Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney

Like Alfred Hitchcock, director G.W. Pabst's films have the feeling of having been created by someone with great technical ability. THE LOVE OF JENNY NEY (DIE LIBE DER JEANNE NEY, Germany, 1927)plays like one of the great Hitchcock films from the sound era. As the so called silent era came to an end the art of cinema seemed to burst into full flower. Look at Murnau's SUNRISE, Vidor's THE CROWD, Seastrom's THE WIND, De Mille's THE KING OF KINGS (to name a few) and it is easy to see why the artist of the day were reluctant to enter the world of "sound". The DVD version of THE LOVE OF JENNY NEY from Kino Video is truly beautiful to look at. The new orchestral score by Timothy Brock is excellent and very effective. Like many of Pabst's films, a little patience is required, as characters and situations only become clear as the story progresses. And this film plays like a classic Hitchcock film -- with innocent people getting deeper and deeper into a web of destruction. This is a film that is even more interesting to watch the second time around. And as noted above, it is truly a text book of what the silent cinema was capable of doing. Brigette Helm, who made such an impression in Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, gives a moving performance as a blind girl pulled into the intrigue. Well worth adding to your collection if you care for great cinema!

I know that G. W. Pabst is a world-famous director, so I know that many will disagree with me on this one, but I truly disliked "Die Lebe der Jeanne Ney". I also know that it has a much more than respectable overall score of 7.9...but I just thought the film was very overrated and there are much better German films of this era. Most of my reasons for disliking the film are because the script is just goofy and makes little sense, but I also thought that the performance of the supposedly blind woman was very poor and I would have expected more of Pabst.

The film begins during the Russian Revolution. Jeanne and her father are there on some sort of diplomatic-type mission and her father laments that the years spent in the country have been a waste of time. At this point, you see Jeanne thinking about her experiences--falling in love with a Communist and her championing of the Bolshevik revolution. This is the sort of plot, by the way, that NEVER would have been allowed just a few years later during the Nazi years--no way would such a film ever see the light of day because it is pro-Communist.

An evil schemer, Khalibiev, has created a list of supposed Communinists and sold it to Mr. Ney. Jeanne's lover comes to Ney to demand the list and in the process he kills his lover's father. Jeanne comes in to see this happen and soon flees to Paris to stay with an uncle. However, and this makes no sense at all, she STILL is in love with her Bolshevik boyfriend--even though she knows he murdered her father--who she supposedly loved!! Who writes this sort of stuff?! Once in Paris, Jeanne is lusted after by her nasty Uncle--who happens to be a private detective. At the same time, her blind cousin is courted by Khalibiev--who ALSO lusts after Jeanne!! Eventually the Uncle is killed by Khalibiev (it's a long story) and Jeanne's Communist lover (who just happens to be in Paris as well--it's odd how NONE of the Russians in the film seem to stay in Russia!!) is implicated. So, it's up to the plucky Jeanne to save the day.

Very little of this movie seems plausible. Mostly it's because of Jeanne's unwillingness to bear some sort of grudge for the murder of her father, but there is still more that makes no sense. Khalibiev is a scoundrel but is so unsubtle and obvious you wonder why it took anyone more than a fraction of a second to suspect him! And as for the blind girl, she needed acting lessons and Pabst did nothing to stop this overacting. Get this....in her own home where she has lived for years, the lady gropes around like she's never been there before AND she never looks towards people when they talk. Had Pabst or this bad actress spent more than a minute or two with a blind person, then they would have realized this was all wrong. Yes, I expect that by 1927 the films had become sophisticated enough that they should have gotten this right.

Overall, the film is a silly trifle and not much more. For a better German silent film, try something by Fritz Lang or F.W. Murnau...or a good film by G. W. Pabst, such as "Die Freudlose Gasse" or "Tagebuch Einer Verlorenen". Or, see and here Pabst's brilliant sound film "Westfront 1918", for that matter.

"After the Russian Revolution, Civil war raged in the Crimea, bringing in its wake chaos and misery and unscrupulous men."

It is after the revolution Jeanne and her father record the events. Looks like her father is on the losing side when the Red Army arrives. He is dispatched and she is sent to Paris. That is where the story of the revolution ends and a good old-fashioned mystery begins, from the loss of a diamond to even possibly murder.

I always knew that the movie was a classic but other than G. W. Pabst (I have quite a few of his films); I just realized that this was from a novel by Ilja Ehrenburg. Looks like I have some reading to do. And I was surprised to see Brigitte Helm (Metropolis - The Creative Man/The Machine Man/Death/The Seven Deadly Sins/Maria). This film has many facets.

Just saw this film and was very impressed with the style and story. Like all the others who have commented, I was immediately drawn in to the story and characters. Even though there were minimal subtitles, the story was not difficult to follow. It is a different way to tell a story where body movement and gestures replace the voice. The orchestral soundtrack was well matched to the mood and action. I had never heard of this film and only found it by accident when searching on whatever became of Bridgit Helm who did not pursue acting after (?) this final film. It is also a historical drama and has interesting details of life in that time. Definitely one of the great films of that era.

Probably the most famous movies focusing on the revolution are David Lean's "Dr. Zhivago" (about a physician caught up in the revolution) and Warren Beatty's "Reds" (about US journalist John Reed, who covered the revolution). A lesser known one is "Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney" ("The Love of Jeanne Ney" in English). The convoluted plot of G. W. Pabst's movie depicts intrigue and treachery in the wake of the revolution, with the titular character - the daughter of a French diplomat - in love with a Bolshevik.

The movie is hard to follow at times; this isn't some Michael Bay movie where you can simply shut your brain off to watch it. Even so, you'll feel fulfilled by the end of it. The only cast member whom I recognized was Brigitte Helm, who that same year played the Machine Man in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis".

Not a masterpiece, but worth seeing.