This UFA film came at the end of the silent era: it premiered only three months before the arrival of sound film in Berlin with Hollywood’s The Jazz Singer (1927). It is a fine example of the high production values, controlled style and narrative economy of the late silents. Ufa was the technical and stylistic centre of European film. Filmed almost entirely in the great Neubabelsberg studio, even the impressive street and traffic scenes are interior sets.

The opening sequence of the film introduces a scene that sets out the title: “The smooth and shiny asphalt serves in this film as a metaphor for a metropolitan “surface culture” that stressed exteriorly and sparkling facades, but also implied pretence and deception.” [Anton Kaes, Catalogue of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto]. This feature shows the influence of the ‘Street film’ Straßenfilm [‘street film’] and Kammerspielfilm [‘chamber film’]. The characters are mainly ‘little people’ and their experiences emphasise the clash of the public and the private.

Asphalt also displays the stylistic and technical virtuosity at Ufa and in German film generally. The sets and décor are impressive; the film plays with the contrast between light and shadow: and there are spectacular shot using the entfesselte camera [‘unchained’ camera’]. The Producer Erich Pommer was a key player in the German studio: director Joe May had produced some of the impressive early Fritz Lang films: and the craftsmen like Günter Rittau and Erich Kettelhut had worked on Lang’s Metropolis (1926).

The actual story involves a young policeman Holk (Gustav Frölich, star of Metropolis), whose father is a retired policeman and whose mother is a stereotypical doting hausfrau. He becomes involved with a young woman, Else Kramer, [played by Betty Amann]. She, however, is already involved with a con artist [Hans Adalbert Schlettow, one of the stars of Lang’s Dr. Mabuse (1922)].The complications that evolve are worked out with both style and panache.

The screening of the film at this years Le Giornate del Cinema Muto was accompanied by Gabriel Thibaudeau. Now Bradford’s National Media Museum is screening the film on Sunday January 29th with Darius Battiwalla accompanying the film on piano.

Asphalt

Ufa, 1929, black and white, silent with Intertitles.
2574 metres, running time 93 minutes at 24 fps.

Director: Joe May. Producer: Erich Pommer. Scenario: Fred Majo [Joe May], Hans Székely, Rolf E. Vanloo [also story]. Cinematography: Günter Rittau. Production Design: Erich Kettelhut, [Robert Herith, Walter Röhrig].