Much like La Roue, this film is bold and poignant with its storyline and characters. It tells again of tragic people, struck down by the plague of humanity at the time. This film however is a little more heartbreaking in how light it approaches the downfall of the character. The stakes are less than a father selling off his daughter in blackmail, and thus the ending of the character is that much more tragic because you get nuance in how no one cares about this old hotel man being replaced.
This film truly stands out in the time period it’s made in as it addresses the now industrializing society and how that new culture is phasing out the notion of respect and tradition for elders that dominated western cultures for centuries. The shots in this film are very striking, using deep staging and lighting, big sets.
We see the camera being unhooked and let to drift across the sets, which was revolutionary for the time. The development of movement of the camera is a large narrative in the development of film as a medium, away from the confines of two dimensional backdrops with actors in front to the use of focus, and lighting, and moving background elements, and moving camera to create the illusion of space that is so different from theater or any other artform.
This has suggestions of metropolis. However, the story and the filmmaking support the emotional journey of the character, rather than just capture what the actor is doing.