G W Pabst's follow up to Pandora's Box, once more with the delectable Louise Brooks doesn't quite match up to the wonders of that classic. As soon as Brooks appears the film lights up and she shines throughout, her delicate and iconic beauty illuminating a rather sad and predictable melodrama. There are some wonderful sequences, the orgasmic, gong driven exercise, the dormitory frolics to retain the diary and the supposed dance lesson where Brooks wears very little at all. This is though, a ninety year old film, times have changed, attitudes have changed and more particularly the speed we are used to a story being told has changed and however fascinating it is to see the wonderfully created brothel and seaside bathing sequences, there is a sense that the camera is lingering a little too long on those terrible monster like faces of Brooks' tormentors. We feel we are ahead of the action too often and that the only way to fully appreciate what is going on is to suspend belief and watch as in some time capsule. Whilst I fully appreciate the work of those involved in putting together a complete work of art such as this, I sometime wonder if there shouldn't also be a viewing print, possibly cut more to the rhythms we are more used to. Sacrilege I know but will our children ever get around to watching this?
Review of Diary of a Lost Girl
