Cold Streets
Cold city streets
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Die Strasse (The Street) 1923 All ages The tale of one fateful night in the life of a middle-aged, middle-class man who, waking from a nap, suddenly finds the monotony of his existence intolerable, and leaves his wife for a prostitute. The film that gave its name to Weimar cinema’s most distinctive genre. Sat 18 Oct 3.00pm / Cinema A |
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Isn’t Life Wonderful? 1924 All ages D W Griffith’s last independent feature, filmed in Berlin, dramatizing the ruinous conditions in post-war Germany. A family of refugees, led by Carol Dempster and Neil Hamilton, scrape to make ends meet and keep their spirits up amidst housing shortages and food riots. The understated style was much admired by directors Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini and Akira Kurosawa. Wed 15 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema B |
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Die Freudlose Gasse (The Joyless Street) 1925 All ages The film that made a young Greta Garbo an international star also belongs to "the great, strange Asta Nielsen," as Pauline Kael called this Danish-born silent diva. Symbolised by one dreary but bustling street in Vienna where meat is hard to come by but souls are cheap, Georg Wilhelm Pabst's film is an uncompromising portrait of post-World War One social malaise. Sun 19 Oct 2.00pm / Cinema A |
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Mutter Küsters’ Fahrt ins Glück (Mother Küsters’ Goes to Heaven aka Mother Küsters’ Journey to Happiness) 1929 All ages A working class mother is trapped in a claustrophobic world of debt, irresponsible children, and petty crime. Jutzi, a master of naturalism, pulls out all the stops in this classic that was admired by the New German directors and remade by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1975. Wed 22 Oct 4.00pm / Cinema A |
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Polizeibericht Überfall (Accident) 1929 All ages Wed 29 Oct 6.00pm (with Dark City) / Cinema B |
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Berlin Alexanderplatz 1931 All ages A peddler fresh out of jail, dizzied by the city, despairs of making an honest living and is sucked into the underworld. Taken from Alfred Döblin’s fatalistic novel (remade by a latter-day German fatalist R W Fassbinder), Piel Jutzi’s film – one of Germany’s first talkies – is still astonishing for its raw, rowdy street spirit. Wed 22 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema B |
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Tianming (Daybreak) 1932 All ages A Chinese melodrama with exquisite visual flair reminiscent of directors Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Frank Borzage, Jean Renoir, and the dramatic excess of Josef von Sternberg. A village girl gets caught up in the vice of Shanghai and escapes into high society only to be bitch-slapped by the Chinese Revolution! Thu 16 Oct 12 noon / Cinema A |
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Phantom Lady 1944 All ages A man finds himself framed for killing his wife; his only alibi is a mysterious lady in an odd black hat who has mysteriously vanished. Phantom Lady was Siodmak’s first noir film after emigrating from Universum-Film to Universal. The centerpiece: the flagrantly erotic drumming scene in a jazz dive. Robert Siodmak’s excellent thriller is a prime example of a talented émigré thriving as a Hollywood assignment director. Thu 16 Oct 3.00pm / Cinema A |
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Dark City 1950 All ages Charlton Heston surrounded by those angels of noir, Mike Mazurki, Ed Begley, and Jack Web, creeps through the city gutters pursued by cops, a maniacal killer, and a lounge singer (Lizabeth Scott). A fine example of how William Dieterle learned to bend German melodrama, expressionism, and pyrotechnics to the requirements of a Hollywood quickie. Wed 29 Oct 6.00pm (with Accident) / Cinema B |
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Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel (Mother Küsters’ Ascent to Heaven) 1975 All ages Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s sly update of Piel Jutzi’s 1929 film and Alfred Döblin’s novel. The naive and very lumpen Mother Kusters becomes the darling of the Communist Party, who has plans to make her killer husband a martyr to capitalism, at least until the elections. Not to be outdone, her daughter mines the sensational killings for free publicity. Thu 23 Oct 12 noon / Cinema A |
