I have a love hate relationship with the Babylon Berlin Mitte, and yet I keep going back because they have a darn nice program sometimes, and because they have silent films and this marvelous organ. They hired this person to accompany silent films full time, but boy oh boy she is the worst. It learned that I have never heard a single bad pianist so far, and that the music absolutely matters (OK I have always known the latter, but I hadn’t realized to what extent). This lady played like she was in a 19th century fair or something, and it made this horrible film even more horrible.
It’s been a long time since I read “Nana”, or rather I read it until the middle, but when Nana’s fame started declining I strangely lost interest in her and the whole book. I was rooting for her and her horrible ways (because my teenage self thought that femme fatales were enticing), and found it unnecessary to see her eventual comeuppance. The same happened to me with “Les liaisons dangereuses”, by the way. The letter in which the Marquise de Merteuil explains her feminist motivations is the true highlight of the book. I was so captivated by her that I didn’t feel the desire to read the rest of the book anymore. Nevertheless the adaptation of a book I have read is always a motivation for me to see the film, but more often than not, I am disappointed, just like here.
Nana
What can I say? The music was crappy, the film was crappy, there is a reason why the film is absolutely unknown, the reason being that the film is shoddily shot, terribly acted out and that there is absolutely no pleasure to be gained from seeing the titular heroine abuse everybody around her. I am sure that Renoir is perfectly capable of making great films (“La Règle du Jeu” was meh but “La Grande Illusion” is great and I hear that “The River” is wonderful too), but giving his wife the title role is something only Godard and Bergman can pull off it seems. I have very little appreciation for the extravagant set (unless it’s a Stroheim) when both the story and the execution otherwise are so off-putting. In short, I still love seeing silent films with live accompaniment, but I will almost certainly limit myself to musicians I know from now on. Also, sorry Loris for dragging you into seeing this mess. I wish I could have been able to show how a great musician can elevate any film (no matter how crappy) into a pleasant viewing experience, but it was not happening this time.