Actor · 1887–1971

Hank Mann

3: briefs
13:00: average
39 min: in total

On film.briefs3

The Devil Is a Woman

Josef von Sternberg · 1935

Josef von Sternberg’s 1935 final collaboration with Marlene Dietrich is a formally rigorous, emotionally detached fable set during Seville’s Carnival. Adapted from Pierre Louÿs’s novel, it follows the destructive allure of Concha Pérez, whose indifference to devotion becomes a structural principle. With deliberate artifice, stylised lighting, and rhythmic austerity, it examines self-deception as inevitable, not tragic. Not a romance but a parable of asymmetry—cold, precise, and unforgettable.

13:00

City Lights

Charlie Chaplin · 1931

A 1931 silent romantic comedy-drama written, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin. Though released after the arrival of sound cinema, it uses no spoken dialogue, relying instead on physical performance, intertitles, and a composed musical score. The Tramp falls for a blind flower seller and forms a volatile bond with a drunken millionaire. Its final scene — the flower girl’s first sighted meeting with the Tramp — is widely regarded as one of cinema’s most accomplished moments of wordless emotional storytelling.

13:00

Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin · 1936

Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 Modern Times is his final silent film and last appearance as the Little Tramp. Set against the Great Depression, it follows the Tramp and a young woman, Ellen, through unemployment, mistaken arrests, factory work, and fleeting shelter — all rendered through tightly choreographed slapstick and sparse, stylised sound. Though episodic, its gags target automation, surveillance, and class with surgical precision. Composed and directed by Chaplin, it remains a landmark of cinematic satire and humanist comedy.