Shawn Hall When most people think of German silent cinema, the mind often jumps to the bold stylization of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or the gothic horror of Nosferatu. But alongside the Expressionist movement, another style was taking shape that aimed to depict reality with unflinching honesty. G.W. Pabst’s Joyless Street (1925) stands as a defining example of this alternative: a sobering, realist depiction of economic despair in postwar Vienna, and was voted #93 on Silent Era’s Top 100 Silent Movies List, which I’m reviewing as part of a bi-weekly series sharing whether I agree with each film’s inclusion on the list.
True to its title, Joyless Street follows the lives of three women living in a tenement on a single street in early 1920s Vienna. These women are consumed by poverty and hunger, eventually turning to various forms of prostitution to survive and support their families. Much of the action takes place on this single street, where the tenement’s working-class residents intermingle with the wealthy aristocrats at a nearby hotel.
The empty, cold street versus the comfortable lodgings of the street’s hotel.
This direct contrast between social classes exposes the greed and apathy of the wealthy. This stark juxtaposition of abject poverty beside opulent indulgence isn’t just a dramatic device but a fairly accurate reflection of the real social tensions gripping Germany and Eastern Europe in the years following World War I.
Visually, Joyless Street departs from Expressionism’s distorted dreamscapes and embraces the clear-eyed vision of New Objectivity. This artistic movement, reacting against Expressionism, sought to depict the world not as it felt, but how everyday people experience it. Pabst embraced this philosophy in every aspect of his film, from the dark, foreboding shadows of nighttime scenes to the carefully designed interiors of the lavish hotel.
The butcher is looking for only deals in flesh.
These design choices underscore the bleak division between rich and poor. The film looks and feels grounded in reality without shielding the audience from not just poverty but prostitution as well. Because of this frank portrayal of these controversial subjects, Joyless Street faced widespread censorship. Across Europe and especially in the United States, it was cut down significantly from its original three-hour runtime.
Today, the most widely available version in the U.S. is just one hour long. It centers almost entirely on Greta Garbo’s character, while the stories of the other two women are almost entirely removed. While the hour cutdown version deleted many of the more controversial scenes, it mainly circulated in truncated form to profit off Garbo’s rising star, who arrived in Hollywood shortly after Joyless Street, launching a legendary career at MGM.
Move over Asta & Ágnes. Here comes Garbo.
Ranked number 93 on Silent Era’s Top 100 Silent Movies list, Joyless Street is undeniably important in German film history. It showcases Pabst’s command of mood and social commentary and captures an early performance from a soon-to-be star.
That said, I personally wouldn’t include it in my own top 100. The film’s commitment to realism, while admirable, sometimes comes at the expense of deeper character development. Over nearly two and a half hours, the audience is left primarily with a sense of pity, rather than a deeper emotional connection to the characters. We understand their suffering, but not their inner lives.
Next up on the list, I’ll be looking at a very different German silent film: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
