''Diary of a Lost Girl'' (german: Tagebuch einer Verlorenen) is a 1929 German

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

directed by G. W. Pabst and starring American silent star

Louise Brooks Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helpe ...

. It is shot in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

, and various versions of the film range from 79 minutes to 116 minutes in length. This was Brooks' second and last film with Pabst, and like their prior collaboration, ''

Pandora's Box Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem ''Works and Days''. Hesiod reported that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing physi ...

'', it is considered to be a classic by many film historians. It is based on the controversial and bestselling 1905 novel of the same name by Margarete Böhme. The novel had been previously adapted by

Richard Oswald Richard Oswald (5 November 1880 – 11 September 1963) was an Austrian film director, producer, screenwriter, and father of German-American film director Gerd Oswald. Early career Richard Oswald, born in Vienna as Richard W. Ornstein, began ...

as ''Diary of a Lost Woman''.

Plot

Thymian Henning, the innocent, naive daughter of pharmacist Robert Henning, is puzzled when their housekeeper, Elisabeth, leaves suddenly on the day of Thymian's

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

. It turns out that her father has got Elisabeth pregnant. Elisabeth's body is brought to the pharmacy later that day, an apparent suicide by drowning, upsetting Thymian. Thymian's father's assistant Meinert, promises to explain it all to her late that night, but instead rapes her while she is unconscious and she also becomes pregnant. Though Thymian refuses to name the illegitimate baby's father, the relatives find out from her diary, and decide that the best solution is for her to marry Meinert. When she refuses because she does not love him, they give the baby to a midwife and send her to a strict reformatory for wayward girls run by a tyrannical woman and her tall, bald assistant. Meanwhile, Thymian's friend, Count Osdorff, is cast off and left penniless by his rich uncle, also Count Osdorff, after he proves unsuccessful at every school and trade. Thymian begs her friend to persuade her father to take her back, but Thymian's father has married his new housekeeper, Meta, and Meta wants no rivals for Robert's affection. Rebelling against the reformatory's rigid discipline, Thymian and her friend Erika escape with Osdorff's help. When Thymian goes to see her baby, she is told the child has just died. After despondently wandering the streets, she re-unites with Erika, who is working in a small, upper-class brothel. With no skills, Thymian also becomes a prostitute. By chance, Thymian encounters her father, Meta, and Meinert in a nightclub. Her father is shocked when he realizes what she has become, and Meta and Meinert prevent them from speaking by quickly ushering Robert out of the nightclub. Three years later, her father dies. With the expectation of inheriting a large amount of money, Thymian decides to start a new life. Her friends at the brothel suggest she obtain a new identity by marrying Osdorff. After thinking about it, he agrees. At the lawyer's office, Meinert buys Thymian's interest in the pharmacy, making her rich. However, when she learns that Meinert is throwing Meta and her two children out on the street, Thymian gives Meta the money so that her young half-sister will not suffer her fate. Osdorff, who had been counting on the money to rebuild a life for himself too, throws himself out the window to his death when she tells him what she has done. The uncle, grief-stricken, decides to make amends by taking care of Thymian. He introduces her to his cousin as his niece, Countess Osdorff. In a strange twist of fate, Thymian is invited to become a director of the same reformatory where she herself was once held. When Erika, her old friend, is brought before the directors as an "especially difficult case", Thymian denounces the school and its "blessings" and takes Erika out of the room. Count Osdorff follows the two women; but before leaving he pauses, turns back toward his startled cousin, and declares, "A little more love and no-one would be lost in this world!"

Cast

Release

''Diary of a Lost Girl'' premiered in Vienna, Austria on 12 September 1929. It had its German premiere in Berlin on 15 October 1929.

References

Bibliography

External links

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''Diary of a Lost Girl''
filmography page a
Louise Brooks Society
{{Authority control 1929 films 1929 drama films 1920s pregnancy films German silent feature films German black-and-white films Films about prostitution in Germany Films about sexual repression Films directed by G. W. Pabst Films of the Weimar Republic Remakes of German films German drama films Silent drama films 1920s German films Films about rape