G.W. Pabst's Diary of A Lost Girl is a stunning melodrama of morality and perseverance, being a film of utter-darkness that ultimately finds the light. The film is centered around Thymian, a young woman who finds her life in disarray when her governess, Elizabeth, is thrown out of the house due to a discovered pregnancy only to be found deceased days later. Her father wastes no time finding a new governess in Meta, a woman who shows little moral sentiment. Thymiane finds herself pregnant due to Meta's lack of nurturing and straight-up deception, and when Thymiane refuses to marry the father of her child she is thrown into a strict reform school. Diary of A Lost Girl is a rather epic rags to riches story, a film of bleak narrative storytelling which inevitably leads to a powerful conclusion. The film's is a harrowing testament to the importance of love and kindness, using a circular narrative as a great device to illustrate how in life all of us are susceptible on some level to great heights and deep, dark low points in life. Pabst argues that love is the common denominator that should win out above all else, with the final line of the filming making a poignant statement - "If there was more love, no one would ever be lost. Pabst's Diary of A Lost Girl focuses on the bourgeoisie to make many of its points, showing how their selfishness and desire for money ultimately leads them down a path where they have very little love to share. This is perhaps best captured with the plight of Count Osdorff, a man who marries Thymiane after she escapes from the brother, only to eventually commit suicide himself when he learns that Thymiane has donated a vast amount of her inheritance to charity. Through this story Pabst captures how characters are always pining for the next dollar, defined by the allure it brings, and through centered around the bourgeoisie, Pabst's statement about greed and money's control over societies's intentions certainly speaks to everyone. One of my favorite scenes from both a technical and emotional perspective is when Thymiane sees her father at a party, unbeknownst to her that it will be the last time before his death. The sequence itself is shot in a very simple yet effective way, as Pabst uses shot reverse shot to reveal the intense sadness in Thymiane who simply pines for her fathers love, but more importantly the sequence is able to capture the glimpses of regret felt by her father. Featuring a stunning lead performance by the always expressive Louise Brooks, G.W. Pabst' Diary of A Lost Girl is a powerful melodrama about the importance of love in a world which often defines success by wealth.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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