Unearthed
Freaks
Freaks | Tod Browning | US 1932 | 64 Min
| DCP
Metro Historisch
Sa,27.09.▸13:00
Tod Browning’s Freaks has given SLASH its soul. Emotions run amok in a sideshow after a little person named Hans marries the beautiful Cleopatra—against all warnings. When she bares her true nature at the wedding feast, the “freaks” launch a counterattack. No other film tells a clearer story of the humanity of “monsters” and the monstrosity of human beings as such. A call for solidarity among the ostracized, a manual for insurrection and civil disobedience. “Gooble gobble, one of us!”
The SLASH Film Festival shows Freaks every year as part of the main festival program. (Markus Keuschnigg)
Tod Browning
Tod Browning (1880–1962) was the helmer of seminal movies like the classic 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, The Devil Doll and, of course, Freaks. After performing in carnivals and vaudeville circuits for more than a decade and working as an actor for D.W. Griffith and others, he transitioned to directing and screenwriting. Specializing in exotic, crook, bizarre, and mystery melodramas, he had his breakthrough in 1925 with The Unholy Three, a story about a sideshow ventriloquist, midget, and strongman teaming up to commit robberies. His sensibilities later fell out of style in a Hollywood that was increasingly looking for glamour. Miracles for Sale (1939) would become his final feature.
Tod Browning (1880–1962) was the helmer of seminal movies like the classic 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, The Devil Doll and, of course, Freaks. After performing in carnivals and vaudeville circuits for more than a decade and working as an actor for D.W. Griffith and others, he transitioned to directing and screenwriting. Specializing in exotic, crook, bizarre, and mystery melodramas, he had his breakthrough in 1925 with The Unholy Three, a story about a sideshow ventriloquist, midget, and strongman teaming up to commit robberies. His sensibilities later fell out of style in a Hollywood that was increasingly looking for glamour. Miracles for Sale (1939) would become his final feature.
Screenings
Metro Historisch
Sa,27.09.▸13:00
