(1931) French title: L’opéra de quat’ sous; English title: The threepenny opera
Die Dreigroschenoper
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Description
Description
In London at the turn of the century, the bandit Mack the Knife marries Polly without the knowledge of her father, Peachum, the ‘king of the beggars’.
Until the mid-1930s, film producers of the early sound era often made films simultaneously in different language versions, using the same sets but different casts for each version. The few films which survive in both versions offer fascinating material for comparison. Here we have G.W. Pabst’s twin versions, in German and French, of “The Threepenny Opera”. Set in a shadowy, stylised and dreamlike Victorian London, the story of Mackie “The Knife” Messer and Polly Peachum is timeless, and the combination of Bertolt Brecht’s biting social satire and Kurt Weill’s compelling music is as fresh as ever.
