First things first: I know nothing about the book, I know nothing about the director, and I didn't even notice this film when it came out. There, my ignorance on display.
My problem with this kind of picture is that intimacy is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, thing to get right in cinema. It's not a matter of showing off genitals, it's a matter of chemistry. You must find the right actors, you have to understand how…
A silent film with overtly exaggerated sound effects pointing to Hooper's fascination with image-meddling sounds. Or a cartoon-like accumulation of nonsensical bits of narration orchestrated by the notes of a flamboyant orchestra. Young Hooper wasn't ready for his obsessions yet, but he sure knew their rhythms.
I honestly was afraid I couldn't take a von Sternberg without Dietrich, but this left me completely speechless. I don't even know what to write about it, sorry. I could actually feel the taste of the beer, the smell of the smoke, and the sound of the sea. It's all grounded in a nest of emotions, because romance binds our splendid leads, and still the use of light immerses everything in a dream-like stupor which renders the story an eternal one.
How can you film longing for somebody combined with the idea and (at the same time!) the actual fact of time going by? Don't worry, Griffith already did it.
