|
Edgar G. Ulmer and Robert Siodmak directed it, Billy Wilder and Curt Siodmak scripted it and Fred Zinnemann assisted with the camera—a veritable Rosetta Stone of burgeoning Teutonic talent, "ein film ohne schauspieler." The cab driver (Erwin Splettstößer), the shopgirl (Brigitte Borchert), the wine salesman (Wolfgang von Waltershausen) and the movie extra (Christl Ehlers), spinning integers in a carefree Berlin on the cusp of a darkening decade. (The fifth wheel, Annie Schreyer the model, misses out on the fun by oversleeping.) Indoor spaces are cramped and filled with domestic irritations (leaky faucets, shaving cream on glossy photos, a squabble over the brim of a hat), the outside world meanwhile hums with high angles and dissolving tracks and merry-go-round montages. Trolley ride to the Wannsee lake, crisscrossing flirtations during a picnic. Cinema as snapshots of life, literalized with random portraits along the way—amid children who can't keep from giggling and women who strike mock-glamorous poses, glimpses of Valeska Gert and Kurt Gerron. Statues and mannequins point up the alliance to Vigo, the seduction in the woods tilts and pans from lyrical treetops to knocked-over garbage cans. "And Thus You Spend Your Fleeting Days, a Novel by Carl Bulcke." Between Man With a Movie Camera and A Day in the Country, a work of youth, airiness, movement, jokes, of instantaneous images and capricious emotions. More Nouvelle Vague than Neorealism, the glow of a nap under the sun, the melancholia of a weekend drawing to a close. Back to work on Monday for the cast, off to Hollywood for the crew. Cinematography by Eugen Schüfftan. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |