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Sunday, Feb 10, 2019
4 PM (94 mins)
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BAMPFA
SUBJECTS
Asphalt
Albert Steinrück, Betty Amann, Else Heller, Gustav Fröhlich,
Often overshadowed by his contemporaries like Ernst Lubitsch or F. W. Murnau, the German Expressionist director Joe May is most widely recognized for two things: helping Fritz Lang enter the film business, and directing the 1929 city-symphony proto-noir Asphalt. The film’s classic noir plot—a gorgeous petty thief seduces a straitlaced cop, and soon both are over their heads in trouble—plays out in a whirl of Berlin traffic, dizzying camerawork, rapid-fire editing, and Expressionist set designs and lighting. A technical triumph, Asphalt was one of the silent era’s last hurrahs, and a summation of German Expressionist style.
FILM DETAILS
Screenwriter
- Joe May
- Hans Székely
- Rolf E. Vanloo
Cinematographer
- Günther Rittau
Language
- Silent
- with German intertitles and English e-titling; music track
Print Info
- B&W
- DCP
- 94 mins
Source
- Murnau-Stiftung
CINEFILES
CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.
View Asphalt documents
Asphalt (program note), London Film Festival, Clyde Jeavons, 2007
Silent film : Asphalt (program note), Berlin and Beyond, 2005
Asphalt (program note), National Film Theatre (London, England), David Shipman, 1985
Asphalt (review), Variety, Waly., 1930
'Asphalt' (review), Variety, C. Hooper Trask, 1929
Dr. Mabuse the gambler (distributor materials), Kino International Corporation
Asphalt (credits), Frieda Grafe
Asphalt (book excerpt)
Displaying 8 of 8 publicly available documents.