1921/USA 150m Dir: D.W. Griffith Key Cast: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish
Based on: The Two Orphans by Eugene Cormon and Adolphe d'Ennery (Play)
This is the fourth D.W. Griffith film on the list and have always been able to admire the director's film-making prowess despite the fact that there are massive flaws with the films themselves, not least the racism they seem to so often be packed with. Orphans of the Storm lacks these flaws and pleasingly isn't racist.
The last of Griffith's sweeping historical epics, the film follows two young girls caught up in the French revolution. Henriette and Louise (Lillian and Dorothy Gish) were raised as sisters though are not related biologically (which makes the casting choice of real-life sisters a strange one). Plague kills their parents and blinds Louise, leading the sisters to head to Paris in search of a cure where they are separated and find themselves in the middle of the storming of the Bastille and the reign of terror.
I felt that this film really gets the balance right between the real-life historical event and the fictional story within it, something that Griffith's similar films didn't manage so well. There's just enough stuff with the likes of Danton and Robespierre to understand the context but the focus is on the sisters.
That central relationship works really well and helps to elicit one of Lillian Gish's best performances as she screams after her sister from a balcony but is arrested before she can get to her. I generally find silent films to be fairly emotionless but here Gish obviously uses her real feelings to let out bags of emotion. This also means there's a real tension to the film and we care about what happens to each sister because of the feelings of the other- a race to save Henriette from the guillotine is hugely dramatic.
Like all of the director's historical melodramas, this looks spectacular. There are sizeable sets, enormous crowds of extras and details like the guillotine looks very realistic. There are plenty of things to criticize Griffith for but it's undeniable that he was a master of his craft, knowing which moments are epic scenes of historical mayhem and which are close-ups of emotion.
The film's politics are a bit odd as the film celebrates the French Revolution, says the country's subsequent leaders were bad, warns against Bolshevism and says how great American democracy is. It's trying to compare two revolutions that were quite different and use them as a way of saying the US democracy is perfect. Obviously context is important and this is a very 1920s message but it all seems a bit simplistic by modern standards.
All in all an excellent film and it's nice to finally watch a Griffith film which manages to nail every aspect.
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