Broken Blossoms

Starring: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess Director: DW Griffith Dvd Release: 11th May, 1999 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Black & White, NTSC, Region 0 Encoding

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Broken Blossoms is a 1919 film which tells the story of a Chinese man who goes to England to enlighten Christians about the teachings of Buddha. Battered by intolerance, he opens a small shop. When he takes in a brutalized English girl & takes care of her, the racism of his English neighbors turns violent. It stars Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess & Donald Crisp. The movie was directed by D W Griffith & adapted by Griffith from a story by Thomas Burke. The approval of peaceful race relations as presented in this film stands in sharp contrast to Griffiths earlier The Birth of a Nation & many have interpreted it as his apologia for the earlier film. However, it should be noted that despite the positive representation of interracial romance, Griffith followed convention in casting a white actor, Richard Barthlemess, in the role of the Chinaman. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

This film, made in just nineteen days, along with Way Down East represents D W Griffiths finest achievement. The atmosphere of limehouse was expectly recreated & is a perfect setting for the story.

Lillian Gishs plays the part of a fifteen year old girl called Lucy totally convincingly . The scenes of her trapped in the cupboard turning hysterically, while Battling Burrows beats down the door is truely harrowing & must represent one of the finest moments in motion picture history. If there had been academy awards available at this time Gish would have deserve the best actress award for this performance.

The addition of Broken Blossoms on this DVD has been restored by David Sheppard & the picture quality is therefore stunning, it includes the original colour tints of the films release as well as a score written especially for the film in the 1920s. I can not recommend this DVD more, it is one that you will want to watch again & again.

Lillian Gish, was an American actress. Born Lillian Diana de Guiche in Springfield, Ohio, she was the sister of actress Dorothy Gish. The Gish sisters mother Mary began acting in order to support the family after her husband abandoned them. When Lillian & Dorothy were old enough, they joined her act. They also took modeling jobs. In 1914, they met Mary Pickford & she got them contracts with Biograph Studios. Their first role was in An Unseen Enemy, directed by D,W. Griffith. The Gish-Griffith association was so close that it has been widely suspected that Lillian was Griffiths lover, though the evidence is circumstantial at best. Known relationships were Lillians affairs with Charles Duell, a producer, to whom she was reportedly engaged & the drama critic & editor George Jean Nathan. Having appeared in over 25 short films & features in her first two years in Hollywood, Lillian became a major star, becoming known as The First Lady of the Silent Screen. Preferring silent movies, she spurned talkies until MGM finally let her go from her contract in 1928.

Editors Choice: Way Down East, Broken Blossoms, The Birth Of A Nation, Dw Griffith, View DVDology

Richard Barthelmess was a silent film star. The son of an actress, Barthelmess began acting in college, doing amateur productions. Convinced by a family friend, actress Alla Nazimova, to try acting professionally, he made his first film appearance in 1916 in the serial Glorias Romance as an extra. His next role, in War Brides opposite Alla Nazimova, attracted the attention of legendary director D W Griffith, who offered him several important roles, finally casting him opposite Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms & Way Down East. In the coming years, he was one of Hollywood s highest paid performers, starring in such classics as The Patent Leather Kid & The Noose ; he was nominated for Best Actor at the first Academy Awards for his performance in both these films. He also founded his own production company, Inspiration Film Company, together with Charles Duell & Henry King. One of their films, Tolable David, in which Barthelmess starred as a teenage mailman, was a major success & is considered by many to be his finest performance. Posters Of Richard Barthelmess

Editors Choice: Way Down East, Broken Blossoms, View DVDology

David Lewelyn Wark Griffith was an American film director probably best known for his film The Birth of a Nation. Born in Crestwood, Oldham County, Kentucky to Jacob Roaring Jake Griffith, a Confederate Army colonel & Civil War hero, David Wark Griffith has been called the father of film grammar. Scholars no longer dispute that few or any of his innovations actually began with him, but still he is given credit for a set of codes that have become the universal back-bone to the film language. In the broadest terms, Griffith contributed Mise en Scene & various film editing techniques to film grammar. That being said, he still used many elements attributed to the primitive style of movie-making that predated classical Hollywoods continuity system. These techniques include frontal staging, exaggerated gestures, hardly any camera movement & no point of view shots. Credit for Griffiths cinematic innovations must be shared with his cameraman of many years, Billy Bitzer. In addition, he worked on many of his best films with the legendary silent star Lillian Gish. Posters Of Abraham Lincoln

Editors Choice: Abraham Lincoln, The Birth Of A Nation, Sally Of The Sawdust, Way Down East, Broken Blossoms, Intolerance, America, Dw Griffith, View DVDology

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