FREE ESSAY ON LAST LUAGH

LAST LUAGH

About The Director:
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau is one of the most important filmmakers of the cinema during
Weimar Republic period. He is often grouped with Fritz Lang and G.W. Pabst as the big
three directors of Weimar Germany. He finished his career in Hollywood and was killed at
a young age in a car crash. Three of his films appear on the greatest films lists of
critics and film groups. Even though there seems to be little written about him. 
Early in his career he created one of horror film, Nosferatu (1922); his last film was
Tabu (1931), a documentary film in the South Seas. He was one of the pioneers in the
technical side of the film industry, experimenting special effects in Nosferatu and Faust
and the use of the moving camera in The Last Laugh. But at the same time he was a master
storyteller, a director who could describe simple stories with a vast range of emotion
and meaning.
Plot Summary:
The old doorman at the Hotel Atlantis is proud of his job and he does it well (sort of).
One day he carries a large suitcase into the lobby. He needs to sit down for a moment
what is seen and written down by a young hotel manager. The old man looses his job and is
made the toilet man of the hotel. He tries not to show it, but he is broken. Now only
some kind of wonder can help!!
The film begins a trip down an open elevator and through the busy lobby of the Hotel
Atlantic. The movement continues straight through the hotel's revolving doors to rainy
outside. The main character is the hotel doorman, a striking but he is old. He is an
important person, a respected person. But he is getting older and has trouble lifting a
large luggage from a car to the hotel and needs a few minutes to rest. The young hotel
manager witnesses this situation and the next day the doorman finds out that he has been
replaced by a younger man and demoted to toilet attendant. This demotion leads him to
isolation. It comes to the situation where his neighbors and even his own family reject
him.
Just when things seem as bad as they could get for the doorman, the film presents us with
the only upside. The film says that ordinarily the story should end here, for an old man
like this, but instead, the director has taken mercy on the doorman and presented us with
a happy ending. In the end, the man inherits a vast sum of money from an American
millionaire. And he lives happily ever after!
Analysis Of The Film:
The Last Laugh is the last but one expressionistic street film, full of sets that look
both realistic and unlikely at the same time, unsettling multiple exposures, fantastic
performances particularly Emil Jennings whose weight you can feel on your chest, in a
performance through the entire range of emotions. Many writers give Carl Mayer, the
co-writer on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and one of the chief minds behind the excellence
of German film in the 1920's, the big share of credit for The Last Laugh. Sadly Murnau is
sometimes shrugged off with Karl Freund, the film's cameraman, as part of the team that
executed Mayer's idea.
Although the film is often criticized for its happy ending, it is done with irony that
the film would not be the same without it, in which all wrongs have been righted. 
In The Last Laugh the man derives his power from his uniform, alcohol and wealth; without
at least one of the three he is only a hunched man. He has habits of stroking his
mustache and waving hid hand in the air, the habits that disappear when he loses his
uniform. After he steals it and quickly pulls it over his shoulders, the first thing he
does is stroke that mustache. Or after he becomes rich he starts waving his hand in the
air again. 
This movie is almost purely visual; the few pieces of expository writing are worked into
the film cleverly via papers and letters rather than bluntly cleaving the action. Murnau
takes a situation that should seem trivial and turns it into high tragedy. Yet the movie
still contains some incredibly funny scenes.
Innovations And Its Place In History Of Cinema:
The camera movement in this film had a deep effect on world cinema. The camera movement
is smooth; it draws the viewer into the film much more carefully than does the nonstop
camera movement. However it is not only the movement of the camera that makes this film
so different, it is the careful relation between people, objects and the camera. 
In one part of the film, doorman after stealing the uniform he attends his daughter's
wedding and he gets drunk. Then a camera that staggers across the room shows the man's
drunkenness. The man soon drifts off to a blurry fantasy and revolving doors. In the
dream he lifts with one hand a luggage that six men could not lift and to the amazement
of an audience hurls the trunk up and down, always catching it perfectly with his one
extended arm.
These Blurry sequences and the many subjective shots through out the film were quite
unique for its time and place. The Last Laugh raised the art of the silent film to its
highest level of achievement.
Germany At The Time:
This is quite interesting since almost all the films during 1918 till 1945 reflects a
picture of the social, economical and political situation of Germany at the time. Hence
it would be quite useful to have an understanding of the time when The Last Laugh was
made.
This film was made during the economical crisis and political instability of a defeated
Germany after World War I, the time of disastrous hyperinflation of 1923. 
In May 1921 the reparations for World War One were set at a huge 132 billion Gold Marks.
The Germans had no motivation to work because any money they made had to go to the
Allies. By 1922 the Mark was worth 1/100th of its 1914 value. By 1922, the value of the
Mark fell from 162 to the American dollar to 7000 Marks to the dollar. By November of
1923, it had fallen all the way to 4,200,000,000,000 Marks to the dollar .
However, late 1923 brought about the first move to motivate the poor economy. The general
agreement was that the only way to improve the economy was to stabilize the Mark. The
idea was to change the Mark to be based on gold as an alternative of industrial assets.
They were then able to pay the reparations in Marks instead of gold, which would diminish
the Mark. Under the Dawes Plan Germany burrowed a loan from America of 800 million
dollars for fixing the economy. Hence, the government with fund upgraded the industries.
The coal and iron production soon stared to rise and exports began to increase. 
Similar to the economy, the political situation was not any good either. The parties were
divided by strong beliefs and were not willing to agree on anything. The only united
party left standing was the Social Democratic Party, but they had no power. The
conditions were causing the people to begin to vote for the conservative parties. Right
wing groups began to grow from the people's frustration. The middle class also began to
vote conservative, blaming the Social Democrats for the treaty of Versailles. 
After 1920 the period of unpopular minority cabinets began. Postwar inflation and Allied
demands for reparations contributed to political instability. In January 1923, French and
Belgian troops occupied the highly industrialized Ruhr district as a protest against
German defaults in reparations payment. The Weimar government responded by asking the
Ruhr workers to stop working. In 1923, President Ebert asked Gustav Stresemann, the DVP
chairman, to form a new cabinet coalition to resolve the crisis
During his brief chancellorship (August-November 1923) , he headed the great coalition,
an alliance that included the SPD, Center Party, DDP, and DVP. After his chancellorship
ended because of combined opposition from the right and left, Stresemann served as German
foreign minister until his death in 1929. The Stresemann era (1923-29) was a period of
making peace with the West during which conflict in the Ruhr was ended. As foreign
minister, Stresemann pursued compromise rather than disagreement with the Allies. His
policy, however, was strongly opposed by members of both the DNVP and the KPD .
In 1924 the German government adopted a plan for German economic recovery prepared by the
American financier Charles G. Dawes. The Dawes Plan attempted to coordinate German
reparations payments with a program of economic recovery whereby Germany was required to
make only limited payments until 1929. To assist with the recovery, the Reichsbank was
founded, and foreign credit, mainly from the United States, was directed into Germany. As
a result, between 1924 and 1929 German industry and commerce made exceptional progress,
and both the standard of living rose. The Dawes Plan also provided for the removal of
French and Belgian troops from Ruhr.
As it can be seen the Last Laugh could be related to the German people closely during
1920 -23. For the German people, this period was one of the worst. They were at the peak
of their power Europe was at their mercy, but they could not hold on to it and they lost
it all (similar to the doorman). Furthermore, a treaty had been imposed upon the general
public (by the young Weimer republic or the hotel manager in the film) that was deemed so
unfair, ironically resembles the old man's new job. But there is a glimpse of hope for
the nation as the economy began to recover at the end of 1923 with the help of burrowing
loan off America. I suppose this could well be related to the unusual happy ending of the
film where he inherits the American millionaire. Also in way Murnau tries to imply USA as
the new economical powerhouse.
In summary, many German artists (including film makers) during this period were part of
the expressionist movement. This expressionism was concerned with representing the
immediate present. Expressionism deliberately simplified, abbreviated, and distorted. A
reaction to inhuman social conditions and the horrors of World War I. This visual
expressionism instructed on Murnau's Last Laugh. The doorman, as a victim of society,
became the hero. 
Stresemann typified the Weimar Vernunftrepublikaner (commonsense republican); a former
National Liberal and annexationist, he supported the republic for pragmatic reasons.
During his brief chancellorship (August-November 1923), he headed the great coalition, an
alliance that included the SPD, Center Party, DDP, and DVP. After his chancellorship
ended because of combined opposition from the right and left, Stresemann served as German
foreign minister until his death in 1929. The Stresemann era (1923-29) was a period of
rapprochement with the West during which passive resistance in the Ruhr was ended. As
foreign minister, Stresemann pursued negotiation rather than confrontation with the
Allies. His policy, however, was strongly opposed by members of both the DNVP and the
KPD. 
Bibliography
References: 
1) The Great German Films, Frederick W Ott.
2) Facts About Germany, A Hoffmann.
3) A History Of The Weimar Republic, Erich Eyck.
4) The Weimar Republic, J.W Hidden.
5) A History Of Germany, 1815-1945, W Carr.
6) Film Art, David Bordwell.
7) Notes Taken In The Lectures.
8) Internet Resources; 
I) HTTP://WWW.GERMANEXPRESSIONISM.COM/
II) HTTP://WWW.GEOCITIES.COM/ATHENS/RHODES/6916/WW2.HTM
III) HTTP://WWW.BARNSDLE.DEMON.CO.UK/HIST/WEILIN.HTML
IV) HTTP://WWW.IDATA2000.COM/LISTING/0520067754