Pandora’s Box”).

Kortner not only is infatuated with Dietrich but also has some mysterious hold over her. Photographed by the legendary Curt Courant in a gleaming black and white largely in an Art Deco-style mountain resort, “The Woman One Longs For” is a singularly handsome, richly cinematic production.

Hemingway remarked famously that Dietrich could break your heart if she had just had that voice, but these films show just how good she could be without it. By the time of “The Woman One Longs For” she had become a fully accomplished, carefully nuanced screen actress, by no means relying upon her looks alone.

In none of these films is she the slightly plump Lola-Lola of “The Blue Angel.” She is a very photogenic young woman, not as beautiful and glamorous as she was to become in Hollywood under Von Sternberg’s tutelage but certainly more natural. Henning is a soulful type along the lines of Franchot Tone, but Liedtke, popular star that he was, seems too old and bland to captivate Dietrich, who would have to wait till Hollywood and Gary Cooper to have a co-star as spectacular-looking as she was.

As a prologue to the series, “A Tribute to Marlene Dietrich” will be held Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The three-hour program, hosted by Dietrich’s preeminent biographer Steven Bach, features discussions with Dietrich’s colleagues and friends, including Cesar Romero, her co-star in “The Devil Is a Woman” and clips from her five decades on film.

“Rancho Notorious,” “Desire” and “The Scarlet Empress” will screen Saturday at the Directors Guild, as will “Stage Fright” and “A Foreign Affair” on Sunday. There will be discussions with Steven Bach and guests following most programs.

Information: (213) 466-FILM.