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Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück (Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness)

Director: Phil (or Piel) Jutzi
Year: 1929
Run-time: 2 hr 1 min
Source: Youtube

Notable For: It's the first explicitly pro-communist film on the list not made in the USSR, produced by a German branch of a Soviet studio.  For that reason, it has been called the first "East German" film, although that doesn't mean much.  The influences are all over the place.  It has Eisenstein's choppy and frenetic style applied to a much more human story with distinct characters (it's probably closer to Boris Barnet and Girl With a Hat Box, which was made by the same studio), as well as Pabst's "Objectivist" philosophy.  It also cuts in real shots of people in poverty in a way reminiscent of Vertov.

Verdict:  The story, especially the ending, hews towards the melodramatic and propagandistic in a way that Soviet directors were skilled enough to sidestep, but the fast, effective pacing makes it an entertaining watch regardless.  There are many fine details here, such as the wedding, that make it feel true to life.  I was pretty engrossed despite the low quality of the Youtube stream I could find.  The characterizations don't quite work for me, though, and ultimately there were better performances in German cinema at the time.  I like Pandora's Box and its depiction of the working class just a bit more.

Special Note: And with that, we're into the 1930s.  It's an exciting time - British cinema is beginning to pick up steam.  The Soviet innovations have been spread throughout Europe and America.  Before too long though, we'll have Japanese films (the Japanese films of the 20s were almost all destroyed in World War II).  Silent films will stick around for a while, but they will start to become rare quite quickly.

I'm glad that I've stuck with this so far.  I have no delusions that I'm going to make it to the end, but so far I'm enjoying discovering these rare films, and I'm not running out of steam yet!
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