Chinese Version
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Der Letzte Mann (Germany)
The Last Laugh
Director: F.W. Murnau
Footage: 88min
Year: 1924
Jannings is the doorman of a posh Berlin hotel. Fiercely proud of his job, Jannings comports himself like a general in his resplendent costume, and is treated like royalty by his friends and neighbors. The hotel's manager, noting that Jannings seems winded after carrying several heavy pieces of luggage for a patron, decides that the old man is no longer up to men's washroom attendant. That day is the wedding day of his daugther. He suffers a terrible breakdown , and becomes an object of ridicule and mockery to his neighbors. Even his daughter and son-in-law reject him when they learn of his descent.
But Murnau adds a near-surrealistic coda, wherein Jannings, having suddenly inherited a fortune, returns to the hotel in triumph.
References:
Short segments online
On top of the world
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