All Slights Deserved

Given the high regard in which it's held I perhaps had unfair expectations of The Man Who Laughs . Based on Victor Hugo's novel of the same name, like his more celebrated Notre-Dame de Paris it's a historical melodrama with gothic overtones. In the hands of director Paul Leni it becomes an atmospheric romance that sanitises the German Expressionist aesthetic. Although it's actually one of the earliest Universal pictures to incorporate sound elements it has the opulent production standards typical of silent films during this period, with some elaborate sets depicting 18th century London and the court of Queen Anne. But at nearly two hours the story seems stretched to the point of tedium and the characters lack the depth or complexity to make them engaging. Yet Conrad Veidt, an actor who comfortably ranks amongst my all time favourites, delivers a sensitive performance as Gwynplaine, the unfortunate hero who is disfigured as a child in an act of revenge against his ...

While researching world cinema recently I've been reminded how films which may be held in high regard in cine-literate circles are often by no means favourites in their countries of origin. Take Poland for example. If you know anything about its film history you might expect the work of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Andrzej Wajda or even Roman Polanski (though most his work has been produced overseas) to dominate polls. Yet some of the most popular films amongst Poles have been little-known (in the west) comedies such as Seksmisja [ Sexmission ] and Sami swoi [ Our Folks ]. Similarly in India although Satyajit Ray 's work is much acclaimed internationally it's atypical of the national cinema. A far more popular work in its homeland is the epic 1957 melodrama Mother India . It's the story of Radha (Nargis), who as an elderly woman is asked to open a new dam in the village in which she is considered the matriarch. The film then recounts her arrival there as a young bride...

It feels a little disprespectful to have gone nearly a fifth of the way into this odyssey without covering a single film by either of the world's two most populated countries. Hopefully I'll be able to take a look at some Indian cinema next week, but first here's the film that was voted the greatest in Chinese history in a poll by the prestigious Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005. Spring in a Small Town is a melodrama concerning Dai Liyan (Shi Yu) and Zhou Yuwen (Wei Wei), a couple who live with Liyan's effervescent teenage sister Dai Xiu on the outskirts of a small town shortly after the end of the second Sino-Japanese War. Liyan has spent some years recuperating from tuberculosis and, combined with regret for the decline in his family's fortunes, his marriage to Yuwen is stagnant and passionless. Into this setting comes Zhang Zhichen (Li Wei) a doctor and childhood friend of Liyan who, unbeknownst to Liyan, was also Yuwen's sweetheart many years earlier. The for...