Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)

 G.W. Pabst's "Diary of a Lost Girl"


After working with Louise Brooks in "Pandora's Box," G.W. Pabst decided to work with her once again the same year for "Diary of a Lost Girl." The film continues to showcase the naturalism that Louise Brooks emits on screen. Despite it retrospectively falling short of the heights that "Pandora's Box" reaches, "Diary of a Lost Girl" still manages to showcase just how talented Louise Brooks is, as well as demonstrate similar themes of oppression.

The film centers on Thymian, the daughter of a wealthy pharmacist, Robert Henning. After Henning impregnates their maid, she winds up dead in a river, having committed suicide. The new housekeeper, Meta, sees an opportunity to move in and become pregnant by Henning as well. However, her plans are to take part in his wealth. After Thymian gets raped by her father's assistant, Meinert, she becomes pregnant. After having the baby, she refuses to marry Meinert. So, her father sends her away to a reformatory, while the baby is sent to a midwife. The reformatory is run by an authoritarian mistress along with her husband, who mistreats the women. After running away with a companion named Erika, Thymian discovers that her baby has died. Thymian then ends up in a whorehouse where she becomes a prostitute. Years later, her father dies and passes his wealth on to Thymian. She ends up giving the money to Meta, so that her children don't 'end up like her.' After marrying a wealthy man, Thymian ends up a member of the same reformatory she was a victim of. She discovers that Erika has been 'recaptured' and now is a victim of the same mistreatment that had years ago. Thymian rises up and demands that the women be treated with respect.

The main driving point of the film is the mistreatment of women. All the women in the film are under the prosecution of the men (and even the authoritarian headmistresses). The women are raped, abused, and economically oppressed. The title of the film, "Diary of a Lost Girl," denoted not only Thymian but the rest of the women as well. If you do not conform to the abuse of the male-dominated social landscape, you are cast aside and left to wander hopelessly lost, until another authority figure finds you and oppresses you even further. 



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