Die Büchse der Pandora

Pandoran lipas / Pandoras box / Pandora's Box. DE 1928. D: G.W. Pabst based on the plays by Wedekind, dp: Günther Krampf, starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner. Print: Münchner Filmmuseum 3018 m /20 fps/ 132 min screened with electronic subtitles by AA/Anja Lempinen at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 20 Nov 2008. - This best existing print can still be admired also because of its visual quality, unlike (almost) all the other prints, which have been duped one or more generations too often. I revisited the first half an hour, the magic of Louise Brooks, the radiation, the hidden tragedy deep beneath.

Die freudlose Gasse / Joyless Street (1972 ZDF Tonfassung / Gerd Luft, Jürgen Labenski)

G. W. Pabst: Die freudlose Gasse / Joyless Street (DE 1925). Poster design: Boris Bilinsky.

013436 / 12 / DE / 1925 / Pabst, G.W. / / drama / Freudlose Gasse, Die / Iloton katu. © Sofar-Film-Produktion. P: Michael Salkin, Romain Pinès, G. W. Pabst, Mark Sorkin. D: G. W. Pabst. SC: Willy Haas – based on the novel by Hugo Bettauer. DP: Guido Seeber, Curt Oertel, Walter Robert Lach. Ass D: Anatole Litvak.
    CAST: Greta Garbo (Grete Rumfort), Asta Nielsen (Maria Lechner), Werner Krauss (the butcher).
    Original length 3734 m /20 fps/ 162’.
    Telepremiere: 31 Oct 1972, ZDF Tonfassung by Gerd Luft, Jürgen Labenski, music by Hans Jönsson: 110’.
    Finnish subtitles by Saara Lappalainen-Parikka.
    PAL transmission by Yleisradio TV2 after midnight on Sunday/Monday 1–2 March 1998. Viewed on VHS. ****

First of all, one has to be grateful to see any version of this grim work of die Neue Sachlichkeit with a moving part for Greta Garbo. But then, this film, available for decades only in incomplete versions, was painstakingly restored last year – why did we not get to see that restoration? The version seen now was the censored one, with poor pictorial quality and shown with the wrong gate (Garbo’s head was often missing). In last year’s interesting documentary Pabst wieder sehen there is a scene-by-scene comparison how the film is profoundly altered by replacing the missing scenes.

See my blog note on the 1989-2009 restoration of Die freudlose Gasse.

Pabst wieder sehen

/ / DE / 1997 / Pabst, G.W. / / documentary

Pabst wieder sehen / Revoir Pabst. PC: ZDF. D: Wolfgang Jacobsen, Martin Koerber, René Perraudin. ARTE Betacam PAL big screen projection 60’. Deutsche Fassung. Pordenone, Ridotto del Verdi, Saturday 18 October 1997. **** A first rate documentary on the elusive and erratic genius. Lots of exciting new footage from recently discovered materials and the latest restorations of Münchner Filmmuseum.

Abwege / The Devious Path (Munich print GCM 1997)

G. W. Pabst: Abwege / The Devious Path (DE 1928) with Gustav Diessl (Rechtsanwalt Dr. Thomas Beck) and Brigitte Helm (Irene Beck).

015431 / 16 / DE / 1928 / Pabst, G. W. / / drama

Abwege / Harhateillä / Hett blod / Crisis / Desire / Crise / Crisi. PC: Erda-Film. D: G. W. Pabst. DP: Theodor Sparkuhl. CAST: Brigitte Helm, Gustav Diessl, Hertha von Walther. Silent b&w. Münchner Filmmuseum print /20 fps/ 96’. Pordenone, Cinema Verdi, Friday 17 October 1997. *** A discovery: a forgotten Pabst film that was 25 years ahead of its time, charting the same areas of alienated relationships as Rossellini and Antonioni in the 1950s. Brigitte Helm ”in her best performance”? Maybe.