Diary of a Lost Girl
by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
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Actor: Fritz Rasp, Jack Shutta, Josef Rovensk?, Louise Brooks, William B. DavidsonDirector: Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
Brand: Kino Video
Producer: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Producer: Jack White
Writer: Ernest Pagano
Writer: Jack Townley
Writer: Margarete B?hme
Writer: Rudolf Leonhardt
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Japanese (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, DVD, 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: The "Other" Pabst-Brooks Opus, Kino Edition
Summary: 5 Stars
The film begins with Brooks playing a girl in her late teens; a slight stretch since she was a little older than that at the time, and she is, after all, possessed of a fairly mature beauty despite the girlish frock. But still she's quite believable in her progression from the 16-or-17-year-old Thymian of the first scenes to a matured and polished young woman by the end of the film. Compare her performance as young Thymian on the verge of womanhood with Dietrich's facile portrayal of innocent, wide-eyed girlishness as Sophia Frederika in 'The Scarlet Empress' just a few years later, and Brooks seems to pull off her characterization of a teenager pretty darn well. The early scenes in 'Diary' establish Thymian as a burgeoning young woman becoming aware of the extent to which her life is controlled by bourgeois convention, specifically as directed by the actions of the men around her. She sees, at first in the fate of the housekeeper Elisabeth, and soon after in her father's apparent seduction of Meta -- not to mention her own loss of autonomy and trust at Meinert's hands -- her developing fate as a woman controlled by men.
She doesn't want to name Meinert as the father of her child exactly because she fears that she'll be made to marry him, and when the diary reveals his identity, that's just the thing that's proposed, and which she resists. Interestingly, Meta becomes her advocate of sorts for a brief moment in this scene, but Meta is as hypocritical as the rest of the family, and directs Thymian's fate underhandedly, toward the goal of getting rid of her. It works, and Thymian is banished by the family in the interest of punishing the victim and thereby preserving appearances of bourgeois propriety. Thymian's maternal instinct toward her child doubles her pain of separation, and reinforces for the viewer her sense of loss.
Her experience in the reformatory takes her further and more directly into contact with the restrictive coldness of bourgeois convention. There, out of sight and almost entirely out of mind, there's only the most brittle pretense that what's being done to her and the other girls is for their own good. Her keepers are depraved in the most picturesque ways, aptly mirroring what Meinert later calls the "seamy side" of city life in the brothel, and pointing out the tension between "good", grim bourgeois depravity and the "bad" depravity of the pleasure-loving life of the brothel (which is a strange kind of place for Thymian's father to want to take the repressed Meta for a "night on the town", but then, they're only sight-seeing there, aren't they?). All Thymian knows, battered and disillusioned as she is, is that she's got to escape, and with the Count's help she does.
But she's still got a way to go before she's hardened enough to make the grade. The effect of her first innocent taste of champagne amuses the knowing partiers at the brothel; a short time later she's drunk enough to be half-danced, half-dragged to bed to be taken advantage of. On waking, she's mortified at what's happened and wants no part of it; she still has some innocence to cling to. She insists that she'll make an honest living giving dancing classes, but given the venue, her first client is perhaps understandably expecting that "dancing classes" is a euphemism. This is a comic scene, the first such relief in what's been up to this point a relentlessly bleak story. By the time the scene ends, Thymian is beginning to see how she might be able to work the madam's proposal to her advantage after all; she starts to see that this life could provide her with some degree of autonomy and support apart from men's control, and she makes her decision to seize the opportunity. And she gets good at it.
Her comfort is disrupted when her father appears along with Meta and Meinert on their aforementioned night out. His appearance along with two people who can only be considered her adversaries -- unlikely though it is that they'd choose the 'Two Angels' to dine on a night out -- is a collision between what's been forgotten over time and emotions that still exist, though dormant. If not for the cold, iron-willed Meta, assisted by Meinert in dragging the father away from his daughter (again), there might have been a reunion. Again social convention triumphs over paternal love.
Three years later, that paternal love asserts itself in an unexpected way, giving Thymian a chance for vindication and revenge. In the event, though, she doesn't take the opportunity, instead revealing that a kindness that was inherent in her personality all along hasn't been destroyed by all she's suffered through. Eventually, she ends up back at the reform home that she knows well, though in a position of much more power. Confronted with the hypocrisy of a group of presumably well-meaning "moral" women, she rejects the position being offered to her, and despite having been "lost", is shown to be the most morally sound character of the lot. Her redemption comes not through social acceptance, but through her own inherent humanity.
The Kino DVD is fine, though the source materials still bear some scars, significant in places, despite a much-touted restoration -- but overall, the greyscale is pretty fine, and Joseph Turrin's synthesizer score is appropriate and enhances the film well. The bonus comedy short "Windy Riley Goes Hollywood" is entirely forgettable except for the presence of Brooks, who looks as lovely as always and does the best she can with some really dumb material. It's nice to hear her speak, but 'Riley' is no more than a curiosity, and makes one wish that the silent era had lasted a little longer for Louise Brooks.
DVD Review: Glowing Performance by Super Star of Silent Era: Louise Brooks
Summary: 5 Stars
"Diary of a Lost Girl" is a great movie because director, G. W. Pabst, knew exactly what he was doing with the wonderful material that Louise brooks offered as a star: A perfect face with the perfect hair and styled to frame it, a lithe body that simply seemed manufactured for dancing and fainting gracefully, and a luminous presence on the screen that is unforgettable.
The film is a horror story on growing up the wrong way: Thymian (Louise Brooks) is the daughter of a wealthy merchant (Josef Rovensky) that owns a pharmacy. Since Louise's mother has been dead he has developed a wondering eye that has led to involvements with the housekeepers, and we suspect that Elizabeth, the one that leaves the house devastated on the very day of Thymain's confirmation party, is not the first to get pregnant by him. Elizabeth, in true fim noir fashion, commits suicide. Louise then catches Meta, the new housekeeper, (Franziska Kinz) who looks like a first-class manipulator, in the arms of her father. Thymian is so overcome by the suicide and her discovery, which make her father clearly responsible for it that she will fall into a similar trap. Meinert (Fritz Rasp), the greedy-yet-attractive and lustful manager of Henning's pharmacy, moves in on her, Thymiane then faints in his arms and her slender neck looks perfect for a vampire bite, actually, with a neck this white and beautiful Louise should have made an entire SERIES of vampire movies, it was a sadly missed opportunity of the time.
Meinert does not bite her, but he does rape her at some point after or during the fainting spell, for later, she bares his child. This child is the first stepping stone for Thymian's downfall. She is sent to a reformatory that is so sordid and hideous it inevitably forces her to escape. It includes a headmaster that looks like a medieval executioner and a sadistic headmistress who enjoys exercising the girls to utter exhaustion with the mad beating of a cauldron to mark the time, while she writhes in what can only be an early depiction of a "lesbian-mistress" in bachic ecstasy. Thymian confides everything to her diary, and when they try to get it from her, she escapes with another girlfriend under the protection of her well meaning, but useless friend, Count Osdorff (Andr? Roane).
This escape lands her in a brothel where she finds refuge and employment. She is reluctant at first to plunge into the 'demimonde' of Weimar Berlin, but eventually becomes one of its shining night creatures, and we see her dancing with clients in exquisite flapper outfits. There is a turn of fate that finally, at her father's death, allows Thymian to inherit the full mortage of the pharmacy, but that would imply casting out in the cold the heinous Mete and her two young children, fathered by Thymian's hyper-sexually active father. Thymian in an act of excessive and un-called for generosity, gives that dreadful woman all the money, partially because of the supporting role excellently played by one of the children that runs to her and plays on probably a combination of frustrated motherly feelings (her own child had died) and her own experiences about he kind of harsh life that awaits them. The winning formula of the plight of the innocent, trapped in a bad turn of fate saves their day and the only one that acknowledges this act of true 'noblesse oblige' is the lawyer that bows and kisses her hand as if she were a princess, as well as slapping Meinert very nicely when he calls her a 'slut'. Mete lives up to our worst expectations and does not even say 'thank you' though she has taken 45,000 marks, most probably the largest sum she has even heard of, that clearly do not belong to her, but because she is a housefrau, and NOT a fallen woman, she naturally feels entitled to it. I must confess this is very frustrating to watch from a more modern stand point: My hands were itching to drag that cow by the hair and make her give back at least 1/2 of the money she had stolen from Thymian totally and completely through the ruse of emotional blackmail. Thymian however does not have these reactions, and returns to her life in the brothel quite calmly, her plans to marry the Count and start a new life completely shattered by this act of impulsive selflessness. Upon hearing the 'goodness' news as she arrives, the Count jumps out the window, literally.
At the Count's funeral Louise Brooks strikes one of her greatest moments and one of the most unforgettable images of the Silent Screen as the perfect widow. Her veils floating in the wind, her expression and poise the ultimate in mourning chic, her simple black frock absolutely stunning. She recalled Balenciaga's famous axiom "There is nothing more elegant than a young queen in mourning". This does not go unnoticed by the elder Count Osdorff, who decides to take her under his protection. So Thymian does start a new like as the widowed Countess Osdorff. She even returns to the reformatory as a member of the Board of the Charity that supports it. By one of those twists of fate the elder Count's relations are on the board and they invited Thymian to come fro the one day a year that they show up, have lunch and discuss the charity. Unfortunately it happens to be the one day when they are reviewing the case of a girl that "keeps on escaping from the reformatory" which happens to be, of course, the one that escaped with Thymian and introduced her to the brothel. Thymian stands up for her though, and that makes for a happier ending than we could have expected from this suicide laden fim noir.
This version also includes "Windy Riley Goes Hollywood" (1931) the disc's supplemental material. This 'short' comedy seemed very long to me, as it was boring and trite. Jack Shutta looks handsome enough as Windy `Cannon Ball' Riley who is on a record-breaking nonstop automobile drive from New York to San Francisco, but an accident that changes the road sign misleads him to end up in Hollywood, where after a series of dull interchanges with the police, and others he winds up working for a film studio as a 'publicity man' which is a glorified title for messenger boy in this case. The film does offer a look at what early sound was like, which is pretty dreadful.The only redeeming point in watching it is the brief moment where Louise dances, at a rehersal, which makes one regret that she did not starr in a series of musicals, as she is very good at it. I have to say though, she has an uninspired performance here, dramatically different from the impression she makes in "Diary of a Lost Girl". The good thing which happens by accident though, is that in comparing the two films, it certainly makes one appreciate what a talented director can do with a good actress over what a regular one comes up with. Her voice sounded good, but was not particularly impressive in this movie. I definitely think she could have made a great career in talkies, but from what I understand about her biography, she was very busy at the time with a love affair, and was not happy with Hollywood, she turned down the role that Jean Harlow got instead for "The Public Enemy", and after that happened it pretty much sealed her fate with 'the studio system'. I guess she could have gone back to Europe had she wanted to, but Louise was done with the movies, and her legacy is definitively with the Silent Screen. One can not help but thinking that she did the right thing, although she may not have planned it that way, as we remember her for those few wonderful movies, and do not have to regret the weak performances that could have come from works similar to the unfortunate "Windy Riley Goes Hollywood".
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
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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