''Pavement Butterfly'' (german: Großstadtschmetterling) is a 1929 British-German
silent drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Richard Eichberg
Richard Eichberg (27 October 1888 – 8 May 1952) was a German film director and producer. He directed 87 films between 1915 and 1949. He also produced 77 films between 1915 and 1950. He was born in Berlin, Germany and died in Munich, Germ ...
and starring
Anna May Wong
Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...
,
Alexander Granach
Alexander Granach (April 18, 1890 – March 14, 1945) was a German-Austrian actor in the 1920s and 1930s who emigrated to the United States in 1938.
Life and career
Granach was born Schaje Granoch in Werbowitz (Wierzbowce/Werbiwci) (Austri ...
, and
Gaston Jacquet
Gaston Émile Marius Jacquet (14 August 1883 – 28 January 1970) was a French actor.
Jacquet was born in Lanas, Ardèche, France and died in 1970 in Thonex in Switzerland.
Selected filmography
* ''Les Trois Mousquetaires'' (1921)
* ''Th ...
. It was part of an ongoing
co-production arrangement between Eichberg and
British International Pictures
Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), originally British International Pictures (BIP), was a British film production, distribution and exhibition company active from 1927 until 1970 when it was absorbed into EMI. ABPC also owned appro ...
.
The film was shot at the
Babelsberg Studios
Babelsberg Film Studio (german: Filmstudio Babelsberg), located in Potsdam-Babelsberg outside Berlin, Germany, is the second oldest large-scale film studio in the world only preceded by the Danish Nordisk Film (est. 1906), producing films since ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and
on location in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
and
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
. The sets were designed by the
art director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...
s
Willi Herrmann
Willi Herrmann (1893–1968) was a German art director.
Selected filmography
* '' Madness'' (1919)
* '' Child on the Open Road'' (1919)
* '' Jettatore'' (1919)
* ''Humanity Unleashed'' (1920)
* '' The Secrets of Berlin'' (1921)
* ''The Maharaja ...
and
Werner Schlichting
Werner Schlichting (1904–1996) was a German art director who worked on over a hundred films during a lengthy career. He worked on a number of Austrian films including '' The Congress Dances'' and ''The Last Ten Days'' (1955).Fritsche p.253
Sele ...
.
Synopsis
A Chinese
dancer
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...
in the nightclubs of
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, becomes involved with a Russian
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
and becomes his model. She is persecuted by a man named Coco, accused of theft. Later, in the
French Riviera
The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...
she is at last able to prove her innocence.
Cast
Production
This is, after
Song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
, the second of various collaborations of Eichberg with Wong.
Analysis
Analysing the evolution of the roles played by Wong in her career,
Mayukh Sen
Mayukh Sen is an American writer and author of a nonfiction book, ''Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America''. He was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2018 and 2019, winning the award in 2018 for his profile of P ...
wrote: "Her subsequent films with Eichberg broke her out of the typecasting that she’d faced in Hollywood. In 1929’s ''Pavement Butterfl''y, she played a Chinese dancer who, despite the title’s suggestion, was more of a self-possessed vamp than a passive wallflower."
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
1929 films
Films of the Weimar Republic
Films directed by Richard Eichberg
British silent feature films
German silent feature films
German black-and-white films
British black-and-white films
Silent German drama films
1929 drama films
Silent British drama films
Films shot at Babelsberg Studios
Films shot in Paris
Films shot in Monaco
Films set in Monaco
Films set in Nice
Films set in Paris
1920s British films
1920s German films
{{Richard Eichberg