1920s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists project Vol. 3)

[nsps]

When I say being told I mean the camera's own empathy and how it frames the door man throughout. The visuals, I think there are only one or two Intertitles in the whole film, do the talking for the director. I simply can't feel pity or even empathy for something who goes on a suicidal mission over a pathetic loss of pride. There are worst things out there than scrubbing toilets/ being the towel man such as unemployment. He's not starving and if he can't handle insults from a few idiots I can't emphasize.

Well Murnau certainly isn't letting the character off the hook. Part of the reason that everyone's laughing at him and treating him so cruelly is that he always thought he was a big shot just because he worked at this fancy hotel run by big shots. In truth he was always a nobody, but let himself believe that he was an important and valued contributor to the system. Ultimately, that system never recognized him as a person, but as a resource to be depleted, then disposed of. The film isn't just the story of the cruelty of said system, but of the foolishness of the man who believed it made him bigger than he really was.

Also, I find the ending fascinating because of the bizarre title card that precedes it. Yes, it's ridiculous, but it takes on a different meaning when the film has just told us that it's all a lie. It makes it feel like a fever dream.

[zedz]

I may be making too many suggestions, but I will say that Jean Epstein's Finis Terrae (1929) is taking my number 1 spot (last time Sunrise had it). The unnerving performances (reminding me of Golding's Lord of the Flies), the pacing, the subtle use of titles, and the bleak and consistently stark unforgettable imagery stays with you, burned into your brain. I think the film is endlessly rewatchable, though it may seem odd to silent fans that I would rank this higher than other Epstein silents (I don't know what's come over me.)

Not I! This will probably be my highest ranked Epstein too.

I don't know if we're going to be hanging out our laundry in this thread quite as much as in the more intensive and collaborative 'Early Cinema' one, but here's a brief round-up of the eligible films I've seen lately.

The Temptress - Although the entire film is haunted by a Siamese twin that was strangled at birth, being originally shot by Mauritz Stiller, then scrapped, then reshot by Fred Niblo, it's pretty good. The story is vampish twaddle, but Garbo handles her role with dignity and there are some memorable shots and sequences. My favourite is a technically impressive reverse track down the length of a banquet table, which is immediately followed by its subversive echo - a reverse track underneath the table (a shot Bunuel would have loved).

The Mysterious Lady - More classy frou-frou. Garbo's good, but the rest is pretty silly.

Nathan der Weise - This has been glowering from my kevyip for some time. Reports weren't good and indeed it was pretty heavy going. I'm not a fan of epics at the best of times, but this film, made eight years after Cabiria, feels almost like it was made eight years before it. However, there's a lovely passage in the middle of the film when a story related by Nathan is rendered in stripped-down silhouette, like minimalist, live-action Lotte Reiniger. If this self-contained passage were its own film, I'd be seriously tempted to put it on my list, but in context it's sunk by the bloated corpse to which it's been lashed.

[Tommaso]

Nathan der Weise - [...] but this film, made eight years after Cabiria, feels almost like it was made eight years before it.

Wow! This is the first time since it was cancelled by the mods that I seriously miss the 'applause' emoticon. I wonder what made Filmmuseum (apart from political/historical reasons, of course) not only unearth this film, but even re-release it with just another newly composed score. It's uninventive, dragging, far too long, and even Werner Krauss can't really save it, despite some good moments, one of which you mentioned. All this in a situation in which all the great German masterpieces by Pick, Grune, Schwarz, Dupont and others are desperately waiting for a dvd release (or even only a TV showing).

I quite like the two Garbos you mentioned, btw, but none of them will probably be on my list. If a silent Garbo will be there, I think chances are higher for either "Love" or "Flesh and the Devil", but I need to revisit them both. As to Epstein, count me in as another "Finis Terrae" fan, though I'm sure that it won't make my Top 20 in the face of all the Murnaus, Langs, Pabsts, Kirsanoffs, Eisensteins or Vertovs and others that need to be there. In an ideal world, I'd love to give at least five films equal billing on the top. Btw, Lubitsch, is that theoretically possible? Five films on #1 and then continue with #6 on an individual list?

[lubitsch]

Nathan der Weise - [...] but this film, made eight years after Cabiria, feels almost like it was made eight years before it.

Wow! This is the first time since it was cancelled by the mods that I seriously miss the 'applause' emoticon. I wonder what made Filmmuseum (apart from political/historical reasons, of course) not only unearth this film, but even re-release it with just another newly composed score. It's uninventive, dragging, far too long, and even Werner Krauss can't really save it, despite some good moments, one of which you mentioned. All this in a situation in which all the great German masterpieces by Pick, Grune, Schwarz, Dupont and others are desperately waiting for a dvd release (or even only a TV showing).

I quite like the two Garbos you mentioned, btw, but none of them will probably be on my list. If a silent Garbo will be there, I think chances are higher for either "Love" or "Flesh and the Devil", but I need to revisit them both. As to Epstein, count me in as another "Finis Terrae" fan, though I'm sure that it won't make my Top 20 in the face of all the Murnaus, Langs, Pabsts, Kirsanoffs, Eisensteins or Vertovs and others that need to be there. In an ideal world, I'd love to give at least five films equal billing on the top. Btw, Lubitsch, is that theoretically possible? Five films on #1 and then continue with #6 on an individual list?

NO!!! Simply for the reason that you have 1275 points to hand out (50+49+48+47...) and multiple 50s votes would give you more vote power.
As for Nathan, well you're German, you've been in a German school, you certainly read Nathan there, so just guess at whom this release is aimed.
Finis terrae was a tremendously boring film. wasn't it all about sitting on this dreary rocky island and trying to get off when somebody is wounded. Seriously I love (semi-)documentary films of the era, but this left me completely cold.

[Tommaso]

Okay, the maths convince me.

As for Nathan, well you're German, you've been in a German school, you certainly read Nathan there, so just guess at whom this release is aimed.

For the record: I didn't read the book in the school. But now I know why almost nobody in Germany is interested in silents, if they torture schoolchildren with films like that.

[reno dakota]

Five films on #1 and then continue with #6 on an individual list?

While I certainly wouldn't presume to tell lubitsch how to count ballots, there is a fair way to do this. If you want to list 5 films at #1, then each would get the average of the points available for your top five slots (which would be 50+49+48+47+46 divided by 5). So, 48 points each. Then your #6 pick would get 45 points, and so on . . .

[knives]

Is Finnis Terrae the one in the Unseen boxset. I can't believe I'm getting my Epstein's mixed up.

[zedz]

It's not out on DVD, but a very nice restoration was broadcast (on ARTE?) not long ago and might be lurking somewhere.

[nsps]

It's not out on DVD, but a very nice restoration was broadcast (on ARTE?) not long ago and might be lurking somewhere.

Yeah, it was ARTE, and they broadcast it in HD. I know because I haven't seen the film and was just searching for info on it.

[Zazou dans le Metro]

As zedz and others have mentioned before, the most gratifying aspect of these lists is how existing canons and prejudices are taken head on and grappled to the ground screaming and kicking. For me this most delirious and theoretically driven decade of film making is going to make for an arena of gladiatorial proportions.

Looking at the previous listings for the 20's seems to reinforce the idea of this decade having the most sclerotic constellation of received wisdom(s). Then like a new planet being discovered we get Ménilmontant boogalooing across everyone's nodes of Ranvier and up the charts. ( If ever a film launched a career then surely stand up Leos Carax and be counted). My current number 2.
No doubt the efforts of MoC, Filmmuseum, Flicker Alley and the Kino Avant Garde sets will be repaid with similar insurgencies into the cosmos. Can't help wondering out loud whether MoC will come to our aid with the much salivated over Epstein set.
Until then yes we have some excellent samizdat versions of Finis Terrae doing the rounds as well as the wonderful legit Pathé Coeur de Fidele. Then there's Grémillon's Maldone and of course the re-surfacing L'herbier all likely to make strong challenges.

Re Man and Movie Camera I'm more of a fan of the Cinematic Orchestra version despite the ragged print source, but sometimes (just sometimes) I prefer those hazy blotchy archaeological versions which seem to tear the veil into a parallel universe at once mysterious and delirious (which is where we came in).

Finally versions with spiffing new transfers are Dulac's Coquille with no less than three soundtracks - particularly that of Pascal Comelade and his toy orchestra. Also worthy of mention in dispatches Joris Iven's Rain in the new box set over the previous Kino Avant set.

[Tommaso]

Talking about Kino's Avant-Garde sets, I'd say everyone should check out Cavalcanti's "Rien que les heures", which is on Vol.3 and certainly the highlight of that volume, which I digged less than the two earlier ones. It's another city symphony, of course, this time on Paris and giving particular attention to the poor and outcasts in that city. A rare beast in being a socially conscious and at the same time very beautiful film, and it precedes Ruttmann's "Berlin" and Vertov's "Man with a camera" on top of it. The Kino version is fine, and even the score by Marotta is far better than could be expected after his earlier efforts. And while I'm talking about city symphonies, has anybody seen Mikhail Kaufman's (Dziga Vertov's brother's) "Moscow" and can say something about it?

Indispensable on the Kino sets are of course all the European experimental films on Vol.1, and those by Man Ray and Hans Richter especially. And I don't need to sing the praises of "Ménilmontant" again, at least not at this early stage of the listmaking.

[zedz]

Then like a new planet being discovered we get Ménilmontant boogalooing across everyone's nodes of Ranvier and up the charts. ( If ever a film launched a career then surely stand up Leos Carax and be counted).

Very true, and if any Kirsanov fan wants a respite from silent film (or films noirs) they could do worse than lap up Boy Meets Girl.

My next silent was Die elf Teufel, one of Edition Filmmuseum's soccer films. Nicely done, beautiful print and transfer, with some really excellent action montage and long flowing tracking shots for the climactic match sequences, but the film itself was meh. The story was at once utterly predictable and cliched and utterly ludicrous, with just about every character acting irrationally simply in order to engineer the inevitable 'showdown'. The film doesn't even really make sense on its own highly artificial terms. I don't know if there's much point marking spoilers for a film whose entire plot can be intuited from the opening intertitles, but stop reading now if you're highly sensitive to that sort of thing. The film is supposed to be world-beating team vs. plucky underdog amateurs (with a single star player). The dastardly manager of the super-team poaches the single star player and expects him to play against his old pals (and here's another head-slapper - he has to keep the identity of the opposing team secret from him, but doesn't seem to have anticipated that he's going to find out who they are when he, um, gets onto the playing field - were they planning to make him play blindfolded or something?) However, it turns out that the talentless losers can not only pretty much hold their own against the super team even without their star player (and the myopic comic-relief goalie somehow turns into a solid-gold champion, even when he throws away his glasses), but they have half a stadium of wild supporters appear out of nowhere (after the film has gone to great pains to persuade us that the team's fanbase numbers a measly two).

[knives]

Just found my Lubitsch of the decade, and like usual it was a surprise to me. By the way I'm talking about The Love Parade, which doesn't seem to be getting much love around here. It's really the perfect example of what sets Lubitsch apart from all of the other screwball types. I could gush in regard to the comedy, story, and the strength of the female lead, but all of that could describe any of his films and I don't want to reiterate what's been said a trillion times. Though I would like to note the glee I took from just how pathetic the male lead becomes after the wedding. Just the fact he looks lost every second made me laugh heartily.
Single complaint is that while most of the songs were integrated well some were simply show stoppers in the derogatory. It still managed to be leagues ahead of its brothers of the time so that shouldn't stop anyone from enjoying what gets put up.
By the way outside of The Black Pirate and Toll of the Sea are there any other completely colour, that means discounting situations like Ben Hur, films from the decade?

[Gregory]

By the way outside of The Black Pirate and Toll of the Sea are there any other completely colour, that means discounting situations like Ben Hur, films from the decade?

The Viking is another one. I know of a few other 1920s Technicolor features but complete color prints of them don't survive.

[myrnaloyisdope]

For color films there is Claude Friese-Greene's The Open Road, though I haven't seen it.

As for The Love Parade, well it has it's charms, Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald are always fun together, but the film drags an awful lot for me. It could have been about half an hour shorter quite easily I think.

I like So This Is Paris an awful lot, there is some neat tricks in that one, and the story is quite funny, very similar to The Merry Jail actually. There is a great Charleston sequence in which Lubitsch uses multiple superimpositions and fast cuts to create a sense of energy and debauchery. I've read it described as the closest silent film ever came to a musical sequence.

Rosita has the makings of a very solid film, Mary Pickford is very good in this one, and the set design is superb. The film is hindered primarily by the poor quality of the existing versions (at least floating around). There is a Russian intertitled version which is tinted and scored, but is incomplete (the end cuts off). This version is sourced from the only existing print I believe. There is an English language verson that is untinted, unscored, with much worse picture quality. Also the English intertitles are very stripped down translations of the Russian intertitles, so none of the wit really shines through. It's disappointing because the reviews of the film all made significant mention of the clever and funny intertitles.

I still haven't gotten around to his 1920's German films. I've had the Kino box for a long time, so I will definitely get to 'em.

[Tommaso]

For color films there is Claude Friese-Greene's The Open Road, though I haven't seen it.

It's thoroughly wonderful, and the unusual colour system gives it an almost psychedelic quality. The only problem is that it is far too short, and that it seems that there was more material available not included in this assembly of Friese-Greene's films.

As for "The Love Parade", I absolutely love it. I don't find it a minute too long, although admittedly the story is silly. But it's the style that counts here, and the wit and the songs. I admit I have a strong liking for those early sound film operettas in general (and "The Love Parade" feels so European and whimsical that I have to call it an operetta rather than a musical), and Lubitsch is the father of 'em all, unless you want to count in some Stroheim silents, which however are far more satiric. The tradition of having jolly people go through diverse amorous adventures in a half-fairytale kingdom didn't last too long in the US (Lubitsch's "The Merry Widow" is already a late-comer in 1934), but was a major staple in Germany in the late Weimar and early Third Reich period, and the German variant - though developed slightly later - is often equally as good as the American. In other words, if you like the Lubitsch films in the Eclipse box, run don't walk and check out Charell's "Der Kongress tanzt" or Ritter's "Capriccio" as soon as you possibly can.

[scotty2]

I'll put in a plug for the Rudolph Valentino/Gloria Swanson vehicle Beyond the Rocks (Sam Wood, 1922). Norma Desmond must have been remembering this.

[serdar002]

here are some Russian suggestions not mentioned yet, some of which are among my favorite films:

Kozintsev/Trauberg: The devil's wheel 1926, The overcoat 1927, S.V.D. 1927, The New Babylon 1929 (all of them great)

Protazanov: (I like some of his 30s films better, but I have a weakness for Czarist Russia or the Civil War)
The Tailor from Torzhok (1925)
The Case of the Three Million (1926)
The Forty-First (1927 - remake 1956)
The Man from the Restaurant (1927)
Ranks and People (1929)

and this is a great Isaak Babel adaptation: Benya Krik (Vladimir Vilner 1926)

(Benya Krik is part of the Jewish-Soviet heritage, check out the fantastic Pyat nevest (Five Brides - Solovyov, IMDB says 1930 but the Russian sites give 1929 - so it'll be for the 30s list)

[zedz]

For color films there is Claude Friese-Greene's The Open Road, though I haven't seen it.

It's thoroughly wonderful, and the unusual colour system gives it an almost psychedelic quality. The only problem is that it is far too short, and that it seems that there was more material available not included in this assembly of Friese-Greene's films.

Lovely film, though I don't think it will be troubling my list. If it was, though, I might have a bit of a quandary as the version that's available to us now is a recent compilation of the original footage rather than, strictly speaking, a 1920s film - I think. IMDB blithely lists the BFI version as 1926, however, so it's certainly eligible.

[Tommaso]

Yesterday I briefly and without too much consideration jotted down a list of films that I believed had to be on my final list, and I saw that I already had 45 out of 50. And almost all of them are easily to be found, too. So I guess for the coming five and a half months my viewing must be concerned with finding the missing five.

With that in mind, I finally took the TCM recording of Lubitsch's "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" off my kevyip, and I wasn't disappointed. This is not a comedy or over-the-top satire like "Love Parade", but a loving recreation of a lost German world at the end of the 19th century, with its beergardens, students corps and a general good-natured belief in the aristocracy, although there are still some fine moments of Lubitschian satire here. But basically, "Old Heidelberg" is a romantic love story of a prince falling in love with a lower middle class girl. The visuals are often striking, especially with regard to the various tryst scenes of the lovers, as are the sets and costumes. I also liked the performances of Roman Navarro and the very young Norman Shearer, though there are apparently some who found them hammy or otherwise not quite convincing. Well sure, it's all pretty idealized and fitting to the nostalgic clichés sometimes associated with the world of students and princes, but I can't help being delighted by all of it, not just by this scene with Shearer carrying those beer mugs:



In other words, "Old Heidelberg" sure has the Touch.
No. 46, then.

[Sloper]

Speaking of the 'Lubitsch touch', nobody should miss Lady Windermere's Fan (1925) on Treasures 2. A silent film with purely functional intertitles - you won't find any epigrams in this one - could hardly be expected to do justice to Oscar Wilde. Well, to be honest I've never enjoyed Wilde all that much, and don't actually know this play, but Lubitsch's film is absolutely stunning, and as cinematic as Michael or Tartuffe. I'm fairly new to this director, so it was incredibly exciting for me to see him make so much out of tiny gestures and minute changes in facial expressions, and to see all these moments edited together with such a perfect sense of timing. The acting is uniformly superb right down to the smallest part (loved the Leo G. Carroll lookalike who plays the Windermeres' butler), but I'd single out May McAvoy's performance as the real stand-out: no doubt much of the credit is due to Lubitsch's direction, but of all the actors she is the best at conveying emotions with both intensity and restraint; it's just magical to watch.

Don't bother with Jay Carr's commentary track, the only worthwhile thing he has to say is an observation about how Lubitsch's mise-en-scene shows his characters dwarfed within their extravagant upper-class drawing rooms. Indeed, the opening scene, which begins with a beautiful establishing shot of Lady Windermere sitting at her desk in an enormous study, then cuts to a close-up of her face, and finally to a close-up of the tiny name-cards she's using to plan the arrangements for her birthday dinner, concisely establishes both the filmic technique that will take us through the story for the next 90 minutes, and the central theme of the film. A character's place within their social circle, and their security within this luxurious milieu, is dependent on the smallest movements of the smallest objects, and on those nuances of human expression that Lubitsch is so good at capturing. They seem dwarfed by the doors that connect one room to another, and opening one of those doors at the wrong moment could result in total ruin.

The scene at the Ascot races (filmed in Toronto, Carr says) is probably the best, and the funniest, capped off with a wonderful combined tracking/iris shot.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Damn the World Cup for starting just as this list does. I don't think I'll get much seen in the next month or so. What I've seen in the last couple of weeks though....

People on Sunday, Asphalt, A Page of Madness and The Wind. The latter two stand out most; APOM as one of the few surviving Japanese films from the era, as well as one of the most dazzlingly avant-garde films made anywhere at the time. The Wind is a classic Hollywood melodrama with a dynamic central performance by Lillian Gish and overseen masterfully by Sjostrom during his brief sojourn in the US.

[Michael Kerpan]

No love for Lubitsch's sublimely cynical Marriage Circle and sublimely silly So This Is Paris? (two of my Lubitsch favorites). Or Lloyd's sublimely silly Why Worry?

[knives]

I hate to say it, but Why Worry? (The Lloyd film right) is my least favorite involving him. It just feels like its talking down to everyone and lacks jokes.

[Tommaso]

Much love for "The marriage circle" here! A very stylish, and as you say, cynical film (though not in a too hurtful way). Miles ahead of its sound remake "One hour with you". Haven't seen "So this is Paris" yet.