Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (1929)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Writers:

Margarete Böhme (novel)
Rudolf Leonhardt (writer)

Release Date:

24 April 1930 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Thymiane is a beautiful young girl who is not having a storybook life. Her governess, Elizabeth, is thrown out of her home when she is pregnant...

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Brothel | Countess | Sexual Repression | Dark Secret

Cast

Louise Brooks	...	Thymiane
André Roanne	...	Count Nicolas Osdorff
Josef Rovenský	...	Robert Henning
Fritz Rasp	...	Meinert
Vera Pawlowa	...	Aunt Frieda
Franziska Kinz	...	Meta
Arnold Korff	...	Elder Count Osdorff
Andrews Engelmann	...	The director of the establishment
Valeska Gert	...	The director's wife
Edith Meinhard	...	Erika
Sybille Schmitz	...	Elisabeth
Sig Arno	...	Guest (as Siegfried Arno)
Kurt Gerron	...	Dr. Vitalis
Hedwig Schlichter
Hans Casparius
Jaro Fürth
Emmy Wyda
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marfa Kassatskaya		(as M. Kasazkaya)
Sylvia Torf
Michael von Newlinsky

Directed by
Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Margarete Böhme		novel
Rudolf Leonhardt		writer

Produced by
Georg Wilhelm Pabst	....	producer

Original Music by
Otto Stenzeel

Cinematography by
Sepp Allgeier
Fritz Arno Wagner

Art Direction by
Emil Hasler
Ernö Metzner

Production Management
Heinz Landsmann	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Paul Falkenberg	....	assistant director
Marc Sorkin	....	assistant director

Production Companies

• Pabst-Film
• Hom-AG für Filmfabrikation

Also Known As:

Diary of a Lost Girl (USA)
Diário de Uma Perdida (Brazil) [pt]
Diario di una donna perduta (Italy) [it]
Dusze bez steru (Poland) [pl]
Dziennik upadlej dziewczyny (Poland) (informal literal title) [pl]
El diario de una joven perdida (Venezuela) [es]
Il diario di una ragazza perduta (Italy) [it]
Kadotetun päiväkirja (Finland) [fi]
Le journal d'une fille perdue (France) [fr]
Le journal d'une jeune fille perdue (Canada: French title) [fr]

Runtime:

104 min | Germany:100 min (restored version) (24 fps) | USA:79 min | 115 min (Kino Print)

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Pabst-Film

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the sheet is removed from the face of the "corpse", she reacts slightly.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (1918)

heavyhanded

This slow-paced film is beautifully shot, and enhanced by the luminous presence of Louise Brooks (as Thymian), who makes a perfect cinematic illustration of innocence under attack. But the direction is so heavyhanded that much of the message is dulled.

The chemist who preys upon Thymian is shown to be an evil lout from his first closeup, so it's hard to understand why she would ever talk to him. The reformatory directors are sadistic caricatures, and Thymian's father and stepmother are exaggerated hypocrites.

The father's acting doesn't help, as it consists mainly of standing in symbolic poses. (Irritatingly, Thymian never blames her father for his awful actions, only her stepmother.) These choices make it hard to take much of the story seriously, although probably many of the events related are based on truth.

Thymian herself can be frustrating to watch. Unluckily, and a bit absurdly, she tends to faint whenever she's confronted with a sexual situation. I assume this was the director's way of making sure viewers didn't blame her for her "fall," but perhaps there's a more interesting Freudian explanation. Twenties-fashion fans will enjoy the scenes in the surprisingly benign whorehouse. But unless you're a Louise Brooks fan or a cinematography student, I can't recommend this melodramatic film.