Due to censorship,
Tagebuch einer verlorenen was shortened and changed drastically.
In 1997, a reconstruction and photochemical restoration
ofthe film as it had originally been intended
was created by the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna,
the Deutsche Filminstitut - DIF, Frankfurt am Main,
and the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden.
It is based on the dupe negative from the Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen.
Most ofthe missing scenes were added from a contemporary copy
from the Archivo Nacional de la Imagen - Sodre, Montevideo.
The reconstruction ofthe edit that was shown at the film's premiere
is based on a comparison ofthe surviving copies,
as well as the censor records ofthe Filmoberprüfstelle Berlin.
The wording ofthe German intertitles
was recreated with the aid of German-French intertitles
from a copy at the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels.
A few surviving German titles
from the copy at the Archivo Nacional de la Imagen - Sodre, Montevideo
served as a model for the typography.
The master negative ofthis edit was used for the 2K digital version.
For this HD mastering, the image has been corrected in places,
and heavy damage to the film has been retouched.
DIARY OF A LOST GIRL
based on the novel by Margarete Böhme
Script: Rudolf Leonhardt
Director: G.W. Pabst
Camera: Sepp Allgeier
Set: Ernö Metzner
Cast
Pharmacist Henning... Josef Rovensky
Thymian, his daughter... Louise Brooks
Aunt Frida... Vera Pawlowa
Meta... Franziska Kinz
Pharmacy assistant Meinert... Fritz Rasp
Count Osdorff... Arnold Korff
Count Osdorff, his nephew... André Roanne
The Director... Andrews Engelmann
His wife... Valeska Gert
Erika... Edith Meinhard
Dr. Vitalis... Kurt Gerron
Production Pabst-Film 1929
So you've had your way with this housekeeper too!
Why is Elisabeth leaving, - today of all days?
PHARMACY
Oh why does Elisabeth have to go away?
I'll tell you about it this evening - little Thymian!
big Thymian!
My confirmation gift!
But... I'm no countess!
That doesn't matter - I'm Count Osdorff!
This evening at half past 10 in the pharmacy
This is Meta, my new housekeeper!
Good night, Herr Pharmacist!
I'm all alone!
I want to be here for you!
I'll tell you what happened with Elisabeth!
I'll tell you everything!
And she doesn't want to say who the father is.
You have to marry her.
Yes, ifthe pharmacy weren't so heavily mortgaged - -!
Of course, Thymian must be asked, too.
I can't marry him, I don't even love him - -!
Don't lay a finger on the innocent child, - you -!
The family -
- - has decided - -
Ww. Bolke: Midwife
RULES OF ATTENDANCE: Forbidden...
Dear Father,
Dear Osdorff, I am so unhappy.
Your nephew still doesn't want to obey, Herr Count.
I've tried everything with you, every school and every trade,
you've failed at all ofthem!
Now I've had enough! See how far you get on your own.
In the reformatory one lived according to the house-rules.
And so the housekeeper became the lady ofthe house.
Thymian's Room
NURSERY
Count Osdorff resolved to help Thymian.
Dear Osdorff, I am so unhappy.
What did I actually do that I am treated so strictly and cruelly?
...because Meta has Father wrapped around her finger.
I beg you to go to him. Perhaps then I'll be able to go home again.
Yours, Thymian
- ...I'm afraid to write to Father, Meta is so mean... -
I heard that your uncle has thrown you out - -
- - go now to Thymian. You belong together:
the outcast and the lost girl.
Go to her - tell her something nice -!
Here the pharmacy won't be auctioned offto you just yet,
now that I possess the mortgages.
Even the strictest discipline cannot repress
the girls' desire to look pretty.
PUNISH ERIKA
Count Nikolaus Osdorff
The Count claims to come on behalf ofyour father.
No-one at home wants to know anything more about you,
Meta has married your father.
Steal the key, and I'll help you further.
I'll wait for you tonight in front ofyour house!
I know where we can stay.
No, I want to go to my child.
I'll write down for you where I can be found.
Bar "FOR TWO ANGELS" Dessauer Str. 17
I'd like to see my child.
Little Erika Henning - -
She happens to be dead - -
He just took her away.
Where you headed, luv?
- - to Erika!
Erika and Count Osdorff are received with open arms
by the proprietress ofthe establishment.
And what's more, he leaves his regards!
Oh, be reasonable, little one,
you don't even have a shirt on your back!
Ifyour friend helps you, you'll be outta this whole mess!
Me?! I'm penniless, and my uncle won't give me anything more!
I want to go to work!
What are you able to do, my poor little thing?
Be so kind as to place this advert in the paper.
Dance Lessons, Thymian Henning Dessauer Str. 17
Dance Lessons by the beautiful Thymian Henning
Little child, how did you end up here...?
...I tell you, you'll bitterly regret this!
That's Dr. Vitalis - he always wants to save us -
but in the end he joins us.
You look like you're at a funeral, dear friend;
try and be a li'l happy!
Today's your birthday?
I know how I'll help: we'll do a lottery for you.
Once a year the pharmacist takes his wife out on the town.
So here you have the seamy side ofthe big city.
And what can you win with the lot?
Yes, Thymian, now you are a lost girl -
just as we're all lost!
Three years have passed since the painful meeting
between father and daughter.
Thymian still leads the same life.
After a brief, trying illness, my beloved husband,
the pharmacist Karl Friedrich Henning
passed away yesterday, on the 17th ofJune, 1929.
INHERITANCE NOTICES
Thymian Henning, as legal heir to Herr Henning's estate,
is requested to attend the reading ofthe will,
which will take place in the house ofthe deceased.
Money will enter the house - over a short course -
by way of a dark lady!
Why, you're rich!
Yes, I could start another life - -
For another life - you need a new identity!
He should marry her!
Countess Thymian Osdorff, there's an identity!
You insist on exercising your right
to take over the pharmacy...
...and drive your friend's poor widow out of her home?
Countess, Herr Meinert has redeemed the mortgage
of45,000 marks that you inherited from your mother...
and thus becomes the sole owner ofthe pharmacy.
Here is the money.
Filthy slut!
The money! Where's all the money? -
I gave it to my little sister, so she doesn't end up like me.
And me? Am I to blame in the end?
I, his uncle, bear most ofthe blame.
I should never have repudiated that helpless lad!
May I attempt to repay you with the debt I owe him?
We're now in Swinemünde. Uncle Osdorff is so kind to me.
My former life often seems like an ugly, terrible dream.
Cousin Osdorff
My niece - Countess Osdorff.
Little Thymian, you don't recognise me anymore?
Dear Countess, I hope you'll let me take care ofyou.
I'd like - for us to leave!
We beg you, dear Countess, to work with us
in our society for saving wayward young girls.
Countess Thymian Osdorff is invited to the board meeting
and to examine our institution on 19 August 1929.
Our youngest member - Countess Osdorff.
Today we have an especially difficult case.
A young girl has once again been entrusted to us...
...who has struck down our every educational measure
by repeatedly running away.
How we've worried about her -
Fabulous!! My dear, try the soup they make here!
Yet she constantly turns away from the blessings of our home -
I know this house and its "blessings" -
Your ignorance won't help her -
I want to try, for I was once what she is.
A little more love and no-one would be lost in this world!