Tonight's movie was "The Last Laugh" (1924), another one of the Silent movies I ordered from Kino last month. I first heard of it about a year ago, when I began researching the films of FW Murnau. I'd read comments on IMDB, when they still had their message board, that suggested Murnau belonged in the pantheon of cinematic greats. For me that would include Bresson, Ozu, Tarkovsky, Antonioni, Welles, Keaton, Lynch and others. I'd heard of Murnau but didn't know his work. The comments on IMDB planted a seed that led me to investigate and finally to buy some Murnau dvds. I started with "Faust", his most famous work, which I watched and reviewed last month. It was as great as it's legend attested to, and it was, for me, a prime example of the German Expressionist style that I had been wanting to explore for quite some time. In my 20's, I became fascinated by photographic stills that I saw in film history books, from movies like "The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari" and "The Golem".
This was some really eerie stuff : In the case of "Caligari" with twisted looking sets and crooked walkways, heavy makeup on the gaunt actors, or in "Golem" with a monolithic giant who looks like he is actually made of stone. The surreal and phantasmagorical look of the still photographs stayed with me - especially because they were in black and white - and as I got more into different kinds of movies, I made a mental note to one day look into German Expressionism.
My entry into that world was the first two "Dr. Mabuse" films of Fritz Lang, classics both. But in a way, they were more like crime films with Expressionistic elements. I wanted to see films straight from the heart of the genre, and from what I was reading, Murnau was one of the leading directors of the haunting, theatrical style. I started with "Faust" last month, his acknowledged masterwork, and that led me to "The Last Laugh", which had also been on my radar.
"The Last Laugh" stars Emil Jannings, who played Mephistopheles in "Faust". This time he is an altogether different character : an aging doorman at a five star hotel in Berlin called The Atlantic. He looks robust - physically stout and hearty - but he is having trouble with guests' luggage, and he is falling asleep on the job. The tall and thin young manager notices his failings and consigns him to a different job down in the basement bathroom, as a lowly attendant. His elegant doorman's uniform is taken from him and he is given a simple white smock to wear, while handing out towels for bathroom visitors to dry their hands.
He was formerly the frontman at the hotel, the Uniformed Greeter at the door, and now he has been banished to the basement, to the bathroom, stripped not only of his uniform but of his stature.
He is elderly, and as he watches his younger, ramrod straight replacement accepting guests at the hotel's twelve foot high revolving door, he becomes very depressed.
To make matters worse, he cannot bring himself to tell his daughter and her fiance and the mother in law - all who live with him - that he has been demoted. He even steals his old doorman uniform from the hotel and changes into it before he goes home, so that no one will suspect that he has been demoted.
I shant tell you any more, for the same reasons as always. The first reason is that you probably will not see this film, at least for a while - anywhere from One Day to Your Entire Lifetime. Cinema, meaning the history of film, is much different from just going to see the latest blockbuster or talking point favorite. Cinema is all the films you will seek out if you at some point become possessed by the urge to do so.
When I say "you", I am speaking of the General You.
The more Specific You may already be seeking out the treasures of motion picture history, and you know who you are. You are the Seekers Of Cinema.
"The Last Laugh" is considered a classic of Silent cinema, and I will ratify that, but with one caveat.
Though it runs only 90 minutes, it is slow to develop. As contrasted with last night's "Beggars Of Life", which moved right along from scene to scene (and was more of an action movie), "The Last Laugh" does linger a bit too long in scenes demonstrating the downfall of Jannings' character.
This is another movie that takes patience, but as you stretch your boundaries you will develop that viewing patience. That is how I learned to watch Tarkovsky, for one example.
But in the case of Murnau's "The Last Laugh", your patience is rewarded as you watch, with incredible photography and sets, and camerawork. There is a lot to look at in a 94 year old film, that, despite it's lag in storytelling, has shots that look like they came from today, and even more than that, a black and white grey scale dream look that cannot be replicated today, unless someone wanted to do some research of these pioneering cinematic techniques and make a great effort to replicate the Expressionistic look.
David Lynch did it with "Eraserhead", and even took the style several steps further into abstract surrealism. But since then (1977), nothing, by any filmmaker.
That shows you how far ahead of the game guys like FW Murnau were, even in 1924 when movies were new. The Silent directors were really onto something, trying to tell stories with pictures alone.
Of course, that method of storytelling couldn't have lasted forever, but it did develop in it's best directors a need to create a visual style that would tell an entire story without words.
And that visual style, in some cases, and definitely in the case of German Expressionism, became a Style Of The Mind, of stories best understood in silence.
That's all for tonight, see you in the morn. :):)
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