Mittler makes the expected critiques of the class divide, but he also gets deeper into the dark side of human nature with keen expressionistic flare.Ī melodrama of the highest order, 7th Heaven sends you to the heights of romance, then into the trenches of war. What sets Harbor Drift apart is that its assortment of characters start in the gutter, and see a chance, in the form of a valuable necklace, to get out. The problem with a lot of silent German (and U.S.) “street films” is that they’re so intent on showing the dark side of society that the movies just become one long barrage of terrible things happening to some poor girl who doesn’t deserve any of it. Jenseits der Straße ( Harbor Drift AKA Beyond the Streets) (1929)
This is partly because the look is so out there, and partly because the graphical set design could have lent itself more to the film medium-the painted-on shadows and canvas backdrops can make it seem as if the characters are walking on plywood theater stages rather than through a demented cityscape.Ħ5. While the film’s influence is immeasurable, its visuals were more a catalyst for ideas than a target of direct imitation. Set in an environment full of askew streets, warped roofs and staircases that travel at impossible angles, no film has the same spooky feel as this tale of a mysterious doctor and the sleepwalker he uses as a murder weapon.
Caligari brought German Expressionist film to full view with art direction that’s every bit as dark and twisted as the story it tells.
Here are the 75 Best Movies of the 1920s:ħ5. Looking through the list below, it’s remarkable how many of these movies remain relevant today. Feature films began to dominate shorts, while the genres at play flourished. It also was the decade where filmmaking rapidly transformed from silent movies to talkies beginning with The Jazz Singer in 1927. The Roaring ’20s saw the advent of the art film, the movie star and the Academy Awards. Hollywood, taking advantage of the interruptions to the Italian and French film communities caused by World War I, solidified its grip on the film industry throughout the decade as bigger film studios, like Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and United Artists began taking over the smaller houses. The 1920s were the heart of the silent film era, building upon the early experiments with the medium and taking it in whatever directions filmmakers across the world could dream.
0 kommentar(er)
