alr

You and Me

Screening on Film
Directed by Fritz Lang.
With Sylvia Sidney, George Raft, Robert Cummings.
US, 1938, 35mm, black & white, 94 min.

The last installment of Lang’s “social trilogy,” You and Me (preceded by Fury and You Only Live Once) was an ambitious experiment but ultimately a box-office failure. A studied attempt to craft a socially conscious satire in the tradition of Brecht’s didactic plays, the film—produced by Lang himself for Paramount—presents the story of a progressive department-store owner who employs ex-convicts, some of whom have not quite reformed. Although Lang’s directorial sleight of hand is visible everywhere, the film slips between the registers of drama and comedy in ways that may have perplexed contemporary audiences.

Part of film series

Read more

The Dark Worlds of Fritz Lang – Part Two

Other film series with this film

Read more

The Complete Fritz Lang

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

The Cold Heart is More Precious than Diamonds. The Cinema of Graham Greene

Read more

João César Monteiro, Poet-Provocateur

Read more

Marie Antoinette and Friends, Three Films by Sofia Coppola

Read more

Nostalgia, A Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque Program

Read more

The Adventures of Lotte Reiniger

Read more

The Human Condition

Read more

Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema, 1945 – 1960

Read more

Visions of a City, Or A Weekend in San Francisco

Read more

Once There Was History ... Andrzej Wajda at 100