Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

THE THREEPENNY OPERA 117 films never fail to be interesting, and those in The Threepenny Opera prove no exception to the rule. To instance a small detail of the picture, the chance meeting of Mackie Messer and the stray street-girl after the former has escaped from the brothel is one of the most amazingly well-handled incidents that I have ever seen on the screen. How it is contrived I do not pretend to know, but Pabst extracts the very last ounce of meaning out of the scene. The enticement of the woman and her physical magnetism are brought out in all their human strength despite the fact that she herself is far from being attractive in the ordinary sense of the word. Similarly, Messer's indifference gradually turning to fascination is remarkable. An effect of cynicism is not gained wholly by acting, but by Pabst's rendering of the scene, by his choice of angles and by his deep psychological understanding of the elements of the situation. The scene in itself is an admirable example of his close penetration into the depths of human behaviour, and the way in which he recreates an ordinary human experience on the screen. Further evidence of this extraordinary quality abounds in the film, as in the diverting women of the brothel, the scenes in the cafe, the wonderful reunion between Jenny the Whore and Mackie Messer, and the treatment of Polly throughout. To any close observer of Pabst's outlook, these are in direct tradition with certain scenes in Pandora's Box, Jeanne Ney> Westfront 1 91 8, Crisis and The Diary of a Lost Girl. I stress this fondness Pabst has for employing unusual types of women because I believe both the American and British executive-committees would do