Customer Reviews

Diary of a Lost Girl [VHS]

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This film, made after the highly provacative "Pandora's Box" is somehow sweeter, more tranquile and contemplative in its depiction of a young girl who's lost herself down the wrong tracks. Louise Brooks is at her most beautiful here- I wonder what Pabst was thinking when he planned this film after the release (as in a venting of sexual violence, guilt and idolatry; not the film's release to cinemas) of Pandora's Box. Here Louise plays the victim throughout- not the femme fatale who must die in her own trap in Pandora. Her character- a fine, delicate spirit who must inhabit sorrowfully the vile places of the professional woman companion and hang with the vile men who frequent those places- is possibly the most compelling heroine of the whole silent era.

Following the classic "Pandora's Box", Louise Brooks once again plays a character that is more than a match for her men. Just about every experience a woman can go through in life happens to young Thyamine - rape, birth, death, slavery, prostitution. But she never loses her belief in her own moral strength and superiority and is ultimately trimuphiant.

Louise Brooks in her most challenging part. Innocently pushed in a world of sin and decadence, Miss Brooks gives the peformance of her life. The movie has everything ,all the clichees from orphanage to brothel,but plays with them in a most becoming and ironical way. Nothing is taken to seriously,every other character besides Louise Brooks is played in an almost hysterical and over the top style,but this only more is a testament of Louise Brooks great and very convincing performance.Go and see for yourself

Black and white silent movie with English subtitles. Sound track relevant to the story. Original title "Tagebuch einer Verlorenen"

Thymiane (Louise Brooks) not aware of the relationship her father had with another of his housekeepers Elisabeth (Sybille Schmitz); she is confused as to why the housekeeper had to leave and ultimately why the housekeeper committed suicide. The pharmacist Meinert (Fritz Rasp) downstairs is more than willing to show her what happens when one gets too friendly and does so when Thymiane faints.

This results in an offspring. The father pays the pharmacist's debt in exchange for making an honest woman of Thymiane. However she reneges and holds out for love; naturally this is unacceptable so she and her diary are sent off to a correctional institute for lost girls. Her offspring is handed over to a midwife.

Will her father come to his senses or is he falling prey to his latest housekeeper Meta (Franziska Kinz?)
Will she break out of the oppressive institute or just learn evil ways?
Will her old friend Count Nicolas Osdorff (André Roanne) come to her rescue?
Or will he have problems of his own when he is out cast?

We find ourselves sitting on the edge of our seats, kibitzing even if we saw the movie before.

We are reminded that with a little more love no one on this earth has to be lost.

Pandora's Box - Criterion Collection