Jan 12 2024 to Jan 12 2024 4:30 p.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore

716, Chinmaya Mission Hospital Road, First Stage, Indiranagar, Bengaluru 560038

Event Description

German Cinema in Focus

We continue in 2024 with our film series German Cinema in Focus curated by Shivani and present to you The Threepenny Opera (1931), directed by G.W. Pabst. This is the last of four films in the sub-section Directors Special, spotlighting G.W. Pabst, one of the masters of early German Cinema.

The Threepenny Opera is an adaptation of a musical theatre of the same name from the Weimar era, created by German playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. Set in the destitute backstreets of Victorian London, the story revolves around the underworld kingpin Mackie Messer as he tries to win the affection of Polly Peachum eventually marrying her without the knowledge of her father ‘King of the Beggars’, while also evading pursuit by the authorities.

The film is a satire on capitalism, albeit toned down in comparison to the original play for the sake of marketability, however its core ideologies are very evident in the musical sequences. Similar to many of Pabst’s earlier well acclaimed productions, The Threepenny Opera is deeply infused with political undertones, resonating with the experiences and sentiments of the working class during the Weimar Germany era.

The Threepenny Opera
by Georg Wilhelm Pabst
1931 | b&w | 112 min.| German with English subtitles