Telle est la vie

This is one of the few acclaimed films that I've also adopted as a true favorite that I can watch over and over again. I mean the silent version, of course, because the sound version is ridiculous (paying to the 1959 aesthetics, which unfortunately created a real 30-year gap between image and movement that cannot be bridged). Everything is real in the apartment of the disheveled washerwoman and the coal miner. Excellent acting opportunities were taken advantage of by the entire cast, from the big roles (the beautifully sweaty Pištěk or the tormented Baranovská) to the episodes of the stylish Kysilková with her or the neighbor Plachta. Best of all is Máňa Ženíšková and her study with Mary Pickford decorations. I'd work that kind of misery in a heartbeat. I mean in Prague, of course, not in the anonymous city where the story is mistakenly set by some historians. There is only one Charles Bridge after all. Of course, I also recommend the loose sequel -...and Life Goes On... (1933-5) with the wonderful Ita Rina. (19/02/2009)