The Marriage Circle - A 1924 Silent Film Directed by Ernst Lubitsch- 1 hour 34 minutes

 

Available on YouTube 

Ernst Lubitsch 

Born: January 29, 1892, Berlin, Germany - produces 65 silent films before moving to America

1922 Moves to Hollywood- Warner Pictures Signed him to a three year six picture contract

Died: November 30, 1947, Los Angeles, California, United States

Lubitsch directed two of my favourite movies, Ninotchka and To Be or Not to Be

The Marriage Circle stars Monte Blue and Florence Vidor as a married couple whose lives are thrown into disarray when the wife's best friend begins to flirt with the husband. The film is also notable for its use of innuendo and double entendre, which Lubitsch would become known for in later films.

The Marriage Circle was a critical and commercial success, and it helped to launch Lubitsch's career in Hollywood. It is now considered to be a classic of silent cinema.

Here are some of the things that make The Marriage Circle (1924) so special:

Lubitsch's direction: Lubitsch was a master of visual storytelling, and he uses his camera to great effect in The Marriage Circle. He is particularly adept at using suggestion and innuendo, and he often leaves things to the viewer's imagination.

The performances: The film features a number of strong performances, including Monte Blue, Florence Vidor, and Adolphe Menjou. Vidor is particularly memorable as the wife who is torn between her husband and her best friend.

The humor: The Marriage Circle is a very funny film, but the humor is often subtle and sophisticated. Lubitsch is a master of timing and delivery, and he gets the most out of his actors.

The romance: Despite the film's lighthearted tone, there is also a genuine sense of romance between the two leads. Lubitsch is able to capture the chemistry between them, and he makes the viewer believe that they are truly in love.

Films by German directors are an important part of post World War One German Culture, from the groundbreaking silent classics of the Weimar Republic to the movies of Leni Reisenthal in celebration of Nazi rule, beloved by Goebels, to modern Oscar winners, I am pleased to see German Literature Month XIII now welcomes posts on Films by German Directors

This is a post for German Literature Month XIII 2023 November 1 to December 7

German Literature Month is hosted by Lizzy’s Literary Life

https://lizzysiddal2.wordpress.com/2023/09/22/announcing-german-literature-month-xiii/

 

Badia’s Magic Water - A Short Story by Maya Abu Al-Hayat Translated by Yasmine Seale - 2021 - Included in The Book of Ramallah- A City in Short Fiction- edited and introduced by Maya Abu Al-Hayat

"Badia's Magic Water" - A Short Story by Maya Abu-Hayat Translated by Yasmine Seale - 2021 - Included in The Book of Ramallah- A City in Short Fiction- edited and introduced by Maya Abu Al-Hayat


The City of Ramallah, population about 70,000, is located in the West Bank area of Palestine, has become a focal point of world wide media This Anthology was published prior to the initiation of the current conflict. In the very informative elegant introduction Maya Abu Al-Hayat tells us the literary history of the city going back to the 16th century up to 2021. She has selected a quite diverse range of stories but each one is informed by the impact of violence brought upon the city from Isreal. The time eras of the stories range from the 1960s to 2021 so political arrangements may vary in stories.

One thing that has happened for 1000s of years is young men armed against much weaker opposition often turn into petty tyrants and sadists. This is magnified when those in authority dehumanise the enemy.


Today's story, "Badia’s Magic Water" by Maya Abu Al-Hayat, editor of the collection, is a very powerful unflincing look at the life of a woman, Badia, dedicated to her job of washing the bodies of women who have either died in the Ramallah hospital in which she works or died as a patient. (As I read the story I thought of hospitals bombed in the current conflict. People wishing only to live killed in a war they did not start.)


As Badia washes the bodies, a very important ritual but not a job many want, she wonders about the lives of the women. Badia has developed a magic water that can, many believe, cure illness. When a young woman whose body is unclaimed, Badia sees she has had a child. She wonders if the father poisoned her to get rid of the baby. She is drawn to memories of her own experiences long ago.


"This was in the days of the First Intifada. They got engaged, entered university together, stole moments in rented cars on the roads between the city centre and the university in Birzeit. Those rendezvous were even sweeter than those at the house of her friend, who had not yet become Umm Salama. But Osama was killed in a flash, leaving her with a gift in her stomach. Had her mother not noticed what was happening, she herself would have been killed long ago. Badia does not like to remember how she got out of that disaster. Her mother was clever enough to save her from death, but the foetus died after birth – boy or girl, her mother wouldn’t say and she did not ask. She had felt delivered of a heavy burden when her mother told her it was dead and disappeared into the corridor of the private hospital in Jerusalem which she had snuck her into, with the help of a women’s association specialised in protecting girls of this type.

A terrible void took the place of the disaster. A void from chest to womb that has stayed with her ever since. She has filled it with laughter, with solving the problems of her colleagues, washing the dead, this occupation she walked into after her mother died and she could not find a woman in the hospital to wash and shroud her. She took on the task herself, unafraid. It gave her a serenity she had not had before, a tremendous sense of calm. All of which made her leap to accept a job offer washing the dead. Since that day she has contented herself with a simple life spent observing the sorrows and joys of others"




This a great short story.











Maya Abu Al-Hayat is a Beirut-born Palestinian novelist and poet living in Jerusalem, but working in Ramallah. She has published two poetry books, numerous children’s stories and three novels, including her latest No One Knows His Blood Type (Dar Al-Adab, 2013). She is the director of the Palestine Writing Workshop, an institution that seeks to encourage reading in Palestinian communities through creative writing projects and storytelling with children and teachers. She contributed to, and wrote a forward for A Bird is Not a Stone: An Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Poetry, and is the editor of Comma's Book of Ramallah. - from Comma Press

I feel compelled to share this poem with my readers




"After" A poem by Maya Abu Al-Hayat- Translated by Fady Joudah

What do we do with secrets that remained secret,

with heaping corpses inside us

waiting to completely rot,

with a brimming happiness in smiles

no mirror reflected,

your love

that comes only after love has ended,

with reconciliation

after spatting lovers have died,

and devotion after the means

have become plenty . . .

what do we do with the roads

after the disappearance of paths

behind our hands, and after the discovery of lips

and all that’s left

Mel Ulm

The Horse’s Wife - A Short Story by Ahlam Bsharat Translated by Emre Bennett - 2021 - Included in The Book of Ramallah- A City in Short Fiction- edited and introduced by Maya Abu Al-Hayat

 

The City of Ramallah, population about 70,000, is located in the West Bank area of Palestine, has become a focal point of world wide media This Anthology was published prior to the initiation of the current conflict. In the very informative elegant introduction Maya Abu Al-Hayat tells us the literary history of the city going back to the 16th century up to 2021. She has selected a quite diverse range of stories but each one is informed by the impact of violence brought upon the city from Isreal. The time eras of the stories range from the 1960s to 2021 so political arrangements may vary in stories.

One thing that has happened for 1000s of years is young men armed against much weaker opposition often turn into petty tyrants and sadists. This is magnified when those in authority dehumanise  the enemy.

Ahlam Bsharat’s story is set much closer to the present day, in the current pandemic, and the only one in the book set wholly indoors. It depicts the isolation of a woman who has left her village to work in Ramallah, now living alone in a flat in Umm Al-Sharayet, one of Ramallah’s more run-down neighbourhoods. Denied the love and companionship of an ordinary relationship, she embarks on an affair with a horse. In the surrealism of Bsharat’s well-woven tale we could be forgiven for thinking this love story is the city’s only reality.

Ahlam Bsharat is a Palestinian writer who grew up in a village in Northern Palestine. She completed her Master’s Degree in Arabic Literature at An-Najah National University in Nablus. Besides poetry, picture books, short stories, novels, and memoirs, she has written a number of television and radio scripts. Her books have received many awards and recommendations. Ismee Alharakee Farasha (Code Name: Butterfly) was included in the IBBY Honor List for 2012, a biennial selection of outstanding, recently published books from more than seventy countries. Ismee Alharakee Farasha and Ashjaar lil-Naas al-Ghaa’ibeen (Trees for the Absentees) were both runners up for the Etisalat Award For Children’s Arabic Literature in 2013. Code Name: Butterfly was shortlisted for the UK-based Palestine Book Awards in 2017.

Mel Ulm 

City Girl is a 1930 American silent film directed by F. W. Murnau, and starring Charles Farrell and Mary Duncan. It is based upon the play "The Mud Turtle" by Elliot Lester. Though shot as a silent feature, the film was refitted with some sound elements and released in 1930

 Available on YouTube 

Edit City Girl is a 1930 American silent film directed by F. W. Murnau, and starring Charles Farrell and Mary Duncan. It is based upon the play "The Mud Turtle" by Elliot Lester. Though shot as a silent feature, the film was refitted with some sound elements and released in 1930.

F.W. Murnau, (born December 28, 1889, Bielefeld, Germany)

Moved to California in 1926 - he made three silent films for Fox Studios before forming his own company 

—died March 11, 1931, Hollywood, California, - from injuries in an Automobile accident 

City Girl was shot on location in Athena and Pendleton, Oregon, and was Murnau's third and final Hollywood production. It was released shortly after the introduction of sound films, and was quickly shelved. As a result, the film is relatively unknown today.

However, City Girl is a beautiful and moving film that deserves to be rediscovered. It is a simple story, but it is told with great skill and sensitivity. The film's performances are excellent, and Murnau's direction is masterful.

The acting is emotional and effective, and the cinematography is breathtaking. In spite of the exceptionality of the film, it wasn't a success at the time of its release. However, that can likely be explained by the fact that the version we are seeing today is as director F.W. Murnau intended - a gloriously beautiful silent narrative. Unfortunately, what the audiences saw in 1930 was a bastardized version that had talkie sequences added and comedy inserted -- all after Murnau refused to make any changes to his silent creation. 

There is an excellent plot summary on the link below 

https://www.silentsaregolden.com/featurefolder10/citygirlcommentary.html

Films by German directors are an important part of post World War One German Culture, from the groundbreaking silent classics of the Weimar Republic to the movies of Leni Reisenthal in celebration of Nazi rule, beloved by Goebels, to modern Oscar winners, I am pleased to see German Literature Month XIII now welcomes posts on Films by German Directors

This is a post for German Literature Month XIII 2023 November 1 to December 7

German Literature Month is hosted by Lizzy’s Literary Life

https://lizzysiddal2.wordpress.com/2023/09/22/announcing-german-literature-month-xiii/

 

Sumurun (One Arabian Night) - A 1920 German Silent Movie Directed by Ernst Lubitsch- 1 Hour 42 Minutes- starring Pola Negri

 Available on YouTube 

Ernst lubitsch 

Born: January 29, 1892, Berlin, Germany - produces 65 silent films before moving to America

1922 Moves to Hollywood- Warner Pictures Signed him to a three year six picture contract

Died: November 30, 1947, Los Angeles, California, United States

Lubitsch directed two of my favourite movies, Ninotchka and To Be or Not to Be.

"Only Negri—very beautiful—and the majestic Paul Wegener, with his riveting Tartar features, manage to make any impression at all. As with the fling with Egyptiania represented by The Eyes of the Mummy Ma, an Arabian Nights setting is simply not Lubitsch material. Except for a few moments—eunuchs sitting in a geometrically perfect row formation—the film is bereft of the director’s typical playfulness; at this still-developing stage of his career, he lacks the flair needed to integrate a dramatic narrative with such a frankly fanciful, fairy-tale environment.' From Ernst Lubitsch Laughter in Paradise by Scott Eyman 

I imagine Edward Said would find Sumurun an example of "orientalism".

Sumurun is a lavish and exotic tale of love, betrayal, and revenge set in the Arabian desert.

Sumurun tells the story of a beautiful slave girl who falls in love with a cloth merchant. However, the jealous hunchback Yeggar (played by Lubitsch himself) also desires her and makes things difficult for the couple.

The film is based on a pantomime by Friedrich Freksa and was highly praised by critics in Germany. It was described as a "cinematic journey into a universe of emotions and passions of great intensity and utter perfection, with a remarkable Ernst Lubitsch in one of the main roles."

Get Out of My House - A Short Story by Ziad Khadash- Translated by Raph Cormack 2021 - Included in The Book of Ramallah- A City in Short Fiction- edited and introduced by Maya Abu Al-Hayat

 The City of Ramallah, population about 70,000, is located in the West Bank area of Palestine, has become a focal point of world wide media  This Anthology was published prior to the initiation of the current conflict. In the very informative elegant introduction Maya Abu Al-Hayat tells us the literary history of the city going back to the 16th century up to 2021. She has selected a quite diverse range of stories but each one is informed by the impact of violence brought upon the residents of Ramallah by contacf with Isrealis.

‘Get Out of my House’, tells of a man who comes home to find a strange woman in his house who is adamant that it’s her house and that he has to leave before her husband returns. Here we glimpse the ephemeral life of the refugee, returning from his home in the camp, leaving his library behind to be ruined by soldiers going through his stuff, and living alone in a city he doesn’t belong where he has to continually prove his identity or his innocence.

There are numerous ways of trying to escape mentally from a Chaotic dangerous environment over which you have little control. In this story we see how this attempt can destroy mental health 

Ziad Khadash is a Palestinian writer. He was born in 1964 in the village of Beit Nabala, and lives in the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah. Khadash holds a BA in Arabic literature from the University of Jordan and works as a creative writing teacher in schools in Ramallah. He is author of 12 short story collections, the most recent of which was Overwhelmed by Laughter (House of Everything, Haifa). His story ‘Wonderful Reasons to Cry’ was shortlisted for the 2015 Kuwaiti Al-Multaqa Prize for the Short Story.

Mel Ulm

 

Secrets Stroll the City’s Streets - A Short Story by Ahmed Jaber- Translated by Adam Talib 2021 - Included in The Book of Ramallah- A City in Short Fiction- edited and introduced by Maya Abu Al-Hayat

 The City of Ramallah, population about 70,000, is located in the West Bank area of Palestine, has become a focal point of world wide media attention. It is under the control of Isreal. This Anthology was published prior to the initiation of the current conflict. In the very informative elegant introduction Maya Abu Al-Hayat tells us the literary history of the city going back to the 16th century up to 2021. She has selected a quite diverse range of stories but each one is informed by the actions of isreali in the city.

One thing that has happened for 1000s of years is young men armed against much weaker opposition often turn into petty tyrants and sadists. This is magnified when those in authority dehumanise the enemy.

Today's story, " Stroll the Streets" by Ahmed Jaber, four pages, is narrated in a very creative fashion. The city of Ramallah is speaking to the reader as well as a street sweeper going about his day. Maybe it is in the mind of the sweeper caused by his great love for Ramallah.  I found it gratifying to follow him on his rounds.  He has a limp and we learn why: 

""He examines the empty streets, which remind him of the First and Second Intifadas. These streets were full of rocks and planks and the remains of burnt tyres back then. He remembers the days and nights he’d spent fighting to keep the Israeli Army Jeeps from entering the city. He thinks about everything he did for me, the city he loves. How he defended me as a resistance fighter and how a bullet in his upper thigh had caused the limp he has now, how he refused to leave me to go work in the Gulf, and how these days he wakes up earlier than most of his neighbours in order to get me ready to meet them like a son changing places with his mother."

Ahmad Jaber holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering and is a winner of the Abdul Qattan Foundation Award for Young Writer 2017 for his story collection Mr. Azraq in the Cinema. He has published stories in many local websites and newspapers.

Mel Ulm