Kinder vor Gericht: A messy, sad look at kids in trouble

If you have about an hour and you want to see how much—or how little—things have changed since the 1930s, Kinder vor Gericht is worth your time.

I think people who like old Weimar-era stuff or social dramas will find it fascinating. If you hate slow, black-and-white movies with crackly audio, you should probably skip this one.

It’s not a fun watch. It’s heavy.

The movie is mostly about kids standing in front of judges who look like they haven’t smiled since the previous century. You can really feel the stiffness of the courtroom.

One of the kids has this face that just breaks your heart. He looks like he’s about ten years old but carries the weight of a grown man who lost his job.

There is a scene early on where a group of boys are just hanging out on a street corner. The way they lean against the brick walls feels so real, like the director just caught them between takes.

The lighting is very shadowy, which makes the whole thing feel a bit like a nightmare. It’s that classic German style where everything feels a bit tilted.

I noticed that the sound is a bit rough in places. Sometimes a door slams and it sounds like a gunshot because of the old microphones.

It’s funny how different this feels from something like The Gold Rush. While Chaplin was doing physical comedy, these German filmmakers were obsessed with how miserable the city could be.

The writer, Georg C. Klaren, clearly had some opinions about the law. He doesn't make the judges look very smart.

There is this one lady, Ellen Schwanneke, who pops up and she’s great. She has these wide eyes that seem to take in everything wrong with the room.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Kinder vor Gericht (1931) through its definitive frames.

The movie gets a bit preachy toward the end. It starts to feel like a lecture instead of a story.

I found myself wondering if the kids in the background were real street kids or just actors. They look too dirty and tired to be just "acting."

Some of the acting from the adults is way too much. They wave their arms around like they are trying to flag down a plane.

But then you get a quiet moment. A kid looks at his shoes while a judge yells at him, and it feels like you are spying on a private tragedy.

Stuff I noticed:

• The hats. Everyone is wearing a hat and they all look slightly too small.
• The way the smoke from the cigars fills the courtrooms. You can almost smell the stale air.
• One kid tries to act tough and it’s the saddest thing in the whole movie.
• The transition shots of the city are actually pretty cool for 1931.

I’ve seen other stuff from this era, like Die Verführten, and there was definitely a trend of being super depressing. I guess life was just like that then.

The pacing is a bit weird. It rushes through some parts and then lingers on a boring desk for ten seconds.

I think I missed a bit of the dialogue because of the static, but the body language tells the whole story anyway. You don't need to speak German to see that these kids are scared.

It’s not as polished as Everybody's Acting, which came out a few years before in the States. This feels much more raw and unpolished.

The ending doesn't really fix anything. It just kind of stops.

Maybe that’s the point? Like, the cycle just keeps going and the court stays full.

If you can find a decent copy, give it a look. It’s a strange little window into a world that doesn't exist anymore, but the problems feel very now.

I’m still thinking about that one kid’s face. Poor guy.