We had a great time drinking after this relatively short day, but there is something extremely tragic about getting home really late, and I wish I had money for a taxi. Somehow I like cabs, and that is definitely not only because of “Night on Earth”.
J’accuse
France 1919, Abel Gance, 144’
Something in me wants to puke. There is some backstory about the film that really makes me feel emotional, one of them is the fact that some of the scenes were shot in actual, real trenches. That is just amazing. On top of that, they ‘return of the dead’ was with actual soldiers of whom most actually died shortly after. It made me feel quite a glomp in your throat when I read that. The music was brilliant and the cinematography of the film is quite wonderful, perhaps even one the most beautiful I have seen (surely it is filled with pathos, but hey that can be beautiful too). I assume that the beauty of the film made it so popular with the critics now. But let’s not forget the content of the film.
Of course I understand an accusation in general. But the film is doing everything completely wrong. A real accusation to war would mention the chemin des dames, a sad period in history when the French military sent in people simply to die. Instead of glorifying the dead, a real anti-war movie would condemn the fact that they had to die. Maybe I should list what I hated about the film:
– First of all, the movie was completely anti-german. A true anti-war movie should not participate in the war-mongering and stir up the hatred against Germans. It doesn’t help that the Germans are portrayed as the evil guys who raped the female protagonist. It’s not surprising that the director released an even more anti-german version of the film to show in the US. It’s so hypocritical that it’s disgusting.
– Obviously there is one old guy who fought in 1870 – and upon hearing about his daughter being raped, of course he goes into war and then dies. I think this type of revenge story is extremely typical for pseudo-anti-war stories, which we are seeing way too many of.
– The little girl who was born out of that rape incident was to be “educated as a French”. We see her learning about French history and the first words she learns to write is “J’accuse”. Ugh.
– Instead of actually showing the cruelty of war, they are happy with showing a few dead bodies and lamenting the dead. It’s really nothing more than patriotic “Look at what the Germans did to us” lamenting.
– “J’accuse” is being displayed in many forms all over the film, and at the worst places. It is especially sad when one thinks about when it was used in the first place: Émile Zola used the title to accusing the French government (!) of anti-semitism in their affair Dreyfus. This movie is the most government-loving film I have seen in a while, and in such an “anti-war” disguise at that.
I am sure this is not all, but these are the worst points. Of course I understand where this is coming from. Having had the WWI in school for quite awhile (which is also where I got my knowledge about the chemin des dames), I know that France was absolutely devastated after the war, and such a movie is the best thing to soothe their wounds. But what came out of it? They ripped the Germans of everything they had (see the traité de Versailles), which I see as one of the reasons why the Weimar Republic was so weak, and by extension giving way to WWII.
After Germany and France have put so many efforts into developing something like a friendship, I cannot quite believe how such a film can still be shown nowadays. I doubt it will have a huge impact (and I am glad about it), but as long as there is a museum in Paris glorifying the French army in the two world wars, I think that we still have work to do when it comes to creating a unified Europe and a peaceful world, and this type of movie is one step into the wrong direction.
Blackmail
USA 1929, Alfred Hitchcock, 84’
A Hitchcock with a blonde, what more can you say about it? I preferred “The Lodger” for its more suspenseful story, and because “Blackmail” was ultimately quite predictable. It was somewhat less enjoyable for that reason.
But, and I think this is a very important point, the female main character actually acts (instead of only looking nice). She is a delightful Raskolnikov character who commits a crime instead of just reacting to what everybody does. On top of that, the actress portraying her is surprisingly good for one who works for Hitchcock, she is very multi-faceted and shows her distress and the different degrees of shock in a very believable way. I think that she was the best thing about the film, in my book she was greater than Grace Kelly (who really can only play herself).
To me, “Blackmail” is a more mature film, playing around with psychology much more than “The Lodger” that mainly relies upon suspense and horror. I can understand why it became a popular film, and I am actually somewhat interested in the sound version too.