Bonn voyage… Waves of Passion (1929), with Neil Brand, Silent Film Days Bonn 2023 streaming

 

If it’s August it must be Bonn and a silent film festival which thankfully still streams part of its programme for those of us who, once more, can’t make it. It’s the usual top-class programme with some of the world’s finest accompanists producing the musical magic in Beethoven’s hometown. First up for me is this booze smuggling adventure with Slovenian superstar Ita Rina as a bombshell blonde in Waves of Passion (Kire Lained/ Wellen der Leidenschaft) an Estonian/German co-production from 1930.

 

I have previously seen the film in Pordenone during The Before Times and has since been restored in 4k by the National Archives of Estonia earlier this year. Directed by Russian actor Wladimir Gaidarow, who also stars and provides the production company, it has elements of a sixties crime caper or thirties screwball with a humour and wit that recognises the outlandishness of its premise. I wasn’t that convinced by Gaidarow on first viewing but he’s got an edge that sets him apart from the more earnest heroes of Hollywood; he’s roguish in an almost English way.

 

Ita Rina is, of course, also more sophisticated than Hollywood might allow and she’s also a fine actress as we know from Tonka of the Gallows, Spring Awakening and Erotikon. She has a toughness that underpins her sweet features and a vulnerability too, not to mention more leg than you’d see from Norma or even Joan at this stage. Those Europeans and their sophistication, eh?

Ita Rina and Wladimir Gaidarow

 

Things begin on a cruise ship in the Baltic Sea as passengers dance in the hall, we meet The Spirit King Jaan Kõlgis (Fritz Greiner – who bears an uncanny resemblance to Wallace Beery both physically and in spirit) so called because of his success in smuggling hooch up the coast to Finland. He’s crude and unmannered, forgetting to take his hat off as he greets an older woman although we ain’t seen nothing yet.

 

In the ships’ ball room there’s a Brazilian man playing cards with young women, a seeming adventurer Rex Ronney (Gaidarow) who we will learn is a writer working to uncover the smugglers. He meets up with his journalist pal Raimondo (Ernst Falkenberg) and the two fake an assault so Rex can get an in with Kõlgis and find out more about his operation. The King duly impressed with his spirit, he gives Rex a contact at The Fat Anchor in Tallinn, a port in the north of the country directly opposite Helsinki some 90-odd kilometres over the Bay of Finland.

 

Rex duly makes his entrance at the harbour side hotel and soon attracts the attention of Leida (Jutta Jol) a hostess as well as the distrust of Kõlgis’ men who, to be honest, look quite a bit tougher than him. He’s just getting into a scrap with their leader, Hugo Brett, when a blonde woman in a coat and beret arrives and causes everyone’s jaw to drop. It’s Betty (Ita Rina) who quickly takes the gang off into a room to discuss their plans.

Fritz Greiner

Betty, is the daughter of Mart Martens (Raymondo van Riel), who is organising the smuggling and Rex is quickly involved in an attempt to smuggle 100 litres of vodka, bonding with Betty after the police discover the gang and arrest most of them just as Rex enables her escape via motorboat as the bullets fly around them catching him on the arm.

 

Back at Martens’ house, Betty nurses Rex back to health and he discovers that Kõlgis is blackmailing her father over unpaid debts and with the threat of forcibly marrying her too. The latest set back puts the old man in an impossible position yet Rex vows to save them and take care of The Spirit King once and for all. There’s a lovely scene on the beach where Betty plays in the water with her dog and lounges in an iconic way on the back of an upturned boat dazzling Rex and the audience with her beautifully enigmatic presence.

Returning to The Fat Anchor though, Betty gets the wrong idea as Rex dances with Leida and storms off in tears before agreeing to marry Kõlgis to save her father… he whisks her off on his boat Mary leaving Rex in pursuit via land and sea for a breathless finale.

Jutta Jol

Gaidarows directs well and there’s a lot of camera mobility not to mention German angles and Russian cuts in what presents as a state-of-the-art action film. It was premiered in Estonia and Germany and it certainly cemented Ita Rina’s Eurostar status although it stands as the only film produced by Gaidarow company and the only one he directed, he stuck to acting after this.

 

Neil Brand provided adventurous accompaniment of his own, I’ve heard him dance with swashbucklers and neo-noirs before and he has a near limitless catalogue of scoring references from throughout cinema that he not only plays all of the right notes in the right order but also with the perfect sentiment, mood and emotional key. Such a film allows him to cover his range but also always in respect to the source material and the narration… I could sense the audience engagement long before the appreciative applause at the end.

 

All of which reminds me that next year, next year, I must also be sat in that elegant square listening to this music and watching with all the rest.

 

In the meantime, there’s more to savour from the online screenings. There are five great films still available to view online until 22^nd August with the last on Wednesday 23^rd. You can also donate to support this vital festival on the website too.

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