Jede Frau hat etwas: A dusty relic with a few bright spots

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you are already deep down the rabbit hole of silent cinema. If you are just looking for a movie for Friday night, skip it. You will probably find it slow, maybe a little bit boring, and definitely lacking that punch you get from something like One Week.

But hey, if you like seeing how actors moved before they had to worry about microphones, you might find a little charm here. It is not exactly high art, but it’s a time capsule.

The vibe

There is this scene about twenty minutes in where the pacing just hits a wall. The characters are standing around in a drawing-room, and you can almost hear the gears grinding as the scene tries to establish a plot point. It is almost funny how serious they look while doing it.

Annie Ann is trying her best, but the script feels like it is fighting her every step of the way. Some of the reaction shots linger about three seconds too long. It makes you wonder if the editor just fell asleep at the desk. 😴

Small things that caught my eye

• The wallpaper in the second act is surprisingly distracting. Why is it so busy?
• Kurt Vespermann has this one squint he does whenever he is confused. He does it like, six times.
• The crowd scenes feel really sparse, like they couldn't afford enough people to fill the frame.

There is this moment where a character walks into a room and just… stops. They don't do anything for a full beat, then they walk out. I watched it twice. Still don't know why that happened. 🤷‍♂️

It is not as tight as Moritz macht sein Glück, that is for sure. That movie had a rhythm. This one? It feels like it was put together with glue that was starting to dry out.

Look, I don't want to be too harsh. It is an old film. But sometimes these things just don't travel well through time. It is a bit like reading an old diary written by someone you don't really know. You get the gist, but the excitement is gone.

Don't look for a grand message. There isn't one. It is just people in fancy clothes dealing with stuff that matters a whole lot less than they think it does. That is actually kind of refreshing in its own way.