A classic

A few weeks ago, I already saw ‘Die Büchse der Pandora’ and since Louise Brooks really blew me away at the time, I was quite eager to see this other movie she also made in 1929. It’s only afterwards that I discovered that both movies had the same director (G. W. Pabst). It’s interesting because I think that the two movies had a completely different vibe. I do think that ‘Pandora’ had a stronger story and a stronger character for Brooks but ‘Diary’ was however narratively less disjointed. Still, even though both movies were entertaining, I think that they were rather messy though. For example, in this case, it took me forever to figure out that Frieda was not Thymian’s mother but actually her aunt. It was also rather bewildering that Meinert was not fired and kicked out from their house when they found out that he was actually the father of Thymian’s newborn child. Finally, there was also the fact that the Count Osdorff killed himself after being married for maybe 10 mins with the main character. However, this movie will not be remembered for its story or its directing, it will be remembered because of Louise Brooks. Indeed, her performance was once again so intriguing and, after Maria Falconetti, she must be hands down the best silent movie actress I have ever seen. The interesting thing is that she did look exactly the same as she did in ‘Die Büchse der Pandora’ but, expect that they both did end up in the prostitution, the two character were so different though. Above all, in both cases, Brooks was quite spellbinding to behold. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, if only to see Louise Brooks shine one more time.