Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Joyless Street - 1925


Country: Germany
Language: German
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Writers: Hugo Bettauer (novel), F.H. Lyon (translator), Willy Haas (scenario- uncredited)
Stars: Asta Nielsen, Greta Garbo and Agnes Esterhazy 
Also known as: Die freudlose Gasse (Germany - original title); Bag glædernes maske (Denmark); Bajo la máscara del placer (Spain); Bak gledens maske (Norway); Den glädjelösa gatan (Sweden); Den gledesløse gaten (Norway -alternative title); Dromos horis hara (Greece - festival title); Iloton katu (Finland); Joyless Street (UK); La calle sin alegría: bajo la máscara del placer (Spain); La rue sans joie (France); La via senza gioia (Italy); Rua Sem Sol (Portugal); Rua das Lágrimas (Brazil); Ta dramata eis tous oikous anohis (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title); The Joyless Street (USA); The Street of Sorrow (USA); Ulica bez radosti (Yugoslavia - literal title - Serbian title); Viennese Love (Canada - English title); Zatracona ulica (Poland)
Production Co: Sofar-Film
Runtime: 125 min  | France: 94 min (1981 restored version)  | Germany: 175 min (1998 restored version at Berlin Film Festival, 16 fps)  | Spain: 109 min  | Belgium: 115 min (copy with English titles at Brussels Musée du Cinéma)  | Germany: 148 min (1998 restored version at Arte/ZDF, 19 fps)  | 142 min (1998 restored version on DVD, 20 fps)  | Germany: 151 min (2009 DVD, 19 fps)
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Trivia
The dark-haired woman waiting in the butcher shop line who is often mistaken for Marlene Dietrich is actually Hertha von Walther. She had a much larger role in the original uncut version of the film. She can also be seen as the lab assistant in Geheimnisse einer Seele with Werner Krauss.
Plot Keywords: Money | Food | Slum | Secretary | Depression  | Brothel | Necklace | American Red Cross | Nightclub | Creditor | Lawyer | Self Pity | Fired From The Job | Fur Coat | Murder | Post World War One | Poverty | Hunger | Sister Sister Relationship | Despair | Pain | Husband Wife Relationship | Anguish | Prostitute | Lodger | Street Life | Prostitution | Coat | Vienna Austria | Inflation | Arrest | Neighbor | Threadbare Coat | Misery | Father Daughter Relationship | Poor | Based On Novel
Genres: Drama
Vienna in the biggest depression, directly after WW1. In a slum, Lila Leid, the wife of lawyer Leid is murdered, Egon, secretary of one of Leid's clients is arrested. He was with her, and had her necklace, because he needed some money for his own stock exchange deals. The same deal brings poverty to ex-government official Rumfort, his daughter Greta, who also has lost her job, tries to get some money to get food. She rents a room of the flat she, her young sister and her father are living in to an American Red Cross official, who pays $60 rent, but the money is taken by some of her father's creditors. But their neighbour, shop owner Mrs Greifer knows how to "help", she and Mrs. Merkel are running a nightclub with a brothel... 

Robinson Kruse - 1927


Country: Sweden
Director: M.A. Wethrell
Producer: Magnus Cedergren
Production Company: Bandbreddsnöje
Audio/Visual: nosound, blank and white
Language: Swedish
Keywords: robinson,kruse,crosoe

Strike - 1925


Country: Soviet Union
Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
Writers: Sergei M. Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov, Ilya Kravchunovsky, Valeryan Pletnyov
Stars: Grigori Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh and Mikhail Gomorov
Also known as: Stachka (Soviet Union - original title); A Greve (Brazil / Portugal); La grève Belgium (French title) / Canada (French title); La huelga (Argentina / Spain); Стачка (Soviet Union - Russian title); Gapitsva (Soviet Union - Georgian title); Grev (Turkey - Turkish title); I apergia (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title); Lakko (Finland); Sciopero (Italy); Strajk (Poland); Streik (Germany); Strejke (Denmark);
Strejken (Sweden); Strike (International - English title); Sztrájk (Hungary)
Production Co: Goskino, Proletkult
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Trivia
The earliest Russian-Soviet film included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.
Plot Keywords: Strike | Factory | Spy | Working | Police  |  Public Domain | Tsarist Russia | Anti Capitalism | Water | Society | Experimental Film | Capitalist | Massacre | Infanticide | Violence | Unrest | Demonstration | Class Struggle | Breaking The Fourth Wall | Army vs Civilians | Turmoil | Cult Director | Working Class Family | Labor Movement | Capitalism | Class Society | Social Discontent | Dead Child | Suicide | Labour | One Word Title | Working Class
Genres: Drama
In Russia's factory region during Czarist rule, there's restlessness and strike planning among workers; management brings in spies and external agents. When a worker hangs himself after being falsely accused of thievery, the workers strike. At first, there's excitement in workers' households and in public places as they develop their demands communally. Then, as the strike drags on and management rejects demands, hunger mounts, as does domestic and civic distress. Provocateurs recruited from the lumpen and in league with the police and the fire department bring problems to the workers; the spies do their dirty work; and, the military arrives to liquidate strikers.