(DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE)

In impoverished Vienna, following the First World War, Marie (Asta Nielsen) and Grete (Greta Garbo) struggle to survive, forced to use their bodies as barter simply to find food. Pabst’s film marked the beginning of the ‘New Objectivity’ movement, a change from the expressionist mode prevalent in German cinema to one more grounded in the reality of post-war society. It gave Garbo’s nascent career a huge boost, and she credited Nielsen as her acting mentor. For decades, it was claimed, even by Marlene Dietrich herself, that she also appeared in the film, in excised scenes, though the footage remains lost.

Notes by Kevin Coyne.

Screening as part of the Dietrich X Garbo Season.