Of Human Bondage (1934)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on June 5, 1995.

A man abandons his art studies for a career in medicine. He becomes infatuated with a waitress who rejects him. She keeps returning to him after her romantic failures.

This is an interesting dramatic story which allows different takes about its characters and themes. The film is usually framed, in advertising, and in popular opinion, as a story of a weak and honest man dominated by a cruel and unscrupulous woman. Certain details of its construction seem to favor that interpretation, but the curious thing is that its own characters, in a sequence in the film, take a more nuanced  and less judgmental view, according to which all persons are simply victims of a universal asymmetry in human relationships. I think a third view is possible, which would frame the man as the bad element and the woman as the good and honest party. She is forced by her social station to seek a husband who can provide to her materially. She cannot be entirely blamed for choosing scoundrels. And she never once deceives the male protagonist; audiences are probably inclined to hate her for being cold towards him, but her coldness is proof of honesty, not the opposite. If she were to act nice to him, that would be out of a scheming nature, which she does not have. Quite the opposite of how the male protagonist behaves with his other women. Another curious aspect of the film's ideology is the contrast it establishes between the artistic and the medical professions. Being a mediocre artist is considered a very bad thing, whereas it is never discussed whether he will be a brilliant of a mediocre physician (perhaps the author does not even accepts there exists such a distinction).

Rating: 67 (unchanged)