a young and upperclass woman name thymian be excise from her family when a combination of incident include her father affair with the housekeeper and the death of the governess and and her rape by her father business partner result in impregnation cause the family a a whole to send her away ( for various reason and some of which be unknown ) to a reformatory . the draconian action of the reformatory cause her to run away with a young count and but unfortunately he be penniless and they have nowhere to go and so she get stick in a brothel of sort where she live until circumstance bring her back to her family and eventually lead her to a new life and new identity and from which she learn compassion for the other lost girl of the world . technically and that what it about . at least and that what happen . the problem with this film be that thymian be the only character with any motivation and and it a slight and unfocused one at that . for the first half of the film and indeed and one at least can be forgive to the film because the character inherent ( and physical ) beauty at least provide some sort of motion to the storyline . unfortunately and since the character have no motivation and and since the director seem entirely unwilling to let anything tragic have it due in the world and the movie skip past what could possibly be a beautiful and tragic end and continue for another hour or so on tangent without importance or design . at first this discursiveness seem rather stunning and unexpected and but a quick look back over a few point of the first half of the film start reveal that indeed and it seem pabst really do not have a clear understanding of overaching tone and theme and motif . he have a storyline and name for character and but no personality or plot . for instance and the name of this movie represent diary of a lost girl . the beginning be quite clear and obvious the importance of the diary to the character of thymian and but not only do it not sustain it direct duty to bring her some form of closure and revelation and or salvation and it also simply disappear after a certain point and be never hear of again . furthermore and the movie strive to close up all thread with an opportunistic idea that everything can work out and but it close up thread that needn not be include or be even merely incidental in the story arch . i repeat represent the character lack motivation . since the character lack motivation and what be they suppose to do to win and or lose and or react to event . they have nowhere to go or expand and and thus the end keep get further and further away . most distress about watch this film be it complete lack of understand about tone . it go to extremes that seem at first to show the incredible level of conformity and decadence and ignorance and or whatever and but eventually go to far and fail to make an organized statement . little nod to lesbianism be include for no real reason whatsoever . and what about thymian tendency to pass out before be take advantage of . if it mean to show her lack of control over the situation and it a very maudlin and over indulgent attempt . in fact and why do thymian want to hide the identity of the father of her baby when she be quite clearly rap . some rape victim tend to victimize themselves by claim that they deserve it and but there no hint and nod and or involvement of that dysfunction . why do the mistress of the reformatory derive such pleasure at the exercise of the girl . there no clear evidence to support that she sadistic and lesbian and or any have any form of motivation besides the fact that show her wild grinning face seem a good way to get a reaction from the audience . why be the housekeeper turn stepmother so stern and and furthermore and why can not she seem to make any face other than her one stern one . sometimes this film go to length and also and to go far into depth about thing that do not deserve such treatment . most of the end seem to be an attempt by the filmmaker to take control of the theme ( which they do not have ) by reintroduce arbitrary character and involve them in entirely new plot line that do not have any coherent or enthuse meaning on the overall storyarch . basically and as soon a the count son inexplicably kill himself and the movie become saturate with false pretension towards positivity and endurance and and love without take the time to admit that the entire movie have already end . from there and the whole thing begin to fall entirely out of control and get bad and bad until roughly about the beach scene and beyond and which if by that point youre still pay attention and care about where the character be go and youre just go to be lead to one of the most antithetical climax in film history . yes and the count actually say that line and and yes and that all youre leave with . polarisdib .