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The Love of Jeanne Ney
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Eureka Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (8th December 2021). |
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The Film
 In Crimea to observe the civil war following the Russian Revolution between the Bolsheviks and the White Army, French diplomat Alfred Ney (The Man Who Laughs' Eugen Jensen) comes into possession of a list of suspected Bolsheviks provided by "journalist" Khalibiev (The 3 Penny Opera's Fritz Rasp); and on that list is Andreas (A Cottage on Dartmoor's Uno Henning), the handsome young suitor of his daughter Jeanne (Édith Jéhanne). When Andreas and a confederate show up in the middle of the night demanding the list, Ney fires on them but the confederate fires back and kills the man just before the Red Army takes over the town. In spite of Andreas belonging to the Bolsheviks, Jeanne does not betray him or his confederate even though she believes it was her lover who pulled the trigger. Through another confederate, Andreas arranges for Jeanne to board a boat back to Paris. The same confederate is fond enough of Andreas to arrange for him to be reassigned to Paris weeks after. Returning home, Jeanne appeals to her private investigation firm owner uncle Raymond (Phantom Lady's Adolf E. Licho) for a job and a place to stay. Raymond initially refuses her but, upon realizing that his blind daughter Gabrielle (Metropolis' Brigitte Helm) needs company, he promptly pushes his longtime secretary out the door and puts Jeanne in the position. Andreas' reunion with Jeanne, however, is preceded by the arrival of Khalibiev posing as a nobleman, newspaper editor, and Crimean platinum works owner who approaches Raymond ostensibly on the recommendation of his late brother. Alcoholic Raymond sees a fortune when Khalibiev starts courting Gabrielle. Jeanne does not recognize him as the man who tried to sell out her lover, but she is disturbed when Khalibiev makes aggressive overtures towards her. He explains to Raymond that Jeanne has been after him since Crimea, and Raymond is willing to believe his niece is trouble. Khalibiev already had nefarious plans for Gabrielle, but an even greater temptation comes when one of Raymond's detectives recovers a 23-karat diamond worth 500,000 francs, and he forms a plan that requires a convenient suspect for theft and murder. Taking considerable liberties with the source novel by Ilja Ehrenburg, who hated the result (according to the disc extras), The Love of Jeanne Ney is a hybrid of Eisenstein-ian Soviet montage and Hollywood melodrama whose subjective expressionist touches highly anticipate film noir even if some of the more cynical and fatalistic aspects of the novel are watered down (see the extras below) in favor of a "Hollywood ending." Due to these changes, however, the first act in Crimea seems overlong since the murder of Jeanne's father seems to have little real effect on Andrea's freedom or Jeanne's love for him. Jeanne is also rendered rather passive for the middle of the film but Raspa and Helm make up for it in a film where intertitle dialogue is always secondary to mannerisms and gestures: from Khalibiev's leering and Licho's drunken to Helm's unseeing eyes (particularly effective as she comes across a body we already know is underfoot). The ending as filmed never truly threatens to compromise Jeanne's "honor" as director G.W. Pabst rushes to Khalibiev exposing himself as if he is running out of film. The film is minor Pabst due to its waste of the source material, the alterations of which seem independent of censorship scrutiny. 
Video
Released theatrically in the United States by UFA's own interwar American arm, The Love of Jeanne Ney has had an interesting release history in the English-speaking territories. The film was shot with two cameras to produce two negatives. Negative A went to America while negative B was for the German domestic version. Not only did the American version differ in terms of framing and pacing but also in terms of some plot elements. Alfred Ney is now a diamond dealer who is suspected of having trafficked imperial jewels; thus giving intertitle dialogue to the vague sequence in which Jeanne is interrogated by Red Army soldiers the morning after her father's death and threatened with the sound of traitors before a firing squad outside. The German version has actually been easier to see stateside subsequently since the Museum of Modern Art had a print made from the German negative in 1930 and replaced the German intertitles with English ones. Both negatives have been lost and the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung HD restoration of the German version comes from the MoMA print with the German intertitles reinstated. The American version comes from a Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung archival print as well.  The HD restoration made its debut in Germany from Universum Film in 2018 in a barebones package that featured both versions. An American Blu-ray followed in 2020 from Kino Lorber. Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 pillarboxed widescreen presentations of the German version (106:30) and the American version (86:16) utilize the same masters, and it is obvious that the restoration work went into the German version which has some intermittent wear around reel changes and scratches but it is easy for the casual viewer to assume that the softness of the Crimea scenes is damage or generational loss rather than location filming in misty, rainy terrain. Interiors convey better detail but sunny Paris is where textures really reveal themselves in clothing, hair, and the verité views of Paris in the twenties that few German and American viewers probably could see in real life at the time. Textural differences are more apparent in the night scenes and subjective shots from Raymond's alcohol-addled perspective to Jeanne's vision of her lover at the guillotine. The American version is generally clean and the intertitles appear to be original so presumably Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung added German intertitles to a dupe element rather unlike the MoMA with their ninety-odd year-old print. English subtitles are provided for the German version (which had to replace the MoMA English intertitles with German ones presumably drawing from a censor record or another unused element).
Audio
No complaints about the technical quality of the LPCM 2.0 stereo tracks featuring contemporary scores by Bernd Thewes for the German version and Andrew Earle Simpson for the American version. The Thewes score better fits the rhythmic montage sequences while the Simpson score is dramatically supportive but not a standout. The American version is generally clean and the intertitles appear to be original so presumably Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung added German intertitles to a dupe element rather unlike the MoMA with their ninety-odd year-old print. English subtitles are provided for the German version (which had to replace the MoMA English intertitles with German ones presumably drawing from a censor record or another unused element). 
Extras
While the Kino Lorber disc had a commentary by film historian Eddy von Mueller, Eureka features the more concise visual essay "Too Romantic, Too Ghastly" (25:22) voiced by film historians David Cairns and Fiona Watson. In addition to covering the differences between the source novel and the film – and casting some doubt on Pabst's written response to the author that the changes were all demanded by UFA given parallels in his other work – they also cast the reasons for the film's crime of passion and the attraction for the lovers in the book as an effect of the era's pervasive "radical chic." They also discuss Pabst's visual style, his unsuccessful go at Hollywood, and how his legacy was overshadowed by his making films in Germany during the Nazi regime and how it was only rehabilitated in the latter half of the twentieth century. In discussing the cast, they note that the author of the novel cited Rasp as the only good element of the film (Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl star Louise Brooks was also quite taken with the actor).
Packaging
Packaged with the disc is a collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Philip Kemp that was not provided for review.
Overall
Although it posseses some interesting visuals and experimental editing, The Love of Jeanne Ney is ultimately minor Pabst due to its waste of the source material, the alterations of which seem independent of censorship scrutiny.
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