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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you aren't obsessed with dusty European relics from the early sound era, you should probably skip this one. But for those who love melodrama that feels like it survived a fire, it’s a pretty neat find.
The story is about Lena, a young girl who gets seduced and abandoned by a wealthy family's son. It's basically the ultimate cliché of 1931 cinema.
The sound in this movie is... rough. It honestly sounds like the actors are speaking into a tin can buried in a sandbox.
There's a moment early on where a door slams, and the audio crackle actually made my dog jump. It is not clean, but that's part of the charm, I guess.
Maria Malicka is the main reason to watch. Her eyes do most of the talking, which makes sense since Poland was still figuring out how to do talkies back then.
She has this incredibly sad look that reminds me of Greta Garbo in A Woman of Affairs. Just pure, unadulterated doom.
On the other hand, the wealthy villains are almost funny. The dad has this stiff posture and a mustache that looks glued on sideways.
"No one in this family seems to know how to sit down naturally."
During one of the big confrontation scenes, you can see the shadow of a microphone boom hovering at the top of the frame. Nobody bothered to edit it out, and honestly, I love that.
And the party scene is delightfully awkward. The extras are just standing around holding glasses, looking like they forgot why they are there in the first place.
It’s definitely not a masterpiece. But there’s a raw, heavy atmosphere here that you just don't get in Hollywood films from the same year.
If you can handle the crackly audio and the incredibly slow pacing, it’s a neat little time capsule. Just don't expect a happy ending.
Year
1931
IMDb Rating
—
Editorial
Deciphering the legacy of transgressive cult cinema.
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