Joyless Street
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''Joyless Street'' (), also titled ''The Street of Sorrow'' or ''The Joyless Street'', is a 1925 German
silent film A silent film is a film without 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
Georg Wilhelm Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic. ...
starring
Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's Silent film, silent and early Classical Hollywood cinema, golden eras. Regarded as one of the g ...
,
Asta Nielsen Asta Sofie Amalie Nielsen (11 September 1881 – 24 May 1972) was a Danish silent film actress who was one of the most popular leading ladies of the 1910s and one of the first international movie stars. Seventy of Nielsen's 74 films were ...
and
Werner Krauss Werner Johannes Krauss (''Krauß'' in German; 23 June 1884 – 20 October 1959) was a German stage and film actor. Krauss dominated the German stage of the early 20th century. However, his participation in the antisemitic propaganda film '' Jud ...
. It is based on a novel by Hugo Bettauer and widely considered an expression of
New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in ) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against German Expressionism, expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunsthalle' ...
in film.


Plot

In an alley called Melchiorgasse in a poor quarter of 1921
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, Austria, the lives of several people coincide. Marie, daughter of an abusive war veteran father, hopes to escape her home with the help of her boyfriend Egon, a bank clerk. Grete is the elder daughter of impoverished civil servant Rumfort. Marie and Grete join the overnight line of waiting customers outside of the butcher's shop run by the abusive Josef Geiringer, but Grete passes out and loses her place. Marie and her friend Else manage to enter Geiringer's shop, where they receive a piece of meat in exchange for Else's sexual services. Else offers Marie to share the meat with her, but Marie declines, knowing that Else, whose husband is unemployed, has a young child to feed. Marie runs away from home and asks Egon to take her in, but Egon, who is entangled with two women of Vienna's high society, hoping that they will help him climb up the social ladder, declines. With the help of Mrs. Greifer, owner of a fashion boutique and a night club, Marie becomes the mistress of Canez, a speculator on the stock exchange market. During a date with Canez, she witnesses Egon meeting with Mrs. Leid, one of his female acquaintances. When Mrs. Leid is later found strangled, Marie states that she saw Egon commit the murder. Meanwhile, Rumfort loses his pension in a share transaction in which Canez was involved, while Grete is dismissed from her job for rejecting her employer's sexual advances. To pay for their expenses, the Rumfort family offers a room to let to
American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...
officer Davy, who is enamoured with Grete's charms. When Davy's adjutant accuses Grete's younger sister of stealing from their supplies, Grete's father insists that they leave. Grete lends money from Mrs. Greifer, who in turn tries to talk Grete into working for her. Out of bad conscience, Marie confesses to the police that it was she who murdered Mrs. Leid, and that she falsely accused Egon out of jealousy. When Davy witnesses Grete during a nightclub event, he scolds her for her amorality, but forgives her when he learns from her father that she only participated to save her family from starving. Outside of the nightclub, the Melchiorgasse residents have gathered and start throwing stones through the windows. Else kills Geiringer after he refuses to deliver her more meat. When the house where she lives with her husband and child catches fire, the couple manage to save their child before they both die in the flames.


Cast

*
Jaro Fürth Jaro Fürth (born Jaroslav Edwin Fürth; 21 April 1871 – 12 November 1945) was an Austrian stage and film actor. Early life Fürth was born to Jewish parents in Prague.Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's Silent film, silent and early Classical Hollywood cinema, golden eras. Regarded as one of the g ...
as Grete Rumfort *
Loni Nest Eleonore "Loni" Arnault ( Nest, 4 August 1915 – 2 October 1990), known professionally by her maiden name of Loni Nest, was a German actress. Born in Berlin, she was a child star of German silent films in the 1920s. She was filmed for the first ...
as Mariandl Rumfort *
Asta Nielsen Asta Sofie Amalie Nielsen (11 September 1881 – 24 May 1972) was a Danish silent film actress who was one of the most popular leading ladies of the 1910s and one of the first international movie stars. Seventy of Nielsen's 74 films were ...
as Marie Lechner * Max Kohlhase as Marie's father * Sylvia Torf as Marie's mother *
Karl Etlinger Karl Franz Etlinger (16 October 1879 – 8 May 1946) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1914 and 1946. Selected filmography * '' The Eternal Curse'' (1921) * '' The Poisoned Stream'' (1921) * '' The Films o ...
as Max Rosenow *
Ilka Grüning Ilka Grüning (born Ilka Henriette Grünzweig; 4 September 1876 – 11 November 1964) was an Austrian-Hungarian actress. Born in Vienna in the old Austrian-Hungarian Empire, she was one of many Jewish actors and actresses that were forced to fl ...
as Frau Rosenow * Agnes Esterhazy as Regina Rosenow *
Alexander Murski Alexander Alexandrovich Murski (Russian: Александр Александрович Мурский) (1 November 1869 – April 1943) was a Russian-born German actor. Murski died in 1943 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France. Murski known for ...
as Dr. Leid * Tamara Tolstoi as Lia Leid * Henry Stuart as Egon Stirner * Robert Garrison as Canez *
Einar Hanson Einar Hanson (; Stockholm, Sweden – ; Santa Monica, California), also known as Einar Hansen, was a Swedish silent film actor. Career Discovered at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre by director Mauritz Stiller, handsome and sophisticated, he w ...
as Lt. Davy * Mario Cusmich as Colonel Irving *
Valeska Gert Valeska Gert (11 January 1892 – c. 16 March 1978) was a German dancer, pantomime, cabaret artist, actress and pioneering performance artist. Early life and career Gert was born as Gertrud Valesca Samosch in Berlin to a Jewish family. She was the ...
as Frau Greifer * Gräfin Tolstoi as Fräulein Henriette * Edna Markstein as Frau Merkl *
Werner Krauss Werner Johannes Krauss (''Krauß'' in German; 23 June 1884 – 20 October 1959) was a German stage and film actor. Krauss dominated the German stage of the early 20th century. However, his participation in the antisemitic propaganda film '' Jud ...
as Geiringer, the butcher *
Hertha von Walther Hertha von Walther (born Hertha Stern und Walter von Monbary; 12 June 1903 – 12 April 1987) was a German film actress. She appeared in 80 films between 1921 and 1983. Biography Hertha von Walther was born Hertha Stern und Walther von Monb ...
as Else *
Otto Reinwald Otto Reinwald (23 August 1899 – 1 July 1968) was a German film actor.Eisner p.350 The elder brother of the actresses Grete Reinwald and Hanni Reinwald, he made his screen debut in 1913 as a child actor. He later became a production manager, ac ...
as Else's husband *
Gregori Chmara Gregori Mikhailovich Chmara ( Ukrainian: Григорій Михайлович Хмара, Russian: Григорий Михайлович Хмара; 29 July 1878 – 3 February 1970) was a Ukrainian-born stage and film actor whose career spanne ...
as Pjotr Orlow, waiter * M. Raskatoff as Trebitsch * Krafft-Raschig as American soldier * Renate Brausewetter as woman (uncredited) *
Maria Forescu Maria Forescu (15 January 1875 28 October 1947) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian opera singer and film actress. During the silent and talkies era of the German cinema, she appeared in several movies as a supporting actress. When Adolf Hitle ...
as woman (uncredited) *
Lya Mara Lya Mara (born Aleksandra Gudowicz; 1 August 1897 – 1 March 1960) was a Polish people, Polish actress. She was one of the biggest stars of the Cinema of Germany, German silent cinema. Biography Lya Mara was born Aleksandra Gudowicz in a Polis ...
as woman (uncredited) *
Iván Petrovich Iván Petrovich (; 1 January 1894 – 18 October 1962) was a Serbian film actor and singer. He was the first actor from Yugoslavia to have a successful international movie career. Petrovich mainly worked in German cinema, but also collaborated ...
as man (uncredited)


Production

Screenwriter Willy Haas recalled in his memoirs that Pabst rang him up in 1924, asking him to read Bettauer's novel, which Pabst thought would make for a good film story. Haas read the book, which he regarded an awful crime potboiler ("Reißer"). He and Pabst agreed that the social aspect should be emphasised, "the strident imagery of the inflation, the bankruptcy of civil servants and academics, the corruption, the moral decay" (Haas), while the criminalistic aspect should be cast aside. The film's sets were designed by the
art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...
s Otto Erdmann and
Hans Sohnle Hans Sohnle (17 September 1895 – 24 March 1976) was a German art director.Chandler p.270 He frequently collaborated with Otto Erdmann on set designs. Selected filmography * '' The Loves of Käthe Keller'' (1919) * '' The Woman in Doctor's Gar ...
, Mark Sorkin served as assistant director and editor.


Release history

Shortly after its release, different versions of the film circulated because of censorship cuts. One US release version was shortened to one hour running time, omitting the Asta Nielsen storyline. Between 1995 and 1998, with the help of international archives, the Munich Film Archive restored the film to its current length of 151 minutes, which is still approx. half an hour shorter than the original version. A region 2 DVD version with documentary extras is available. The film was exhibited in the US as ''The Street of Sorrow'' and in the UK as ''The Joyless Street''.


Reception and legacy

In her 1955 book ''Die dämonische Leinwand'' (engl. ''The Haunted Screen''), German film historian Lotte H. Eisner criticised the film's studio sets,
Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
lightning and formulaic depiction of poverty: "everything is artificial, too condensed, too symbolically accentuated".
Rudolf Thome Rudolf Thome (born 14 November 1939) is a German film director and producer. He has directed more than 30 films since 1964. His 1986 film ''Tarot'' was entered into the 15th Moscow International Film Festival. Selected filmography Director * ...
, reviewing ''Joyless Street'' for the ''
Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...
'' in 1964, disagreed with this view, calling it "Pabst's masterpiece", whose scenes do not represent ideas and whose images only conveye the meaning of what can actually be seen. 30 years after Eisner, critic
Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael often defied the conse ...
titled ''Joyless Street'' an "extraordinary triumph of cinematography and Expressionist design", which despite its weak parts "makes a very strong visual impression".
Dave Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the ''Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a c ...
, writing for the ''
Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...
'' in 1985, was more reserved, calling it "heavy going" and "an official classic that hasn't quite earned the title".


References


External links

* *
Literature on ''Joyless Street''

lobby card as ''Street of Sorrow''
Ha,Heritage Auctions) {{Authority control 1925 films German silent feature films 1925 drama films German black-and-white films Films of the Weimar Republic Films directed by G. W. Pabst Films based on Austrian novels Films set in Vienna Films set in 1921 Films about prostitution in Austria Films about social realism Silent German drama films 1920s German films 1920s German-language films German-language drama films