I have little to add to the views expressed by two reviewers who have recognised what a marvellous film this is. As for the other chap...well, less said the better.
Joe May figures high in the long list of "silent" directors whose work has only recently become known and appreciated once more. An eclectic film-maker, he managed to excel in a variety of genres - the Monumentalfilm (the two-part 1921 Indische Grabmal, the original and quite the best version of the three, including Lang's), the 1929 Hitchcockian thriller Asphalt (before Hitchcock had himself got very far in the genre to which it is misleading but convenient to give his name) and this riveting drama of 1928.
There is in fact a not too bad version of the film but I would recommend anyone looking for it to search out the full-length German version which is over two hours long. The hour-long version is a US abbreviated one. Curiously this is a perfect film to appreciate the process of cutting that went on in the twenties and thirties to produce different versions for different audiences and for home-viewing because there are also two 9.5m versions extant (one a Super-Pathé of about fifty minutes and a regular Pathé-Baby of only 35 minutes.
It is not always the case that the longest version of a film is necessarily the best (the cult of the "director's cut" is often misguided) but, in the case, the cinematography is so excellent and the relatively slow pace so crucial to the unfolding of the story and to the sense of the passage of time that the two hour version is unquestionably the one to go for. The gentle, elliptical account of the developing relationship between Karl and Anna is beautifully done and worthy of the great master of ellipsis, Max Ophuls (as opposed to the fake master of ellipsis Ernest Lubitsch who used ellipsis from necessity in a US context).
If you have to learn German to watch, consider that a bonus.
Joe May figures high in the long list of "silent" directors whose work has only recently become known and appreciated once more. An eclectic film-maker, he managed to excel in a variety of genres - the Monumentalfilm (the two-part 1921 Indische Grabmal, the original and quite the best version of the three, including Lang's), the 1929 Hitchcockian thriller Asphalt (before Hitchcock had himself got very far in the genre to which it is misleading but convenient to give his name) and this riveting drama of 1928.
There is in fact a not too bad version of the film but I would recommend anyone looking for it to search out the full-length German version which is over two hours long. The hour-long version is a US abbreviated one. Curiously this is a perfect film to appreciate the process of cutting that went on in the twenties and thirties to produce different versions for different audiences and for home-viewing because there are also two 9.5m versions extant (one a Super-Pathé of about fifty minutes and a regular Pathé-Baby of only 35 minutes.
It is not always the case that the longest version of a film is necessarily the best (the cult of the "director's cut" is often misguided) but, in the case, the cinematography is so excellent and the relatively slow pace so crucial to the unfolding of the story and to the sense of the passage of time that the two hour version is unquestionably the one to go for. The gentle, elliptical account of the developing relationship between Karl and Anna is beautifully done and worthy of the great master of ellipsis, Max Ophuls (as opposed to the fake master of ellipsis Ernest Lubitsch who used ellipsis from necessity in a US context).
If you have to learn German to watch, consider that a bonus.