Orphans of the Storm is the last D.W. Griffith movie on the list, and my feelings about it are pretty similar to what I felt about the rest of them (with the exception of Broken Blossoms): the technical aspects of the film are praiseworthy (the set pieces are particularly impressive), but the characters and plot are formulaic and left me feeling pretty bored. I figured out how this movie was going to end with over an hour of running time left.
Lillian Gish and her sister Dorothy play the requisite innocent heroines in a French Revolution setting, bad guys threaten to tarnish their innocence, etc., a battle between good and evil ensues....you get the idea.
Factoids about this film:
It is based on a play called "The Orphans" that had already been filmed at least twice before 1920; one version starred Theda Bara and was released in 1915. (I've seen some other examples of multiple silent films being based on the same source material--I guess the precedent for the current remake frenzy sweeping Hollywood was set a long time ago!) Theda Bara was one of the film industry's first sex symbols/femme fatales. She made over 40 films in her career but, unfortunately, most of them were lost in a fire in 1937 and very little footage of her survives to this day.
This movie is the last Griffith film to star Lillian Gish, and it's also considered his last big commercial success.
I am so glad to have all the D. W. Griffith films on the list behind me now.
Lillian Gish and her sister Dorothy play the requisite innocent heroines in a French Revolution setting, bad guys threaten to tarnish their innocence, etc., a battle between good and evil ensues....you get the idea.
Factoids about this film:
It is based on a play called "The Orphans" that had already been filmed at least twice before 1920; one version starred Theda Bara and was released in 1915. (I've seen some other examples of multiple silent films being based on the same source material--I guess the precedent for the current remake frenzy sweeping Hollywood was set a long time ago!) Theda Bara was one of the film industry's first sex symbols/femme fatales. She made over 40 films in her career but, unfortunately, most of them were lost in a fire in 1937 and very little footage of her survives to this day.
This movie is the last Griffith film to star Lillian Gish, and it's also considered his last big commercial success.
I am so glad to have all the D. W. Griffith films on the list behind me now.
That's unfortunately going to be one of the things you run into by watching the films chronologically. You will see the same themes and techniques over and over again in quick succession. On the other hand, when something new does come along (i.e. the deep focus in Citizen Kane) it may really pop for you.
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, at least it will give me a new perspective on what films were truly groundbreaking!
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