Expressionism creates a surreal and distorted illusion world that only exists in the characters' minds through symbolic stage scenery and weird lighting and sound effects. The externalization of this role's emotional thinking is experimental and promotes the development of the film. After that, rigorous Germans began to explore the sociality contained in expressionist films. Developed an indoor drama with little people as the protagonist to pursue truth.
The story of this film is very simple, which can be summarized as "the sorrow of little people", which was also the theme of German indoor drama and street drama at that time. An old man from a slum is proud of being a concierge in a hotel. As he grew older, his physical strength was exhausted and he was demoted to a toilet attendant by the manager. Then there is despair for yourself, contempt for others, and guilt and fear after stealing uniforms for vanity. However, the sad vortex ended unexpectedly, and the old man unexpectedly gained great wealth. Then he made a new judgment on social class with his own ideas.
Although the most despicable person is valuable in terms of the life feelings of small people, everything is exaggerated and there is a feeling of puppet show. But this is the expression of silent films, which seems understandable, but as a modern person, I am not used to it.
The title of the film "The meanest man" is very accurate. Screenwriters and directors seem to want to tell us that a nobody is not humble, as long as he knows himself clearly and works hard. Humble people are those who dare not face their true identity like old people, pursue false glory, and are willing to be the soil under the feet of the rich, and are complacent about it. In addition, the director also wants to express that the polarization between the rich and the poor was sharp, the class concept was deeply rooted in people's hearts, and even replaced the criterion of judging people by personality (the uniform of the old man was more respected than him). Thirdly, even in the same class, there is no warmth. High status flattery, low status contempt. Even his niece is unwilling to recognize this old man without uniform.
This film is based on Nikolai Gogol's Little Hands in a Coat. As a critical realist writer who sympathizes with little people, Nikolai Gogol tends to classify people and judge people by their class, which is just in line with the expression method of German indoor drama: his works focus on "allegorical characters" and criticize all people and the social reality reflected. At the time of classification, the fullness of characters is also lost accordingly.