Isn't Life Wonderful (1924)
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Isn’t Life Wonderful (D.W. Griffith, November 1924) camera Hendrik Sartov, with Carol Dempster, Neil Hamilton and Hans Adalbert von Schlettow (the Giant) for D.W.Griffith Productions / United Artists 1
After a high-flown introduction about love, hope and victory, which make life wonderful, we see that the film takes place in Germany, from the armistice (November 11, 1918) to 1923 and concerns a family of Polish refugees. War, guns at the front, we see plumes of smoke on the battlefield. Behind these events are the leading generals and even further back the autocratic leaders who strive for power and the war profiteers who make a lot of money from this. For them, war may be full of glory. But for the man in the trenches and on the battlefield it is a disaster. ‘The harvest of the war’ consists of the Polish displaced persons who travel along the roads with their belongings, sometimes on crutches. Overcrowded barracks provide shelter for some. But many wait on the streets for a place to live, apathetic, angry. In Copenick, a suburb of Berlin, large groups of people wait on the ground in an alley, while some pull through with a cart. Old women, mothers with children, men and women from the former elite, all packed together. Among them an old Polish professor, a grandmother and Inga, an orphan raised by the professor’s family. Inga, who has grandmother on her lap, is looking forward to the fact that they will have a place to live tomorrow and that Paul, her lover, will soon return from the military hospital. Theodor is the professor’s other son, a studious type with glasses. Aunt is grieving and the professor is absent-minded, eccentric and bewildered. We also see Rudolph, a traveling actor who ended up with the family during their flight from Poland. He hands out the scanty repast, one potato each. Now two men are introduced who will later rob Inga of her greatest possession on earth. Rudolp tries, by playing a homemade string instrument, to cheer up the atmosphere, but the professor, who is sleeping next to him, does not appreciate that. The overall atmosphere is that of boundless apathy.
There are two rooms, one for the men and one for the women and all rooms must be full according to the law occupied. The family moves in with their bag of belongings on their backs. The professor may check the exam papers from the local school. Grandma is sitting in the wheelchair, Rudolph is sitting at the table reading a book and Inga and aunt are sitting on the floor unpacking a suitcase. Theodor works as a waiter in a nightclub to finance his studies at the university. Grandma looks at a picture of the German Emperor, which she furiously tears up. Inga cleans up the scraps. Rudolph moves into the men’s room and tests the bed, but two other men appear behind his back and take over the bed. They don’t understand each other and one of them speaks Russian. He says: ‘This is my bed, don’t touch it.’ Rudolph is stunned. The Russian picks up a large folding knife to reinforce his argument. The two men lie down on the bed to sleep and Rudolph just lies down on the floor.
Word comes that Paul is coming home. He was drafted into the war while still a schoolboy. Paul comes home a wreck and is welcomed by the family. There has been a strong, simple but real love bond between Paul and Inga since their youth. Inga kisses Paul and puts her head on his shoulder. The professor hammers a nail into the wall to hang up his coat, but the coat falls down almost immediately (a funny meant intermezzo). Paul, although still weak from the hardships, tries to find work and succeeds at a shipyard, where he has to do heavy work. Inga has already found work in a women’s fashion store and helps a customer choose a hat, but feels weak from hunger. In her mind’s eye she sees the food (
On Sunday, Paul and Inga go outside. Love makes everything more beautiful. They walk arm in arm along the water and see sailing boats driven by the wind, carrying the smell of the apple harvest from the Baltic coast and they come to a small body of water where three girls and a man playing an accordion sit. It all seems idyllic, but Inga is worried about Paul’s health and fears the future. ‘The Wages of War! Poison gas has caused damage to Paul, he fought, but in vain!’ Paul is lying in bed and is short of breath. The doctor thinks his condition is serious. Inga looks on in bewilderment and calls out to Paul. Aunt takes her aside and tries to comfort her, but Inga is distraught, faints and falls to the ground with a thud (
Later Inga, grandma and aunt are eating potatoes. But the best potato and part of Inga’s own potato go to Paul. Inga looks in the mirror and sees her sunken face. She puts, to fill her cheeks, cotton wool in her mouth. She goes to take care of Paul, wraps him in a cloth and feeds him the potatoes: ‘You must be getting fat, just like me.’ Now that he is recovering, Paul proposes to Inga to get married. And they kiss each other. ‘Oh, Paul, you’re getting better and you, and, oh, isn’t life wonderful!’
Across the hall, Rudolph plays the accordion while his Russian roommates listen. _‘But the gloomy Russian doesn’t like his music and picks up his folding knife. Rudolph does another dance and then flees. Now that Paul is getting better, the family is regaining courage. Theodor goes to work as a waiter at the nightclub. A number of salacious ladies perform a dance there. Their costumes are made of paper. Theodor brings the dirty plates past the club boss, who tells him not to take the leftovers with him. He also searches Theodor’_s pockets. Civilized guests wrap the leftover food in paper and take it home.
In the suburbs, land is allocated where the poor grow vegetables to combat hunger. Houses are also built there from old ammunition boxes. Paul manages to get a plot within the shipyard. ‘You can grow potatoes here.’ Inga works, after her normal day job, in the second-hand store to save for her trousseau. She is repairing a chair there and her salary is paid in second-hand furniture. Inga takes a chair home. Meanwhile, Paul is planting potatoes. To save her expensive stockings, she takes them off at home. Dinner consists mainly of turnips and grandma asks if there is anything else, but there is not. Inga feeds grandma a piece of turnip.
There is an all-consuming indolence in the family. Inga and Paul go to the side room and stand in front of the window in a heavenly moonlight (
‘And then comes the greatest financial disaster: a billion dollars in printed money - the entirety of a Rockefeller - can only buy commodities for one dollar.’
A distraught mother sits on the street with her children. She approaches a passing woman for some food, but then another woman runs up to them and runs off with the food. ‘Two million men lose their jobs within a week.’ A line of women and men waits in front of a store to get food. A police officer keeps order. And then the shopkeeper comes out: ‘There is no more food today’ and the policeman tries to send the people away, but is manhandled by the desperate mob. A little later they smash the windows of the store, when the owner says that nothing is available anymore.
‘Eating turnips threatens grandmother’s health.’ Inga receives her wages today for her work in the women’s fashion store. On the street she walks past ‘three unemployed men who hang around there and with whom Inga’s fate is to be strangely interwoven.’ Inga arrives at the butcher, in front of which there is a whole line, including the police officer, and looks in through the window. There she sees how whole slices of meat are cut off. (but these shot’s do not meet the POV criterion). She sees that the price of beef is RM 8 million per kilo and she runs home happily. She says that there is beef for sale, whereupon Theodor, who works in the nightclub, takes the money out of his pocket. But ‘Inga has to hurry because today’s salary could be worthless tomorrow due to inflation.’ Theodor gives Inga RM 12 million, more than enough. Inga expectantly lines up at the butcher (
The first potato plants are emerging from Paul’s field. Paul and Inga are still undaunted and Paul collects scrap wood from ammunition boxes as building material, while Inga works on her stakeout. Near their house, Paul finds a place where he is building a house. Inga shows grandma what she has saved for her trousseau. But grandma remains negative: ‘No food; nowhere to live - Impossible!’ Paul takes Inga to the assigned plot of land at the shipyard, where he grows potatoes. He apparently hid from her the fact that he was working here, but now he tells her that the potato plants are his own: _‘In three weeks we can dig the potatoes and they are all ours.’_Inga is very pleased with this and she snuggles close to Paul. But outside the shipyard gate, men are already looking for food. Paul takes Inga on a two-hour walk to a kind of allotment garden with houses and surprises her with a self-built house. Inga is wildly enthusiastic and kisses the doorframe. Her name is above the front door: Inga. Inga embraces Paul. A neighbor gives Inga her chickens.
Theodor serves some American guests in the nightclub, who are dissatisfied about the food . Theodor protests and the guest says: ‘Do you really mean that this rubbish would be a treat for your family?’ And he orders from the manager ‘all the liver sausage you have in the house.’ The man is astonished and receives a billion Reichsmarks from the guests plus a tip. And the guest says to Theodor: ‘This is for your family, with a kiss’, packs the sausages and puts them in Theodor’s pocket.
Inga walks her chickens, albeit on a leash, on the meadows at the foot of a mill and caresses the chickens (a strange action). And here come the unemployed men we saw earlier. Strangely enough, Inga does not feel threatened by the lurking men. But the men say to each other: ‘Not now!’ Meanwhile, Paul comes in through the back door and asks father and grandmother: ‘Where is Inga?’ and immediately goes looking for her. Theodor walks past the place where Inga walks the chickens. He has his prized possession in his briefcase and shows her the liver sausage. Inga is jumping with joy. Now Paul also arrives and Theodor also shows him the sausage and tells him about the American. The three embrace each other with joy and go home jumping with joy, where they enter through the back door. Paul has harvested a bag full of potatoes and together with the liver sausage and the egg that the chicken has laid, they can prepare a feast. Inga immediately shows the chicken egg to grandmother: it is intended for her.
The family is sitting at the table and expects to eat turnips again. But Inga, Paul and Theodor are cooking in the kitchen. When they are done, the three sit down somberly at the table with the rest of the family: ‘Turnips again!’ says Aunt. But then Paul puts a bowl of boiled potatoes on the table. Aunt, grandma and the professor can’t believe their eyes and want to start eating. But Theodor says: ‘Wait a moment’ and takes out the liver sausage. Now the company is completely jubilant and they start serving up potatoes, while Theodor cuts and distributes the liver sausage. Grandma says: ‘Isn’t life wonderful.’ The professor is so happy that he almost chokes on the food. He has to look up to lower it. Inga also warns Rudolph and two other neighbors across the hall that they can join for dinner. Rudolph quickly puts a few potatoes in his pocket.
An old song for grandma, a memory of the old days in Poland. The table is put aside and they dance to accordion music: Inga with Paul and the professor with Aunt. And there is a dance around grandma in the wheelchair. Inga says to Paul: ‘Let’s tell them now!’ Inga tells grandma, aunt and the professor: ‘Paul built a house for us. And we have enough potatoes to get you and us through the whole winter, can we get married now?’ While the dancing continues, grandma gets out of her wheelchair and walks with a package under her arm to the side room, where she offers Inga her own wedding dress, which she has suitably altered for Inga. Inga is overjoyed, embraces grandma and kisses her. A little later she put on the wedding dress. Paul thinks the dress is beautiful and kisses Inga. Meanwhile, Rudolph, who plays the accordion, performs an acrobatic dance, during which he falls a few times.
Outside, starvation is looming and the wife of one of the three unemployed men we saw earlier blames her husband for not doing enough to prevent it. The tall man, the ‘Giant’, whose clothes hang loose around his body due to weight loss, loves his wife very much and says: ‘I will arrange something!’ The next day, a large group of residents decide to take strong measures, because they are in desperate need of food. ‘Food is being hidden. The profiteers withhold that. Why don’t we get it?’ Meanwhile, Paul and Inga are on their way to their field to harvest the potatoes on which their marriage depends. Black marketers can make a lot of money by secretly selling meat or potatoes to the rich (the analogy comes to mind with the Russian ‘bag men’ who transported food in bags from the countryside to the cities. In Russian they were мешочники (meshochniki), sack bearers). The group of residents encounters a few men carrying bags along the way and take the bags from them. But it turns out there is only hay in it. Mission failed! These were not profiteers. In an image surrounded by a black vignette (
Inga and Paul immediately go to dig potatoes in their field until the cart is full. Inga lovingly embraces Paul, after which they head home. There is still a group of hungry men in the forest. Paul and Inga, in an image surrounded by an oppressive black vignette, travel through the forest (
Inga and Paul lie on the ground near the looted car. Inga gets up and crawls to Paul, who lies motionless on the ground. But Paul is also now showing signs of life and Inga helps him up. Paul has a pain in his head and Inga says: ‘Oh, Paul, I thought they had beaten you to death. Paul asks: ‘Did they take all the potatoes? Inga looks into the cart and turns sadly to Paul: ‘Are you very sorry, Paul?’ ‘No, that’s not important. And Inga says: ‘After all, I still have you, and you have me and that’s the most important thing, isn’t it? Look, the moon!’ Inge embraces Paul and says: ‘Oh, Paul, you have escaped them and I still have you. Oh, isn’t life wonderful!’ ‘Wonderful!’ says Paul.
A year later, children are playing in the ‘Allotment complex’. And there is the house that Paul built. The whole family, Theodor, grandmother, aunt and the professor accompany Paul and Inga to their new house. Inga has a bouquet of flowers and a chicken in her hands. ‘Now there are enough potatoes for everyone!’ And Inga helps grandma into the house. The end.
Mental POV:
- Inga is weakened by hunger and sees food in her mind’s eye (
00:19:07 ): a steaming chicken. - The price of beef goes to RM 9 million. Inga counts her money: she can still pay it. She thinks (mental POV
00:52:52 ) of her family and especially of her weakened grandmother. - The ‘Giant’ is having a hard time and sees his hungry wife, whom he has promised to return with food, in his minds eye (mental POV
01:46:57 ).
Eyeball POV:
Paul and Inga pull their cart through the forest. They have to stop for a moment and wipe the sweat from their faces. They look at the tree branches and kiss each other. Meanwhile, the men are lurking and this intimate scene between Paul and Inga is presented as a reverse eyeball POV scene through the eyes of the attackers (
Vignette:
This film makes extensive use of vignette:
- In an image surrounded by a black vignette (
01:30:10 ), Paul and Inga pull their cart through the forest. The black te vignette implies a threat. - Paul and Inga, in an image surrounded by an oppressive black vignette, travel through the forest (
01:39:40 ). - The oppressive black vignette at
01:41:34 clearly illustrates the threat.
Tracking shot:
Paul and Inga pull their cart through the forest. From
Acoustic coupling:
- Inga is distraught, faints and falls to the ground with a thud (
00:24:18 ). Aunt responds at00:24:22 to the thud (acoustic coupling with a four-second delay) and lifts Inga off the floor with the doctor’s help. - One of the lurking men laughs at their behavior (
01:41:08 ) and Inga hears it and responds (acoustic coupling01:41:12 )
Carol Dempster
The chemistry between Carol Dempster and Neil Hamilton, during the scene in the woods, makes Carol Dempster for the first time, unlike in all her other films, a credible and endearing actress.