Review of Borderline (1930) by His L — 09 Sep 2008

A bizarre little film. A rather ground breaking film for it's depiction of an interacial love triangle and sexuality. The film was directed by Kevin Macpherson, who was editor of Britian's first film journal 'Close-Up'.

The story involves two couples. A black couple Pete (played by African-American actor/singer/activist, Paul Robeson) and Adah. Also a white couple Thorne and Astrid. Adah is having an affair with Thorne, which obviously doesn't please Pete or Astrid. It's then that Thorne accidently kills Astrid, yet he escapes punishment and Pete is forced to leave. As well as the interacial theme, there's a few subtle homosexual references in minor characters. Such as the manageress and barmaid at the inn and how the pianist longingly looks at a picture of Pete whilst playing.

Though the story is not always easy to follow, mainly due to the shortage of intertitles, it is however very experimental, and uses rapid montage sequences clearly influenced by the editing of Sergei Eisenstein.