EASY LIVING Mein Leben in Luxus
USA 1937. Director: Mitchell Leisen. Cast: Ray Milland, Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold. 88 mins. 35mm. Original language version
“The story of EASY LIVING used the real-life Waldorf Tower, which, built during the Depression, became a financial disaster. How can, Sturges has the hotel owner say in the film, such a phenomenal thing be such a failure. In close-up, one sees its immense honeycombed facades tapering into the sky.
The film begins with a downward movement inside. Grand financier J.B. Ball, the Bull of Broad Street, falls down the elegant staircase of his townhouse. This is shortly followed by a camera movement outside of a mink coat that he, in a rage, throws down from the roof of the house. His wife then departs for Florida – the Miami Biltmore or the Don Cesar, probably. He moves into the vacant Waldorf Louis for the sake of simplicity – also for cinematic dramaturgy – and thus unintentionally advertises it. It gives the obviously unpredictable ups and downs of the stock market and emotions their adequate framework.” (Frieda Grafe, Filmhistorischer Hotelführer, 1990)
With the film series Remake on Location, Remake – Frankfurter Frauen Film Tage expands its program to include screenings in the Rhine-Main area before and after the festival days. To conclude the tribute to film critic Frieda Grafe, another Grand hotel film will be screened at the DFF cinema, which Grafe discusses in her Filmhistorischer Hotelführer.
Introduction: Heide Schlüpmann and Karola Gramann (Kinothek Asta Nielsen)
In collaboration with
