The Joyless Street

Pabst's record of the process of destitution in the middle classes of Vienna in the '20s (from the novel by Hugo Bettauer) was banned in Britain when first released. As such, it later came as a major revelation, both when compared with Pabst's later work and in the context of the development of a film narrative able to accommodate a large number of characters. Its squalid realism is given conviction by a sureness of technique and a sensuousness of imagery, continually creating contrasts between the misery of the have-nots and the uncaring gaiety of the champagne- swilling affluent, the threadbare and the luxurious. (Original length: 12,264 ft.