Scifirenegade's Trash Can

Turns out watching Sex in Chains after my country is being even more overt with its patting the fashos on the back wasn't a good idea.

I had a heart attack, as the film is endorsed by the German League of Human Rights, which is fine, they're a peace organisation. But the name is very similar to Friedrich Radszuweit's Bund für Menschenrecht (literally Human Rights League). I could go on a rant as to why that fasho arsehole should go and eat shit, but I'll leave it.

The title cards are gorgeous! Honestly the whole film is a looker, very in line with the great late-stage silent German productions. The camera moves freely, zooms in and out, pans left and right. Extreme close-ups are plenty and ethereal. Equally ethereal is the use of superposition.

It's an Aufklärungsfilm! Yeah, we really do need some prison reform. Although the biggest struggle we see the inmates going through is blue balls (this is me trying to be funny with a serious topic). At least we have intimate visits now, but there's still a long way to go.

The queer themes are subtle, and only appear at the second half, but oh, my heart. It's all very sweet (bittersweet really). I too will declare my love to my crush by writing our names in a circle. If I had a crush. When Alfred (that's von Twardowski, Franz is the main character and he's played by Dieterle) leaves prison, his (boy)friend from outside suggests he blackmails Franz. Loved Alfred's reaction of "dude, wtf!" and then he left.

The longing and sensuality (and the lack thereof) are very well represented here.

Wilhelm "William" Dieterle directed and starred in this. He made plenty of biopics in America during the 1930s, plus that 30s The Hunchback of Notre Dame film that seems lovely. He also played Marquis Posa in Carlos und Elisabeth and the main guy in Waxworks, making him the tallest person Conrad Veidt has shared a screen with. Sorry, again, but I had to do it. H.H. von Twardowski was a surprise, and I wonder if his casting was a lucky accident, or was on purpose. He's great at playing sweet men, isn't he? Shame is career during WW2 pivoted to those roles. Ya know, the ones every German/Austrian actor plays. (If von Twardowski was born today, he would've been Polish.)

"Oh, the acring is over the top!" It wouldn't be a German film if it wasn't. And there are some nice, quiet moments too. "The ending is too extreme!" It's a German film. Somebody has to die in a dramaric fashion.

I liked it. But I had to cheer myself up with some silliness.

Saw all of the Fatty Arbuckle + Buster Keaton shorts.



They got better as they went on, but never to the point of genius. Usually ranged from "decent and harmless" to "JUST END ALREADY!". There's quite a lot of racism and misogyny, most notably in the "JUST END ALREADY!" category. The decent and harmless had some clever gags. Arbuckle can juggle knives like it's nothing.

As the shorts go on, Keaton's roles(s) get more prominent (I think it was his second short, he shows up for half a minute as a beggar. By the last short he's Arbuckle's sidekick.)

My favourites were The Bell Boy, The Cook, Back Stage and The Garage. (I didn't dislike Coney Island, it does have Keaton in a lifeguard outfit doing standing backflips and a very funny camera gag.)

Let's see what Ingmar Bergman film I'll watch now. Yesterday I saw Persona, which was good (don't ask me what it's about though).

A bad night of sleep aside, I've come across The Constant Nymph (1933), with Brian Aherne. An obscure film, difficult to find, especially compared to its predecessor and sucessor (the 1920s film has Ivor Novello, the 1940s film has, iirc Charles Boyer).

I'm completely unfamiliar with the source material btw.

It says a lot about a film when the only character that doesn't get on one's nerves is a stereotype. Lewis (Aherne) makes me want to pull my hair out. Obnoxious, being creepy towards our other main character Tessa (she's cool with it though, they are soulmates after all). Tessa and the middle (?) sister are as if Lydia and Kitty from P&P we're bad characters.

Okay, the older sister and her husband were fine. The husband was played by Kurt Anders als die Andern (that being Fritz Schulz). Completely unexpected. Seeing him with a silly moustache, speaking heavily accented English, gliding along the seat like a cartoon character, was quite nice.

There were moments in which the editors wanted to have some fun. Double (triple) exposure, creative cutting, but overall it looks too conventional for its own good.

Not a fan.

The Yahoo Groups Rescue Project needs more taggers.

Paul Leni's The Last Warning (bilibili link). The copy on the Internet Archive is quite battered, this one is nicer. The website is weird for online viewing, so thank heavens for third-party tools (hehe). Leni's stuff is always nice, and I'm very curious about the sets (they were reused for The Last Performance apparently).

EDIT: Another upload. 360p. Hey, it's public domain.

Blog post about J. Storer Clouston. Featuring an omnibus edition of The Spy in Black, The Lunatic at Large, Simon and The Man From the Clouds. Conrad Veidt on the cover, never seen that specific publicity portrait. There's a message printed on this edition that he wrote (of course, someone told him to write that). Maintains "Germanisms", I hate he doesn't put the little strike on his t's.