Die Straße
| Die Straße | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Karl Grune |
| Produced by | Karl Grune |
| Written by | Karl Grune Julius Urgiß |
| Starring |
Eugen Klöpfer Aud Egede-Nissen Max Schreck |
| Cinematography | Karl Hasselmann |
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Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes (2057 metres) |
| Country | German Reich (1919–1933) |
| Language |
Silent film German intertitles |
Die Straße (1923), also known as The Street, is a German silent film, directed by Karl Grune.
This was the first of the German "street" films. Prints of the film do exist, distributed by Transit Film GmbH for commercial screenings, despite claims to the contrary. There are few intertitles throughout the film, adding to the predominantly visual story-telling approach.
It tells the story of one night in which a middle-aged man is lured away from his happy home into the thrills and dangers of the city streets. The city is an expressionistic nightmare, a dangerous and chaotic place. The unfortunate man encounters thieves, prostitutes, and other predators. But the real threat to security and order is the street itself. In one scene, the bumbling man passes an optometrist's shop on a crooked, deserted street. The moment his back is turned, an enormous neon sign of a pair of eyeglasses, blinks on. The street itself is alive and watching.
The movie follows two distinct plot lines until the two eventually merge: the first is that of the bored middle-aged man seeking a departure from monotony in his life; the second is that of the blind man and the little boy, his grandson, who are interdependent. None of the characters have been given names and are therefore referred to only by description.
The film opens with a middle-aged man lying on his couch with a look of discontent as his wife finishes cooking their dinner on a rather uneventful night. As she rushes back and forth setting the table, he sluggishly rises and walks across the room to the window and gazes out onto the busy streets. His wife eventually walks over and gazes too, but quickly sits at the table and begins to eat dinner. The man takes one look at the food and then casually leaves the apartment and begins to wander the streets in search of something exciting.
The scene switches to a man sitting in a chair holding a little boy about four or five years old. Another, younger-looking man enters the room through a door on the left of the screen towards another door on the right of the screen. The little boy jumps from the man's arms to the younger man, and the older man reaches out for him; it is here that we see that the older man is blind. The little boy runs to the younger man and grasps his leg, saying, "Daddy!" He looks at him briefly, then makes a hasty exit. The little boy begins to cry and the blind man sits him up on his lap and comforts him, stroking his hair and talking to him. Then the little boy helps the blind man put on his coat and hat to go out.
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