Silent Cinema

Pavement Butterfly

+ intro by BFI curator Bryony Dixon

Großstadtschmetterling

Anna May Wong sparkles in her final silent film.

  • Director

    Richard Eichberg

  • With

    Anna May Wong, Louis Lerch, Alexander Grananch

  • UK-Germany 1929. 96min

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • German titles with English subtitles

Anna May Wong is luminescent as Mah, the Butterfly Princess, a Parisian fan dancer whose circus act goes tragically wrong. Blamed for a man’s death, she flees to the Riviera, taking up with a struggling artist, who she comes to love just as a malevolent character from her past reappears. One of Anna May Wong’s five collaborations with Eichberg, which greatly enhanced her reputation in Europe, this is the German version beautifully restored by Oliver Hanley at Deutsches Film Institute.

With live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney.