He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
Genre: Thriller/ Romance Time: 1h 35mins Director: Victor Sjöström Quick Summary: Paul Beaumont, a genius scientist, is cheated by his wife, Marie, and fellow scientist, Baron. Soon, fed up with his life, he decides to take up a job at a circus in Paris as a clown. I went into this assuming it was going to be funny since the guy is a clown, but I was met with one of the saddest stories I've seen in a while. I mean the guy takes such a traumatic and terrible experience and turns it into a way that he knows how to process it. Laughter. It's such a twisted masochistic recreation of the event, but it's in his control and he can actually laugh with the crowd, so they're not just laughing at him. He remains a prisoner to himself and his internal struggle and it is all masked over by makeup and pain inflicting gags. Honestly, it's quite sad because you realise that it broke the poor guy and the only way he knows how to do anything is to be a clown to people. Repeatin