Freaks
d. Tod Browning, 1932
I was somewhat surprised to find out that Freaks was controversial upon its release, back in 1932. The reason for the controversy was Browning's use of real "freaks," but to me it is hard to believe that anyone who watches the film walks out of it feeling offended, when its message is a rather good one.
The film centers around the lives of people who work at the circus, some of them "freaks," some not. A full grown woman (as the film's tagline calls her) pretends to be in love with a little person so as to take his money. Hans, the little person, truly believes that she loves him.
Freaks' brief running time, right around an hour, goes by so fast that it has hardly any down moments, it works for the film because dragging the simple story for too long would have been a mistake. The same, I think, goes for the Marx Brothers' masterpiece Duck Soup, which benefits from its running time because every single scene is funny, as opposed to, say, certain sequences in A Night at the Opera. Amongst over-pretentious and self-important films, it is always nice to watch one that knows exactly what kind of story it is telling, and does it magnificently.
