USA
Erich von Stroheim
Finally, an American film! This film was well ahead of its time. It was made in 1929, and dealt with issues of prostitution, adultery, pre-marital sex, and even had some forms of nudity! The humor was pretty quirky and risque for its time, again. If you don't like silent films, maybe this one isn't for you, but it doesn't really feel like a silent film in the sense that it doesn't have cheesy music playing over people doing sped-up outrageous actions. What I thought was interesting was the film was originally meant to run for about 3 hours but something happened, and the way I watched it was with stills at the end to finish the story.
The story is pretty much a girl from a convent (Kelly) runs into a free-spirited, drink-loving Prince who is meant to marry a controlling, crazy queen. The prince quickly falls for Kelly and goes to steal her from the convent and bring her back to the queen's palace. The queen finds out and banishes her, then the girl receives a letter from her aunt in South Africa who is dying and sends for her. When Kelly gets to South Africa, she is forced to marry a dirty old man and instead turns to prostitution.
Pretty intense, right? For 1929, I'd say so! Really quite interesting to see. The cinematography was pretty interesting, and they did good things with the camera. Worth watching, I'd say. Out there, but awesome. Pretty funny ending, too.
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