LGM Film Club, Part 77: The Man Who Laughs

Pop Matters has an essay on Paul Reni’s incredible 1928 film The Man Who Laughs, one of the creepiest movies ever made. That reminds me to make it a film club post. If you haven’t seen it, you are really missing out on the bonkers nature of late silent film. The thing about sound is that it made the films more fun and relatable and real. But it also significantly hurt the artistic quality of them. Just on things such as set design and cinematography, the 30s became kind of a black hole because the fact that people could now talk erased every incentive for the amazing artistry of the late 20s, most famously in German expressionism, but really through Hollywood too. Check it out: