A handful of twenty-something Filmstruck Berliners were on board for this Portrait of a City story about ‘regular’ Jacks & Jills getting out to the country for a day. But what a handful! Writer/directors Curt & Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Fred Zinnemann, Billy Wilder, cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan, producer Seymour Nebenzal, a line-up of future legends promising more than this modest charmer has in mind. And that’s alright, assuming you can dial down expectations. The format, briefly popular in European capital cities at the tail end of the silent era (influenced by the Russian KINO-EYE films?), calls for loosely organized ‘actuality’ footage and a simple story shot docu-style with non-pro actors. Here, our types include a model, a taxi-driver, a record store salesgirl; met on their Saturday shifts in Berlin while planning tomorrow’s countryside excursion. Sun, water, paddle boat, picnic, portable Victrola, and plenty of sex-suggestive passes. Especially by the handsome guy (and doesn’t he know it!), simultaneously fondling a blonde on his right and the brunette to the left. What narrative there is concerns his shifting affection toward his original date’s best friend, and, in absentia, the model who doesn’t make it, sleeping the day away back in Berlin. The first act, with all the street activity in 1929 Berlin now holds the most interest, but the film builds real rooting interest in the relationships as it goes along. (BTW: Euro-bathing costumes for the men just as embarrassing then as now.) Wrapping up with another Monday, back to the grind in Berlin, to bring the curtain down on their revels. Many prints (look for a 1'13" running time) with various music tracks out there. I’ve not heard a bad one.
DOUBLE-BILL: When Jean Renoir made his DAY IN THE COUNTRY story, he adapted a Guy de Maupassant short story into a four-reel masterpiece, UNE PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE/’46.
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