Joyless Street

Short and Sweet

A cross-section of human destinies in Vienna during the inflationary period: In Melchiorgasse, misery and luxury are close together. Here, losers and winners, prostitutes and entrepreneurs, matchmakers and speculators meet. The butcher only gives out his goods in exchange for sexual services. The seamstress runs a club where she pairs young, pretty girls with men. A man who wants to make a fortune on the stock exchange flirts with a wealthy woman.

His former lover, now herself the mistress of a rich businessman, murders the woman out of jealousy. A councilor loses all his money on the stock exchange. His daughter ends up in the seamstress’s brothel. And in the end, the brutal butcher also meets his death, killed by a starving mother.

“The Joyless Street” is a film by director Georg Wilhelm Pabst, made in 1925 in Germany. It is the most famous adaptation of a work by Hugo Bettauer and one of the first films associated with the “New Objectivity” movement. One of the great classics of German silent cinema, it is the only film that the silent film stars Asta Nielsen and Greta Garbo made together: “The Joyless Street” addresses the inflationary period of the 1920s and is one of the most censored films in cinema history.

Action

In the poverty-stricken Melchiorgasse of Vienna in 1921, besides the impoverished citizens and the ragtag proletariat, there are only two wealthy individuals: the butcher Josef Geiringer and Frau Greifer, who runs a fashion salon with an attached nightclub. This nightclub attracts Vienna’s wealthy citizens. Adjacent to the nightclub is the “Merkl” hourly hotel, where women repay loans taken from Frau Greifer with sexual services. While some enrich themselves through stock fraud, others fall into poverty. Meanwhile, a murder occurs, which gradually becomes clear to have been committed by a young woman out of jealousy.

At the end of the film, Else, in despair, kills the butcher because he refuses to give her meat, and the poor residents of the street turn against the rich after hearing noises from the nightclub, beginning to throw stones. The building catches fire, and a destitute couple dies in the flames. By the end, hope of ever escaping Melchiorgasse is only present for Grete Rumfort, who is offered a chance at a better life by an American Red Cross officer.

“The Joyless Street” moves away from expressionist metaphor and addresses the post-war reality marked by inflation. The film’s narrative unfolds across several parallel layers, which are interwoven and ultimately merge. The sets were designed by Hans Söhnle and Otto Erdmann. The film established Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s reputation as a leading director of German film realism. Despite a happy ending, which was filmed as a concession to producers and audiences contrary to the literary source, the film was censored and cut in many countries. The version shown at the premiere on May 18, 1925, in Berlin was still 3738 meters long. On the night before the premiere, Pabst had removed “some important scenes” that the theater owner had criticized.

Music

New Music for Piano and Cinema Organ by Wilfried Kaets. Alternative Music for Solo Piano. The music employs a range of old and new harmonic, rhythmic, melodic, and timbral compositional techniques. It enhances, through its own dynamic layer, the internally turbulent process that simmers beneath the superficially objective surface of human and social structures. The focus is less on happy-ending music and more on social critique using cinematic and audiophile means.

Joyless Street

Short and Sweet

Action

Music

Overview

Actors

Neue Musik für Klavier und Kinoorgel von Wilfried Kaets. Alternative Musik für Klavier solo.