Reviews

This short film is a vehicle for American impersonator and comedienne Florence Turner to demonstrate her girning skills whilst on a music hall tour in the UK. The scene where she frightens the train passengers is the highlight. Watching this in 2002, I was amazed to discover that the decor of trains in the south of England has not changed in almost 90 years!

I saw this enjoyable documentary film in 1983 and have recently seen it again (2001) at the National Film Theatre in London, together with "Fitzcarraldo" and "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe" - sore bum!

In 1983 I thought it was brilliant and it was immensely valuable to get an insight into the tortured making of the film "Fitzcarraldo". Seeing it again, almost two decades later, I feel the film skims the surface as Les Blank seems to have little interest in drawing out what went on. He just observes and accepts the events at face value. Only Herzog is interviewed at any length and the burden of his dream(s) does become apparent as the film progresses, however there is virtually no comment from Kinski or the other actors. Les Blank might argue that the film is about Herzog's state of mind and his attitude to the production of Fitzcarraldo. In this, I think it is largely a success. To look for more from the film is perhaps to unfairly employ the benefit of hindsight.

I suspect my disappointment (relative) at seeing this again is the release of "My Best Fiend" in the interim. I find my memory conflating the two films, the piece about Kinski's "hate hate" relationship with the jungle (and almost everything else!) would seem more appropriate to "Burdens" but is in "Fiend".

"Burden of Dreams" and "My Best Fiend" would make a good double bill, giving a much more rounded impression of the context of the production of Fitzcarraldo and the relationship between Herzog and Kinski. If you are interested, try to see them both.

Standard boy meets girl and elopes slapstick. Harold and Bebe's ballroom skills, for which they won awards, is used to good effect. The most interesting thing about this silent short was that the version I saw had Czech intertitles!

An unexceptional short which does not qualify as a precursor to later `mummy' films. Connie and Billy are young and in love... but her father does not approve. Billy's contrivances make no headway until the mummy of Ramses III is delivered to the house of Connie's father! Remember, this is a comedy not a horror movie.

This short film is a succession of appearing, disappearing, split second metamorphoses and character fades. There is no obvious story line. The Curiosity Shop contains mainly Egyptian artifacts. It seems to be well executed for its time.

This was the first of three in a season of Murnau films that I saw at the National Film Theatre (NFT) in London (Jan 2001). It was also the first time I had seen a silent film in a cinema, the screening was enhanced by a live piano accompaniment.

According to the handout from the NFT it is the oldest of Murnau's surviving complete works. It was certainly the most unsophisticated of the three films that I saw, the other two being The Last Laugh and Nosferatu. The plot is a clumsy romantic melodrama primarily involving an eye surgeon, a dancer and a blind painter. To be honest, I thought that overall the film was a naff as it sounds. However there were a number of worthwhile moments.

Apparently Murnau was unhappy with the acting of most of the cast, and I can confirm that it was old fashioned (even for 1920) stiff and exaggerated. However, without an extensive background in silents, I did not find the performance of Olaf Fonss as the eye surgeon too distracting. The acting highlight, and an anti-reason to try to see the film, was the astounding performance of Conrad Veidt as the blind painter.

Veidt was obviously flush with the success of his performance as Cesare in `Caligari' and seems to have decided to do it again! I think his eerie performance in this film is every bit as memorable as Cesare. Murnau's use of naturalistic settings seems to enhance horrific effect through the form of understatement, as was clearly shown later in Nosferatu. Veidt slides around the film fingers first as the male romantic lead producing an aura that, for me, made it impossible to believe that Gudrun Bruun-Steffensen as Lily could possibly fall in love with him. A question mark also hangs over the abilities of the blind painter who first appears standing upright in a rowboat gliding over an inlet (that would have worked fabulously in a horror film!) and is able to disembark on to a raised jetty unassisted… without stumbling. I don't know if you've ever tried to disembark from a small boat, even with sight it's not easy. Sadly Veidt's performance, fabulous in isolation, is totally out of keeping with the film!

The other highlights of this film are when Murnau has got the cast out of the way and employed a variety of lingering scenic shots. There are many cuts to seascapes in this film and they have a compositional beauty that is almost uplifting. Murnau clearly has a skill in employing landscape and I think that all the scenic shots in all the three films that I saw worked well, succeeding in conveying as much of the essence of each film as the more overt moments.