In the middle of a marathon viewing of Akira Kurosawa's works,I decided it was time to go for a second marathon viewing of a fellow auteur film maker whose work I've been wanting to explore in-depth: Robert Siodmak. Checking my pile of his titles,I set to hear Siodmak's first "Talkie."
View on the film:
Hired by Ufa to make the first sound film for the studio after his Silent directing debut People on Sunday (1930-also reviewed) had been a hit and given a budget of 60,000 Marks, directing auteur Robert Siodmak reunites with occasional collaborator (and future Eyes Without A Face (1960-also reviewed) cinematographer) Eugen Schufftan, and between close-up shots of hovers (!) and elegant dissolves over the guesthouse of misfits where Peter and Hella reside.
Siodmak finds in the ending a pessimism which would become a major theme across his works, as Hella (played by a radiant Brigitte Horney in her film debut) waits with bated breath for her lover to return, but finds herself with the fading memory of their romance being the only company she has left.
In what was only his second film credit, Emeric Pressburger joins Irma von Cube in housing Hella & Winkler with a nifty screenplay,where the initial, snappy comedy exchanges between the couple and fellow residences at the guesthouse cracks into a stormy Melodrama of mistrust entering the engaged entanglement of Winkler and Hella.
View on the film:
Hired by Ufa to make the first sound film for the studio after his Silent directing debut People on Sunday (1930-also reviewed) had been a hit and given a budget of 60,000 Marks, directing auteur Robert Siodmak reunites with occasional collaborator (and future Eyes Without A Face (1960-also reviewed) cinematographer) Eugen Schufftan, and between close-up shots of hovers (!) and elegant dissolves over the guesthouse of misfits where Peter and Hella reside.
Siodmak finds in the ending a pessimism which would become a major theme across his works, as Hella (played by a radiant Brigitte Horney in her film debut) waits with bated breath for her lover to return, but finds herself with the fading memory of their romance being the only company she has left.
In what was only his second film credit, Emeric Pressburger joins Irma von Cube in housing Hella & Winkler with a nifty screenplay,where the initial, snappy comedy exchanges between the couple and fellow residences at the guesthouse cracks into a stormy Melodrama of mistrust entering the engaged entanglement of Winkler and Hella.