Pavement Butterfly Film Review

Aka - Großstadtschmetterling

Aka - City Butterfly

Anna May Wong is an icon now but she never really was during her life time. Fabulous photos of her are now all over social media, a number of biographies on her have been published and most of her films are available. Part of the current fascination with her is of course that she fought hard against a system that was stacked against her due to her ethnicity. She had to fight all her life for roles. Except when she went to Europe as have so many other non-white expats during those years between the wars. I would guess that most of the people putting up photos of her have not actually seen many of her films - her fame now can be attributed to her exotic and rebellious image. She had almost been forgotten when she died in 1961of a heart attack at 56 years old. But she got a second look years later thanks to social media and the release of some of her films. Most of her American films are of little consequence other than her magnetic presence. But when she got tired of appearing as a Dragon Lady or as a minor player, she went to Europe and made a series of terrific films. She was a big star in Europe - not only in film but in theater, fashion and society as well. She made three films for German director Richard Eichberg - much of Song is lost, The Flame of Love is pretty good and this one is at times brilliant.

It is a silent film and basks in that black and white style - wonderful crowd scenes, stunning close-ups of all the players and great moments of melodrama and entertainment. Though silent, there are a lot of musical and dancing scenes - the soundtrack of this beautifully restored print is terrific. Many of her films were tragic with life landing on her with a cruel hammer, but this one is interesting in that it seems heading in that direction but instead becomes a feminist fuck you to the men in her life who have used her, abused her or not believed her. That she is Chinese doesn't really enter into the film.

It begins in Paris on Bastille Day and the streets are alive with festivities. Mah (Anna) is an entertainer at a fairground - doing a cheerful fan dance that brings in the customers. Her male Chinese compatriot performs what is called a suicide trick - jumping through a small circle of razor-sharp blades. Earlier she had rejected the advances of Coco the Clown when he tried to rape her till her partner walked in. Coco sabotages his leap by breaking the beads of her necklace - and he is killed and the crowd blames her. She goes on the run.

She meets up with a painter who wants to paint her and they begin to fall in love. But fortune intervenes as Coco tracks her down. But she refuses to give up no matter what befalls her. Wong is wonderful in this - by turns like hardened steel and other times like liquid amber. Her close-ups are many and hypnotic, you want to pause the video and take a deep breath - and just admire the artistry of the frame - but besides that the scenes of ballrooms and friends having fun are wonderfully shot.