19 February 2014

Destiny, 1921 - ★★


The German title Der müde Tod translates as "Weary Death" and that would be more appropriate title for these dull and tedious tales. Only the final segment had anything to pique my interest but even then I was hoping Death would be victorious just to bring and end to the misery. I usually try and find something to at least appreciate from an academic perspective but really struggled here. The artistic decision to use illegible fonts (different in each segment) in the intertitles was maddeningly frustrating and stumbling across strange characters or rereading what seemed like dodgy translations broke the flow and often resulted in not reading the full card. Then to make matters worse the intertitles started stating the obvious ("A cockfight", "The Letters"), was this some kind of von Trier type joke to see how far the audience could be pushed?


Apparently inspirational and a favourite of Hitchcock amongst others, it may well be that I was just in the wrong mood or too tired to really appreciate the film.


At least I enjoyed the live score by HarmonieBand.


February 19, 2014 at 12:57PM

No comments: