Pavement Butterfly
Großstadtschmetterling
1929·96 min·GB
Director: Richard Eichberg
Drama
Anna May Wong's second collaboration with German director Richard Eichberg is a circus-set melodrama that gave her one of her most substantial European roles. Wong plays Princess Butterfly, an acrobat in a traveling show who becomes entangled in a web of jealousy and betrayal. The European productions of this period allowed Wong a freedom and complexity that Hollywood consistently denied her — here she is the emotional center of the story, not a supporting player or exotic decoration. Eichberg photographs her with the star treatment she deserved, and Wong responds with a performance that combines physical grace with genuine dramatic power. An important film in understanding Wong's career trajectory and the artistic possibilities she found by leaving America behind.
Anna May Wong's second collaboration with German director Richard Eichberg is a circus-set melodrama that gave her one of her most substantial European roles. Wong plays Princess Butterfly, an acrobat in a traveling show who becomes entangled in a web of jealousy and betrayal. The European productions of this period allowed Wong a freedom and complexity that Hollywood consistently denied her — here she is the emotional center of the story, not a supporting player or exotic decoration. Eichberg photographs her with the star treatment she deserved, and Wong responds with a performance that combines physical grace with genuine dramatic power. An important film in understanding Wong's career trajectory and the artistic possibilities she found by leaving America behind.
