{"id":24717,"date":"2012-03-19T11:17:14","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T18:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24717"},"modified":"2020-12-28T20:44:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T03:44:09","slug":"joyless-street-1925","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24717","title":{"rendered":"Joyless Street, The (1925)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;One cannot open a door without seeing misery in all its nakedness.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Poster-210x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-24719\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Poster-210x300.jpg 210w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Poster-89x128.jpg 89w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nDuring the depths of the post-WWI Depression in Austria, two young women &#8212; the daughter (Greta Garbo) of a councillor (Jaro Furth), and a secretary (Asta Nielsen) eager to marry her poor fiance (Henry Stuart) &#8212; degrade themselves in order to survive.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Class Relations<\/li>\n<li>Corruption<\/li>\n<li>German Films<\/li>\n<li>Greta Garbo Films<\/li>\n<li>G.W. Pabst Films<\/li>\n<li>Silent Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary accurately notes that G.W. Pabst&#8217;s &#8220;adaptation of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hugo_Bettauer\">Hugo Bettauer<\/a>&#8216;s novel&#8221; &#8212; about &#8220;how postwar inflation resulted in the financial and moral breakdown of the middle class in Austria and the exploitation and victimization of young women without money&#8221; &#8212; is &#8220;muddled and at times boring&#8221;; indeed, it&#8217;s frustratingly difficult to follow the &#8220;two loosely connected storylines&#8221;. While we can more or less make sense of Garbo&#8217;s role as the daughter of a man who gambles all his money on the stock market, her romance with Einar Hanson is underdeveloped at best; meanwhile, the more complex storyline involving Asta Nielsen as a secretary-turned-prostitute who witnesses a murder is cluttered with too many minor characters (how many women <em>is<\/em> Stuart romantically involved with, anyway?). However, it&#8217;s true that &#8220;the cinematography is superb&#8221; (it&#8217;s especially fascinating to see how Pabst and his creative team &#8220;mixed realism with expressionism&#8221;), and &#8220;the social themes are still relevant&#8221; (albeit dealt with in an overly heavy-handed manner). Meanwhile, film fanatics may be curious to see the film which is perhaps &#8220;most famous for bringing Greta Garbo to the attention of Hollywood&#8221;; as Peary notes, &#8220;those stunning eyes, that mournful expression&#8230;, and her mysteriously erotic quality made her a natural for Hollywood love stories.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Greta Garbo in a soon-to-be-star-making supporting role<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Garbo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Garbo.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24718\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Garbo.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Garbo-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Garbo-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Edgar Ulmer&#8217;s Expressionist\/realist sets<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Sets.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Sets.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Sets.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Sets-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Sets-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Fine, atmospheric cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24721\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Cinematography.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Cinematography-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joyless-Street-Cinematography-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though diehard film fanatics may want to check it out. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0015842\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sensesofcinema.com\/2004\/cteq\/the_joyless_street\/\">Senses of Cinema Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/reviews\/40662\/die-freudlose-gasse\/\">DVD Talk Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.allmovie.com\/movie\/die-freudlose-gasse-v26639\">AllMovie Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/the-joyless-street\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;One cannot open a door without seeing misery in all its nakedness.&#8221; Synopsis: During the depths of the post-WWI Depression in Austria, two young women &#8212; the daughter (Greta Garbo) of a councillor (Jaro Furth), and a secretary (Asta Nielsen) eager to marry her poor fiance (Henry Stuart) &#8212; degrade themselves in order to survive. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Class Relations Corruption German Films Greta Garbo Films G.W. Pabst Films Silent Films Response to Peary\u2019s Review: Peary accurately notes&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24717\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24717"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60240,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24717\/revisions\/60240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}