Else Kramer attempts to steal a diamond from a jeweller, but is caught. She is taken into custody by Wachtmeister Albert Holk, a small-time policeman. He believes her false story and lets her free. After this encounter, they are destined to meet again.
'Asphalt' is a little known German Expressionist film, released at the end of the German Cinema Golden Age of the 1920s. It's one of the final, if not the last, German Expressionist film and is acclaimed by most who watch it. The problem with that is that the core audience of the film is die-hard silent/expressionist film fans, something I am definitely not. I don't dislike the genre, I just haven't seen many of the films.
The Expressionist movement happened during 1920-1929, and was the most exciting thing in silent cinema. These films were long before Citizen Kane, and were the first to show the beauty of the cinema. 'Nosferatu' and 'Metropolis' are the two most known of these films, both of which are seen as important staplemarks of film history and on the IMDB top 250. The truth is no-one has seen Asphalt, and has almost faded into cinematic obscurity.
'Asphalt' plays out like a psychological Film Noir Romantic Thriller, complete with a deceiving femme-fatale and a straight-faced detective (in this case a policeman, but close enough). Even though the ending is different to the typical Film Noir film, the signs are definitely there. The thrilling aspect is present after the stealing of the jewellery. It's not possible to tell quite where the film is going, but it takes a thrilling ride to get there. The romantic part of the film was unexpected, but a welcome change of pace. The film uses lights to its advantage, even though the film is not as beautiful as any of the other German Expressionism films I have seen.
The film could have easily been told in 20 minutes but painfully stretches every action it possibly could. Silent films are more about actions than words, but this was really testing my patience in places. There was so little happening, I drifted off in a few places and when I returned to the film, I had missed absolutely nothing. The acting is decent, although Betty Amann never reaches the heights of Louise Brooks, which she was trying so hard to impersonate. At it's worst, I thought the film was an uninteresting disappointment. There are many good aspects of this film, such as the lighting and the strange turn of events in the finale, however everything has been bettered by other films of the movement.
TO CONCLUDE
For die-hard German Expressionist film fans only. The film contains nothing that makes it wonderful or unique, although it is a part of the most exciting film movement before 1950.
SCORE
69
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