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THE ACTUAL
direction. With the deepest interest one followed this child's thoughts; the scene of the flowers at the dinner-table; the mixing of the drinks; the scene at the boarding-school when she received the letter from her father; her joyous attempts to cross the frontier when she ran away from school; her wanderings in the hills, the cattle by the roadside all this was most beautifully and truthfully done. Suddenly, about this point, the film achieved sheer Elizabethan crossdressing comedy. Renee was mistaken for a boy and taken to Florence by an artist and his sister. Admittedly, in themselves, these latter sequences were delightful, but they were isolated from Czinner's opening and the main body of the film. It has even been suggested that they might have been a portion of another film, so different was their feeling. Nevertheless, despite this inconsistency, The Violinist of Florence deserved more appreciation than it was accorded. The third Czinner production, Donna Juana, made for the newly formed Elizabeth Bergner Poetic Film Company (in association with Ufa for distribution), was a light, romantic costume film, adapted from some old Spanish sketches by Tirso de Molina. Following the cross-dressing motive of the last portion of The Violinist of Florence, this film was typically Shakespearean, Elizabeth Bergner playing a sort of Viola role, fighting a duel with her lover, and so forth. The poetic atmosphere of Spain, exquisitely photographed by Karl Freund, pervaded this new work of Czinner, which was utterly charming in both conception and realisation. Miss Bergner was again supported by Walter Rilla, who played in the former film, and by the delightful Erna Morena. Following Donna Juana, Czinner directed his own adaptation of Honore Balzac's 'DuchessedeLangeais,' for the Phoebus Film Company, renaming it UHistoire des Treize. Miss Bergner again played the lead, whilst Hans Rehman and Agnes Esterhazy supported her. Once more Czinner revealed his genius in direction, although as a whole the film was not of equal value to the earlier productions. Before coming to the Elstree studios to direct Miss Pola Negri for the Whitaker production unit, Czinner made a version of Arthur Schnitzler's Frdulein Else, his last film with Elizabeth Bergner. This, like Donna Juanna and UHistoire des Treize, has not been shown in England. Czinner may be reckoned as a director of considerable distinction, quite unGerman in character, who, like Pabst, has an interest in natural individuals. His touch is light, fragile, and essentially poetic.
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