Three films from the 20s:
Pandora's Box
Starring the glorious Louise Brooks as an amoral femme fatale around whom men can't help but self destruct. The film is a hugely stylish product of Weimar Berlin, but what is most fascinating apart from Brooks herself, is that the film blames the men for being weak, rather than the woman's destructive sexuality. Pandora's Box also features the first overtly lesbian character in cinema, a countess in love with Brooks' Lulu, on whom no judgement is passed.
The fascinating Brooks was a true Hollywood rebel, who tired with the roles offered to her in the US, ran off to Europe to star in this masterpiece, destroying her career for choosing art over commerce. She was one of the first actors in films who essentially always played versions of herself. This gave her a naturalistic performing style, that makes her the opposite of contemporary preconceptions about histrionic silent film acting. Resolutely modern, she was one of the most charismatic and timelessly beautiful women to ever appear on the screen. She is mesmerising to watch.
Sunrise
F.W. Murnau brought his German expressionist style to Hollywood on a huge budget, with spectacular results. It's an intimate epic about a married rural couple on the brink of break up (or worse) after a terrible betrayal by the husband. They tentatively find their way back together due to the magic of city life. Murnau creates a mythical city built entirely in the studio, one that is every bit as impressive as the city in Lang's Metropolis. There are shots where entire cityscapes are built in forced perspective (with dwarf extras in the background), conveying the sense of dislocation our country mice couple would feel.
This shows how purely cinematic films were in the 20s, with a constantly roving camera and a wildly inventive use of special effects. With the arrival of sound films there was more emphasis on dialogue and narrative films wouldn't be as visually daring again till Orson Welles arrived (and even his films look restrained compared to this). On top of it, this is a wise and deeply moving love story and yet the star is an unnamed city, which initially seems like a dangerous and scary place, but ends up as an exciting and romantic playground for our heroes.
People on Sunday
Early docu-drama about how a group of young, lower-middle class friends spend a weekend in Weimar Berlin. The film used non-actors and cast them in a partly improvised story. In a break from German expressionist cinema the era is known for, its cinema verite style looks forward to Italian neorealism and the French New Wave. It still is a strikingly modern film, with jump cuts and hand held camera, that feels like going back 80 years in time and being there. The young film makers who made the film, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinneman and Edgar J. Ulmer and the Siodmak brothers, all were forced into emigration by Hitler and they all had notable careers in Hollywood.
It's a film that finds beauty in the little things of life and there is an added poignancy to this seemingly lighthearted film, knowing that soon these young people, full of hope and potential, would soon be deeply affected or ruined by the rise of Third Reich and WWII. There is a wonderful montage sequence that shows people of all ages enjoying themselves on a Sunday, without a care in the world, which now is deeply affecting when you know what was around the corner.
Try and find a version with a modern score by Elena Kats-Chernin, which adds to the film immeasurably.
