To this day, with a rating of 8.5 and an online rating of 7.8, it is a classic silent film worth watching.
Of course, its classics are thanks to the excellent creators.
The director of Smiley Man, Paul Leni, is a German filmmaker whose style is heavily influenced by "German Expressionist cinema".
A simple summary is that the film picture has a strong contrast between light and dark, and the shape is abstract and exaggerated.
Paul Lenny directs "Wax Man"
The Smiley Man was filmed by Paul Lenny after he traveled to the United States in 1927.
Although his unique style has been somewhat restrained in order to cater to Hollywood's commercial tastes, you can still see that the entire movie scene and costume are very sophisticated and textured, which can be said to be the real big production of that era.
In addition, Conrad Veidt, who plays the smiley man, is also a great actor, who has starred in several "firsts in film history".
For example, he starred in "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari", the pioneering work of the "German Expressionist film" and is considered the world's first horror film.
Its exaggerated and eerie visual effects have a profound impact on later horror films.
He starred in "Anders als die Andern," the world's first film to portray homosexuality positively.
In "The Smiley Man", he performed GwenPlain's eerie laugh by wearing dentures, and this image also gave birth to the number one villain in "Batman", the Joker.
In 1940, three Batman editors sat together brainstorming to design a formidable opponent for Batman.
They wanted the villain to be a clown with a humorous personality and full of contradictions.
In designing the Joker's appearance, they directly referred to the stills of Conrad Waiter in The Smiley Man.
And so, the great villain, the Joker, was born.
After many comics and movies have been interpreted and reshaped, today's Joker has become one of the most charismatic villains in the history of comics and even in the history of movies.
Although relevant information shows that the birth of the clown only refers to the appearance of the smiley face, if you think about it carefully, you will find:
The Joker and the Smiley Man actually have the same spiritual temperament, that is, the tragedy hidden behind the laughter of human beings.
For example, the smiley man, although his face is smiling, his laughter is because the trafficker has cut his mouth, and his painful heart has been ignored because of this smiley face.
Moreover, the film has glorified his fate, and the original novel ends with the martyrdom of both GwenPlain and Ty.
How tragic that is.
And the Joker, in the comic book Batman: Deadly Joke, the screenwriter also perfected his tragic past:
As a chemical engineer, he quit his job to become a comedian, but he was defeated and impoverished.
When his wife was about to give birth, he took on a criminal task of stealing a chemical plant and wanted to pay for his wife's medical expenses.
Who knows, his wife accidentally died in an electric shock accident, and he also fell into the chemical pool because of Batman's pursuit, and since then his body has mutated and become a Joker.
The Joker became a clown after experiencing great grief.
So his laughter is a weapon against this cruel and absurd world, an extreme tragedy.
In fact, the fate of the clown in reality is tragic.
Most of them are ancient Western dwarfs, or ancient Chinese rap artists, with deformed bodies, relying on exaggerated performances to make a living by laughing at the owner.
But their lives and deaths, their happiness or not, no one cares.
And in ancient China, rap artists were the property of their masters, and when their masters died, they had to be buried with them.
Even if the burials were later replaced by rap figurines, they were often placed together with animals such as pig figurines and dog figurines.
Therefore, the joker's laughter is not because of happiness, it is just a painting skin, a prop to make a living.
In fact, there are many "smiling people" in reality, their faces are full of smiles, but their hearts are full of anxiety, anger and collapse.
In the workplace, in the family, in the circle of friends, in front of the elders, in front of the children, they must remain confident and funny, and they must smile at any time.
But inside, they may be on the verge of depression or even suicide.
They have a common name: adults.
A group of "smiling people" who erase their joys and sorrows in order to make a living, always keep smiling, and are good at making scenes.
For them, the most precious thing is just a heartfelt smile.