From the first scenes of Louise at the beach, she seems right at home in this realistic "Impressionist School" French movie. Pabst had the original idea for this movie, inspired as he was by the then current vogue of beauty contests springing up all over Europe. Directed by Augusto Genina, it was not light hearted but a working class tragedy.
Lucienne (Louise Brooks), her fiancé, Andre and mutual friend all work at Le Globe, a Parisian newspaper. A beach outing establishes their personalities - Lucienne, doing exercises, is flirtatious and happy to be the centre of attention, much to the annoyance of Andre, who seems morbidly jealous. Antonin is always the butt of bullying and practical jokes - even in the workplace.
There is a carnival scene where Lucienne becomes subdued and sad as the evening wears on. She sees everyone as rough and coarse and in a symbolic scene, where she and Andre have their photo taken as a traditional married couple, she realises this is not the life she has dreamed of. Secretly, she has sent in her picture to the Miss Europe Competition, even though Andre has made it clear what he thinks of girls like that. She is then whisked off to Spain, to be Frances' entry in the competition and of course she wins. There are some outstanding shots of Louise parading up and down the stage in her bathing suit and a wildly enthusiastic welcome that she receives - very like Louise's real life arrival in Berlin the year before. Andre follows her and Louise, feeling overwhelmed, is persuaded to return to Paris with him. Married life is just as dreary as she secretly thought it would be - again there is the symbolism of caged canaries, exactly how Andre wants to keep her. Even the few letters she receives from fans throws him into a passion and when Count Grabovsky, an old admirer, tracks her down to try to persuade her to sign a film contract, she goes, realising Andre has killed their love.
The ending has an almost "noirish" spellbinding quality - the screen test is a success but as Louise watches in rapture she is killed and as she dies in the Count's arms, her vibrant image on the screen sings "hush, don't be jealous - I've only one love, it's you"!!!
There was no happy ending, the film denounces the working class and the rich equally. It was not a success with the public - it was a transitional silent, heavily doctored with music, sound effects and trite dialogue. When it was previewed at the Titania Palast, patrons commented on the bad syncronisation of sound and it ran only 5 days. This is the version that I have. On the plus side I found the photography of Rudolph Mate dazzling - the natural sunlight and the playful scenes at the beach, and the drab scenes of the carnival and in the flat. Also the nice "working class" dresses of Jean Patou.
Highly Recommended.
Lucienne (Louise Brooks), her fiancé, Andre and mutual friend all work at Le Globe, a Parisian newspaper. A beach outing establishes their personalities - Lucienne, doing exercises, is flirtatious and happy to be the centre of attention, much to the annoyance of Andre, who seems morbidly jealous. Antonin is always the butt of bullying and practical jokes - even in the workplace.
There is a carnival scene where Lucienne becomes subdued and sad as the evening wears on. She sees everyone as rough and coarse and in a symbolic scene, where she and Andre have their photo taken as a traditional married couple, she realises this is not the life she has dreamed of. Secretly, she has sent in her picture to the Miss Europe Competition, even though Andre has made it clear what he thinks of girls like that. She is then whisked off to Spain, to be Frances' entry in the competition and of course she wins. There are some outstanding shots of Louise parading up and down the stage in her bathing suit and a wildly enthusiastic welcome that she receives - very like Louise's real life arrival in Berlin the year before. Andre follows her and Louise, feeling overwhelmed, is persuaded to return to Paris with him. Married life is just as dreary as she secretly thought it would be - again there is the symbolism of caged canaries, exactly how Andre wants to keep her. Even the few letters she receives from fans throws him into a passion and when Count Grabovsky, an old admirer, tracks her down to try to persuade her to sign a film contract, she goes, realising Andre has killed their love.
The ending has an almost "noirish" spellbinding quality - the screen test is a success but as Louise watches in rapture she is killed and as she dies in the Count's arms, her vibrant image on the screen sings "hush, don't be jealous - I've only one love, it's you"!!!
There was no happy ending, the film denounces the working class and the rich equally. It was not a success with the public - it was a transitional silent, heavily doctored with music, sound effects and trite dialogue. When it was previewed at the Titania Palast, patrons commented on the bad syncronisation of sound and it ran only 5 days. This is the version that I have. On the plus side I found the photography of Rudolph Mate dazzling - the natural sunlight and the playful scenes at the beach, and the drab scenes of the carnival and in the flat. Also the nice "working class" dresses of Jean Patou.
Highly Recommended.