Tonight I am writing to you from home. I got a fresh supply of movies from the Libe, and I watched a new Criterion release called "Westfront 1918" (1930), directed by the great German Expressionist G.W. Pabst. You may recall that we saw a few of his films in late 2017 or thereabouts, including "Diary Of A Lost Girl", "Pandora's Box" (both starring Silent legend Louise Brooks) and "The Threepenny Opera". "Westfront 1918", as you may gather from the title, is a film about World War One, specifically about a group of German soldiers who are stationed in a wasteland in the French countryside, enduring the horrors of trench warfare as the French army relentlessly rains down artillery upon their position.
This movie started a little slowly, storywise, and had some of the stylistic conventions of a very early sound release; the slightly exaggerated facial expressions and face makeup, a holdover from the Silent era. Also, the tendency to under edit some of the non-war scenes, as if the director was unsure how to fuse his editing with all of the new "talking" dialogue he had available. For instance, the opening sequence of the film depicts the four principal soldiers horsing around in a house situated just shy of the trenches. There is a young French woman in the room. They take turns trying to impress her and force hugs and kisses, grab her in genial "wrestling holds". This is portrayed in a way that would be non-PC now, but in the film it is fairly good natured. The soldiers could be called to die in battle at any moment, so the woman understands, and anyway she is in love with one of them. My point is that Pabst carries this opening scene on for way too long, nearly six minutes, when the modern viewer gets the message within one or two. Such was the experimenting at the advent of sound. This tendency does not go overboard, though, and both the editing and acting are first rate once the war action gets underway.
By the midway point you will find yourself mesmerised by the reality of what you are seeing. It looks as if Pabst had actually been on the battlefield with his camera, and had captured the war in all of it's sudden violence and crushing monotony. The soldiers go from small talk in the trenches to hours on end of being shelled, all at the drop of a hat. There is also a 13 minute sequence of some bizarre downtime, where they are allowed some r&r in an off-field shack where vaudeville comedians have been hired to perform. Pabst, being a Surrealist in some of his earlier works, plays this contrast of comedy and prior war terror as an Absurdity of the lowest order. It is a truly off the wall scene.
The lead soldier (i.e the main character) gets a few days of leave, but when he gets home he finds his wife with a local butcher's boy. It seems that the conditions are awful for the civilians, too. His wife tearfully explains that it was the only way for her to get some food for the family table. The soldier is so disheartened that he cuts short his leave and heads straight back to the battlefield, where at least he knows what to expect.
As this movie develops, you become aware that you are watching one of the great anti-war statements in all of cinema, made in Germany only two years before Hitler took power. He banned the film and it was not seen for years. One can see why he was scared of it. It shows the truth of WW1, in which Hitler was a soldier himself. He was said to be fearless, and it is also said that his rise to power - his drive for power - was in part fueled by the shame Germany was made to face after they lost the war, and for the reparations the country was made to pay. Hitler hated that Germany had lost, and had been shown to have weakness.
G.W. Pabst indicts Germany in this uncompromising tale of insensible human violence, but he also includes everyone else, as you will see in the final scene. WW2 caused the greatest loss of life of any war in history, but it is said the WW1 was the most ruthless in terms of man-to-man fighting, with it's horrific trench warfare and the poison gas that was sprayed on both sides. I am gonna have to do some reading about World War One after seeing this film, which gets my highest possible recommendation.
It is worthy of being called one of the greatest war films ever made, an anti-war statement from 90 years ago at the birth of sound film, and warning the world just before the second go-round, this time with Hitler in charge. It is a must see, I think. ////
For tonight's classical music recommendation, I will list a favorite work from Felix Mendelssohn, one of my Top Ten Composers. I am gonna choose his "Songs Without Words" - the full compendium which checks in at over two hours. This is entirely piano music, and you may have noticed that most of my favorite pieces listed so far, from Bach, Chopin and Schubert, have by and large been compositions for the piano. Mendelssohn is mostly known for his violin concerto and his symphonies, which have familiar themes you have no doubt heard even if you do not listen to classical music. He was a musical genius who composed masterworks in his teens (and he died at 38). I like his other more well known music, too, but it is sometimes more fanciful (i.e less emotional, my complaint with Mozart too), than are his "Songs Without Words", which have the emotional depth I crave, especially from the piano.
So, for my favorite Mendelssohn work, I choose the whole two hours plus of "Songs Without Words". For the whole thing, I recommend the Youtube version by Daniel Barenboim.
But if you only have a few minutes to spare, my favorite of all the "Songs" is the very first one. Go to Youtube and enter "Mendelssohn Opus 19 #1". The first "Song Without Words" should come up, as played by Murray Perahia. Make sure you listen to his version. If you don't get goosebumps, your money will once again be refunded. ////
That's all for tonight. I will see you in the morning right here at The Tiny. Love until then.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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