a gem of unexpected interest, whether or not it's something beautifully crafted per se. But it sounds like maybe it's at least mostly that too.
Yes, I think so. It's an early talkie, so it has both technical issues and aesthetic departures from modern convention; it has some lines that are terrible for good reasons—perfectly in character—and some lines that are just terrible. Parts of the script verge into Dada, so if that's not something an audience enjoys, the conversations are going to bore and/or annoy them. But it also very clearly has its own style, its own registers of language, and it's not plotless because no one in the production understood structure, it's plotless because these people's lives are going nowhere and the film's going with them. And everyone really can act. And there is some really lovely cinematography. And it isn't like anything I have seen from 1931.
no subject
Yes, I think so. It's an early talkie, so it has both technical issues and aesthetic departures from modern convention; it has some lines that are terrible for good reasons—perfectly in character—and some lines that are just terrible. Parts of the script verge into Dada, so if that's not something an audience enjoys, the conversations are going to bore and/or annoy them. But it also very clearly has its own style, its own registers of language, and it's not plotless because no one in the production understood structure, it's plotless because these people's lives are going nowhere and the film's going with them. And everyone really can act. And there is some really lovely cinematography. And it isn't like anything I have seen from 1931.