While the silent era planted the foundation stones for a global film industry which is now worth countless billions, it feels like it’s often dismissed as merely a genre in conversation. When in fact it was cinema, in all its entirety and diversity. The Weimar Republic played host to some of the most influential directors of the era, including Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau and Robert Wiene. The Austrian Georg Wilhelm Pabst released The Love of Jeanne Ney in 1927.
When her father (Eugen Jensen), a French diplomat, is betrayed by the scheming Khalibiev (Fritz Rasp) and subsequently murdered, Jeanne’s (Édith Jéhanne) life is thrown into disarray. She discovers that her lover Andreas (Uno Henning) is a Bolshevik and has to flee to Paris when revolutionaries storm the city. Jeanne goes to live and work with her miserly uncle (Adolph Edgar Licho) but her past is never far behind.
The Love of Jeanne Ney is an epic drama which spans two countries and embodies the turbulence and uncertainties of the time. Playing with a number of cinematic styles, Pabst creates a work which consistently defies expectations and creates some really fascinating sequences. What makes it stand out from most of its peers is the number of different elements at play within The Love of Jeanne Ney. A film which works on many levels.
Special features:
- 1080p presentation on Blu-ray, fully restored with a score by Bernd Thewes
- Optional English subtitles
- Alternate US release version with music by Andrew Earle Simpson
- Too Romantic, Too Ghastly – Brand New video essay by David Cairns and Fiona Watson
- A collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Philip Kemp
The Love of Jeanne Ney is released on Blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment as part of their Masters of Cinema collection on 6 December.
