Diary of a Lost Girl
by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
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DVD details
Actor: Andr? Roanne, Fritz Rasp, Josef Rovensk?, Louise Brooks, Vera PawlowaDirector: Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Japanese (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Silent
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-11-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kino Video
DVD Reviews of Diary of a Lost Girl
DVD Review: Decadent and Loving It in Germany
Summary: 4 Stars
I was very surprised by how enjoyable this was. I'm not even a silent film buff and saw Chaplin's The Gold Rush when I was a kid and couldn't stand it. The plot moves at a brisk pace, and the sadism in this film is downright funny. The acting throughout is excellent, and there's a tall completely bald actor who has some very amusing scenes - he puts on lipstick, for example. Well portrayed characters and a good plot make this movie still vibrant so many years later.
That said, of course the star of the show is Louise Brooks. Attention never wanders when she's on-screen. Her partnership with German director, G.W.Pabst, sealed their places in film history.
DVD Review: An Eternal Beauty
Summary: 4 Stars
If you, like me, have always admired photos of Ms. Brooks but never took the time to watch one of her films you're in for QUITE an experience.
She has a screen presence that's hard to describe. Aside from her obvious beauty she transmits something in her eyes that jumps across three quarters of a century and confronts you as a woman of contemporary society. Very little of the usual silent film hand-wringing and eyelash-batting takes place here, instead she draws us in with subtlety, thankfully at the hands of a great director.
The camerawork is genuinely moving, genuinely beautiful in many ways. A few times I found myself hitting the pause button to admire a still frame, worthy of hanging in a gallery on its own and out of context.
A perfect introduction to Pandora's Box, which will knock you out of your chair.
DVD Review: Quite complex, well presented, you will be absorbed
Summary: 5 Stars
Black and white silent movie with English subtitles. Sound track relevant to the story. Original title "Tagebuch einer Verlorenen"
Thymiane (Louise Brooks) not aware of the relationship her father had with another of his housekeepers Elisabeth (Sybille Schmitz); she is confused as to why the housekeeper had to leave and ultimately why the housekeeper committed suicide. The pharmacist Meinert (Fritz Rasp) downstairs is more than willing to show her what happens when one gets too friendly and does so when Thymiane faints.
This results in an offspring. The father pays the pharmacist's debt in exchange for making an honest woman of Thymiane. However she reneges and holds out for love; naturally this is unacceptable so she and her diary are sent off to a correctional institute for lost girls. Her offspring is handed over to a midwife.
Will her father come to his senses or is he falling pray to his latest housekeeper Meta (Franziska Kinz?)
Will she break out of the oppressive institute or just learn evil ways?
Will her old friend Count Nicolas Osdorff (Andr? Roanne) come to her rescue?
Or will he have problems of his own when he is out cast?
We find our selves sitting on the edge of our seats, kibitzing even if we saw the movie before.
We are reminded that with a little more love no one on this earth has to be lost.
Pandora's Box - Criterion Collection
DVD Review: Captivating
Summary: 5 Stars
Louise Brooks has a captivating screen presence. I enjoyed this film along with the extra talkie film of Louise. It is absolutely great. Even though it is cut and not the full film it still was well worth it. It's easy to see how she is considered an icon. Pandora's Box (2 disc set just out) is also a must, especially with the extras that it has on it.DVD Review: Not the best entry in the Brooksie Diary!
Summary: 3 Stars
I am giving this most recent version on DVD of the Pabst/Brooks collaboration 'Diary of a Lost Girl' just three stars.
Like their previous effort 'Pandora's Box',this film will never be shown in its' complete form.Both were butchered by censors in Germany,Europe and in North America for their "explicit" content and to make it more palatable for the particular countries' audiences.
I have personally seen over the years about six different versions of this film and all have subtle differences or complete ommissions.This is the most comprehensive version but it does have its' differences both subtle and major.
One major piece returned to the film is a scene on the beach where the customer who first 'took' Louise as a brothel employee,now returns asking if she remembers him.It's nice to see it there but because of the previous cuts to this film it does nothing to advance the plot and could easily have stayed out.
Throughout the film there are a few scenes I have noticed,like the previous reviewer,that have alternate takes inserted that differ with the /90 VHS version.Furthermore there are also scenes which the VHS version does have and this DVD version does NOT have.An example is the "lottery" scene where Louise is being auctioned off in the nightclub.In the VHS version there are two cuts to the reaction of the his father,wife and assistant.The most telling and important of the two showing his wife smirking at Louise has been ommitted from the new DVD version.VERY unfortunate as it does so much,among other things,to emphasize Louises' hurt and abondonment.
Another scene reinserted in this new version is the dancing lesson scene.The "restorers" in Europe refer through sub-titles that Louise is teaching dancing at the brothel where she now is staying.This is her attempt to earn a living "legitmately".I have seen this scene before but it was never referred specifically to as dancing.In fact I have always considered that she is giving exercise lessons NOT dancing lessons.She comes into the room with a small "drum" and stick(no phonograph or radio in sight),she takes off her robe to reveal anything but a dance outfit,the patron starts knee squatting as he lasciviously eyes Louise,then Louise proceeds to do upper body bends.No dancing takes place here.Pabst knew of Louise's dancing abilities of course which were used to good effect elsewhere in the movie but here I think this is just supposition and a liberty taken on the part of the restorers of this new version that had them put "dancing" into the titles instead of what it really was.
Another point of contention I have is the inter-titles or sub-titling.There are some that have been repeated from the VHS version but others newly inserted that have been,as far as I can tell,newly created.For example and in keeping with the lottery scene,there is a moment where Louise makes eye contact with her father.The shame on his face is mirrored by the shame on Louises' face who starts to cry.As a topper to this poignant moment Dr.Vitalis who has lost in his bid in the lottery to Count Osdorff starts to cry.After a moment Louise looks away to see the Doctors' face,another one who needs consoling but about whom she can do very little but offer an empathetic glance.It is a great scene and one in which I've never seen a sub title but this new version gets one from the doctor who tells her not only is she now lost but they all are.This scene has always stood on it's own and this sub-title is totally inappropriate,it simply does NOT need one!
Another criticism is the music.I would have liked to have seen a new orchestral score but it is my oppinion the music of the VHS version and the appropriate mood and lift it provided was much better suited to the film than this electronic driven score that at times detracts from the picture totally and spoils it.
Lastly is the inclusion in both the VHS version and this new one of the two ladies at the beach who come upon Louises' step uncle and her.She calls to the uncle "Cousin Osdorff".Again until I saw the VHS version this card showed her calling his real name.The versions I have known previously refer to this woman and the one with her as two acquaintances of his who do charity work and who then ask for Louises' help in their cause.Here we have them as related and the one lady asking if she can "help care for" her.Why would she need "caring" for by anyone as she is obviously being cared for quite well by her step uncle? If this is the real original sub-title(which I doubt unless proven otherwise)then some important footage is missing here.
Technically this new DVD version,new footage aside,has a much better contrast than others I have seen previously and is clearer but it still has some major blemishes throughout(some VERY distracting) and I thought it should have received a little better treatment than it got.
In conclusion I would say this new DVD version is mostly unsatisfying.We are given new footage which fleshes out alot of areas but some footage(though minor) has disappeared.Also the sub titles(which for the most part are intact from previous versions)have some newly added ones which are not appropriate/accurate and some that should have been excised altogether.Also the music does nothing for this version at all.It's all done cheaply on an electronic keyboard and I think the scorer was at times looking at an entirely different picture.
Though we will never see a truly "complete" 'Diary',it is my oppinion that the VHS version(for all its' flaws) is the best so far.It comes closest to the the mood and spirit that Pabst intended.
Description of Diary of a Lost Girl
Together with Pandora's Box (1928), Diary confirmed Pabst's artistry as one of the great directors of the silent period and established Brooks as an "actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history" (Kevin Brownlow, The Parade's Gone By). Brooks, in a delicately restrained performance, plays the na?ve daughter of a prosperous pharmacist. Shy and faunlike, the wide-eyed innocent is made pregnant by her father's young assistant. To preserve family honor, she is sent to a repressive reform school from which she eventually escapes. Penniless and homeless, she is directed to a brothel where she becomes liberated and lives for the moment with radiant physical abandon. This Kino on DVD version of Diary of a Lost Girl has been mastered from a new restoration of the film, made by the Bologna Cinematheque, which adds approximately seven minutes of previously censored footage never seen in the United States. An evocative new score has been added by Joseph Turrin.The mystique and stunning beauty of Louise Brooks are on glorious display in Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), Brooks's second historic collaboration (after Pandora's Box) with director G.W. Pabst. In a restrained performance that a lesser actress would've taken over the top, Brooks strikes a resonant note of innocence, tenacity, and worldliness as Thymian, the idealistic daughter of an unscrupulous pharmacist, who is raped by her father's lecherous assistant. Forced to leave her child with a midwife, she escapes from a hellish reform school and is drawn into a brothel as if her fate were predetermined. Pabst tells her story (from Margurethe Bohme's novel) with lurid flourishes, especially in his encouragement of leering, grotesque performances from Thymian's ruthless exploiters. Mature even by modern standards, this lurid melodrama spans a full spectrum of emotions, expressed with subtle nuance by Brooks, who casts her spell in close-ups that will take your breath away. --Jeff Shannon
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