Along with William Beaudines glorious Mary Pickford vehicle Sparrows, Broken Blossoms exemplifies what was known in Hollywood as the soft style. This was the ultimate in glamour photography: Cinematographers used every available devicepowder makeup, specialized lighting instruments, oil smeared on the lens, even
immense sheets of diaphanous gauze hung from the studio ceilingto soften, highlight, and otherwise accentuate the beauty of their stars. In Broken Blossoms, the face of the immortal Lillian Gish literally glows with a lovely, unearthly luminescence, outshining all other elements on the screen.
The beauty of Broken Blossoms must be experienced, for it is truly stunning. Gish and her costar, the excellent Richard Barthelmess, glide hauntedly through a London landscape defined by fog, eerie alleyway lights, and arcane, Orientalist sets. The films simple story of forbidden love is complemented perfectly by the gorgeous, mysterious production design, created by Joseph Stringer. No other film looks like Broken Blossoms.
The collaboration between Griffith and Gish is one of American cinemas most fruitful: the two also worked together on Intolerance, The Birth of a Nation, Orphans of the Storm, and Way Down East, in addition to dozens of shorts. Surely this directoractor collaboration ranks with ScorseseDe Niro, KurosawaMifune, and LeoneEastwood, to name a few; indeed, it is the standard by which all others should be judged.
Griffith finds a perfect balance between the storys mundanity and the productions seedy lavishness (much of the film takes place in opium dens and dockside dives). It takes a skilled and confident director to handle a form/function split like this one; this is Griffith at the top of his abilities. It is the tension between the everyday and the extraordinary that drives on Broken Blossoms, securing its place in film history. EdeS
See all movies from the 1910s
1920s
Contents
Way Down East (1920)
Within Our Gates (1920)
Körkarlen (1921)
Orphans of The Storm (1921)
La Souriante Madame Beudet (1922)
Dr. Mabuse, Der Spieler (1922)
Nanook of The North (1922)
Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie Des Grauens (1922)
Häxan (1923)
Foolish Wives (1923)
Our Hospitality (1923)
La Roue (1923)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Stachka (1924)
Greed (1924)
Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
Der Letzte Mann (1924)
Seven Chances (1925)
The Phantom of The Opera (1925)
Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Big Parade (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
Sunrise (1927)
The General (1927)
The Unknown (1927)
Oktyabr (1927)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Napoléon (1927)
The Kid Brother (1927)
The Crowd (1928)
The Docks of New York (1928)
Un Chien Andalou (1928)
La Passion De Jeanne Darc (1928)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Potomok Chingis-Khana (1928)
Blackmail (1929)
Chelovek S Kinoapparatom (1929)
Die Büchse Der Pandora (1929)
1920s
WAY DOWN EAST (1920)
U.S. (D.W. Griffith) 100m Silent BW
Director: D.W. Griffith
Screenplay: Anthony Paul Kelly, Joseph R. Grismer, D.W. Griffith, from the play Way Down East by Joseph R. Grismer, William A. Brady and the play Annie Laurie by Lottie Blair Parker
Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman, Burr McIntosh, Kate Bruce, Mary Hay, Creighton Hale, Emily Fitzroy, Porter Strong, George Neville, Edgar Nelson
Soon after The Birth of a Nation (1915), one of the most profitable films ever made, D.W. Griffith saw his career go into decline, mostly as a result of his inability to adapt to the changing desires of the filmgoing public. Griffith had specialized in bringing Victorian melodrama, with its tales of threatened female innocence, to the screen. By 1920, however, audiences had begun to show less interest in virtue rescued or preserved. It was therefore a surprise that Griffith decided to adapt for the screen the
1890s stage melodrama Way Down East, not to mention that he was able to breathe new life into the story and make it into a very successful film.
Anna Moore (Lillian Gish) leaves her small New England village to live with wealthier relatives in Boston. There she comes under the spell of an attractive young man named Sanderson (Lowell Sherman), who tricks her into sleeping with him by staging a phony marriage. He then sends her back to New England, with a command to keep silent about their nuptials. Upon discovering she is pregnant, Anna contacts him, only to learn the bitter truth. Nothing but disaster follows. Her mother dies. So does her child. She is driven away from the rooming house where she has taken shelter because the landlady suspects she isnt married. Luckily, she finds a new position at a nearby farm owned by Squire Barlett (Burr McIntosh), but Sanderson lives not far away. At the farm, Anna meets the squires son David (Richard Barthelmess), and the two soon fall in love.
But Annas past catches up with her. Dismissed from the squires employ, she wanders off into a terrible snowstorm and finds herself on a frozen river. Floating away on an ice floe toward huge falls, Anna is rescued at the last minute by David. Sandersons villainy is exposed, and Anna reconciles with the repentant squire. The film ends with their wedding. The dramatic parts of Way Down East are kept lively by Griffiths pacing of the narrative and the affecting performances of an able cast. The films action conclusion, however, shows the director at his finest, both in the shooting of the sequence (parts were filmed on a frozen Vermont river) and in the editing, which is fast paced and thrilling. RBP