Word: pabst
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...belongs to such strong and modern regional brewers as National of Baltimore, Pearl of San Antonio, Schmidt of Philadelphia and Olympia of Washington State. The big marketing battle is between the regionals and the nationals that have set up regional plants to compete with them, such as Budweiser, Schlitz, Pabst, Falstaff and Carling. The smaller breweries are caught between the two; imported beers, which account for only .7% of the market, hardly figure in the battle...
With their usual flare for understatement, some critics called the director of M, Fritz Lang, "th greatest of the great." He certainly belongs in the company of brilliant German directors like Wiene, Pabst, and Marnau. In any case, amidst the stultifying holiday cheer, we figured that the best reason for going to the Brattle had little to do with directors--in M, we had heard, one could see Peter Lorre murder little girls...
...Although Pabst accepted most of the plot revisions upon which Brecht insisted, Brecht quite rightly felt that the movie served to undercut rather than to preach the propaganda, and he sued for an injunction to stop the film from being released. He lost the suit, was paid handsomely for the film rights, and divorced himself from the production (after being assured that most of his plot revisions would be used and that all film rights would revert to him after two years). Kurt Weill won his half of the suit, and was allowed to rewrite his score for the movie...
...spite of this compliance with Brecht's wishes, his objections to the movie were well founded. The idea which shapes Pabst's direction is not a condemnation of capitalism, but rather the dehumanization which accompanies the acceptance of any social values. The first character to under-go embourgeoisement is Polly. When she first falls in love with Macheath, she is the epitome of innocence; when she is about to sleep with Macheath for the first time, she runs up the hotel stairs like a kitten chasing a ball of yarn; and when she sings her song about the circumstances under...
Despite the minor confusions--apparently misplaced bits of dialogue and characters who don't make much sense--Pabst's brilliant direction makes the movie coherent and powerful. The actors seem inescapably trapped by their surroundings. They are often seen, especially at important moments, behind paneled windows or rows of shelves or actual prison bars, and the buildings seem to hover over and enclose them. In one of the most brilliant scenes, when Queen Victoria is confronted by hordes of screaming beggars, she stares, horrified and uncomprehendingly at them, and then raises her bouquet of roses to her face...