BROKEN BLOSSOMS
****
Still caught up in an effort to repent for "The Birth of a
Nation", Griffith presents an asexual, wise Chinaman - a Buddhist
missionary, as performed by a Caucasian actor in 'Chinese' make-up - who
moves to
a London that certainly never existed in Britain. The flaws don't stop
with the misguided racial representations - the plotting is very poorly
contrived and heavy-handed. But there is a poetry to the visuals that
rises above the melodrama. This is one of the most beautifully framed and photographed
films of the silent era.
dir: D.W. Griffith
ph: Billy Bitzer, Hendrik Sartov, Karl Brown
cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp,
Arthur Howard, Edward Peil Sr.
|
THE SPIDERS, PART 1: THE GOLDEN
LAKE
**½
Germany
A racecar driver receives a message in a bottle sent from a remote island
populated by barbarians. He travels there, as does a secret spy
organisation lured by the prospect of treasure.
One of Lang's earliest films, this prototype for the Indiana
Jones adventure features attractions such as a tribe of exceptionally Germanic-looking
Incas. It's faster moving and more escapist than
much of Lang's subsequent work, but also swamped in intertitles.
dir: Fritz Lang
cast: Carl de Vogt, Ressel Orla, Lil Dagover, Georg John
|