Fritz Lang was a truly fine director, whose lesser work was still better than the lesser work of a lot of directors. As cliched as that sounds. His best work was truly fantastic though, and a few of them even influential in their genres and in film history. Emile Zola's work is always intriguing but is not easy to adapt and equally easy to underwhelm and even mess up. The cast is a talented one, Broderick Crawford didn't always work for me but Glenn Ford was a very charismatic actor who smoldered at his best and Gloria Grahame likewise.
'Human Desire' is definitely worth seeing. It serves Ford and especially Grahame very well, it is extremely well made, intriguing and Lang's direction does have flashes of brilliance. At the same time, it is very easy to see why others have said why they consider 'Human Desire' lesser Lang and also that there are better adaptations of Zola's work. Is that disparaging or dismissing the film? Absolutely not. Saying that 'Human Desire' is lesser Lang does not really mean necessarily mean a bad thing.
There are a lot of great things with 'Human Desire'. It looks absolutely wonderful, with photography that is both sumptuous and eerie. The trains and train-tracks are like characters of their own. Lang's direction shows quite a lot of brilliance, especially in the more symbolic scenes because his distinctive styles really does come through in these scenes. It is hauntingly scored and intelligently scripted.
Some of the story has tension and the symbolism, of which there is quite a bit of, is visually striking and truly thought-provoking. The acting comes over greatly, although Crawford gives one of his better performances here in my opinion due to having an interesting character (which he didn't always have) and Ford gives a performance full of charisma and intensity. But the biggest revelation is Grahame, who truly captivates in every sense of the word.
However, although the symbolism is really striking it does get in the way of the story at times, which compels enough but felt under-explored. Character motivations lacked clarity in spots and there was a bit of an emotional disconnect in mostly the characters.
Did find some of the story too slight and that the pace was sometimes sluggish. Those flaws make it sound like 'Human Desire' was a bad film, which is not the case at all and will never be the case. Just that he did better.
A film worth watching, but not a Lang essential. Those that are fans of Grahame will be amazed though. 6.5/10 (a very indecisive rating but thought giving it a 6 would be insulting to it considering what else has been rated a 6 by me, some of them enough to make one's eyes pop out of the sockets and it is better than those).
'Human Desire' is definitely worth seeing. It serves Ford and especially Grahame very well, it is extremely well made, intriguing and Lang's direction does have flashes of brilliance. At the same time, it is very easy to see why others have said why they consider 'Human Desire' lesser Lang and also that there are better adaptations of Zola's work. Is that disparaging or dismissing the film? Absolutely not. Saying that 'Human Desire' is lesser Lang does not really mean necessarily mean a bad thing.
There are a lot of great things with 'Human Desire'. It looks absolutely wonderful, with photography that is both sumptuous and eerie. The trains and train-tracks are like characters of their own. Lang's direction shows quite a lot of brilliance, especially in the more symbolic scenes because his distinctive styles really does come through in these scenes. It is hauntingly scored and intelligently scripted.
Some of the story has tension and the symbolism, of which there is quite a bit of, is visually striking and truly thought-provoking. The acting comes over greatly, although Crawford gives one of his better performances here in my opinion due to having an interesting character (which he didn't always have) and Ford gives a performance full of charisma and intensity. But the biggest revelation is Grahame, who truly captivates in every sense of the word.
However, although the symbolism is really striking it does get in the way of the story at times, which compels enough but felt under-explored. Character motivations lacked clarity in spots and there was a bit of an emotional disconnect in mostly the characters.
Did find some of the story too slight and that the pace was sometimes sluggish. Those flaws make it sound like 'Human Desire' was a bad film, which is not the case at all and will never be the case. Just that he did better.
A film worth watching, but not a Lang essential. Those that are fans of Grahame will be amazed though. 6.5/10 (a very indecisive rating but thought giving it a 6 would be insulting to it considering what else has been rated a 6 by me, some of them enough to make one's eyes pop out of the sockets and it is better than those).