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Pretty Good

Crappy film

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Two orphaned sisters (Lillian and Dorothy Gish) are caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution, encountering misery and love along the way.The last Griffith film to feature Lillian and Dorothy Gish, it is often considered Griffith's last major commercial success, after box-office hits such as The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, and Broken Blossoms. Like his earlier films, Griffith used historical events to comment on contemporary events, in this case the French Revolution to warn about the rise of Bolshevism. The film is about class conflict and a plea for inter-class understanding and against destructive hatred.For me, the best Griffith will always be "Broken Blossoms", but his whole method is interesting. Making such epic films to make a political point... it's admirable, and even more admirable considered how much time must have went into making such long films at that point in time. I can only imagine how much film he had to burn through to get what he ended up with.

The bigwig is the patriarch of narrative. With "Those Awful Hats" 1909, "Corner in Wheat", "The Painted Lady" and many of his biographs, you can sense that this is a man who understands the lexicon of cinema (though did not pioneer it in the same sense that George Albert Smith made the close-up or how Louis Lumiere showed the first train interacting with an American audience), he is still responsible for crosscutting and this is evident in "What Shall we Do with our Old", "Birth of a Nation", "The Muskateers from Pig Alley" and onwards.Intolerance ranks as one of the most potent films ever made by a one trick pony. Many say Welles was the greatest innovator - well, he did do something of fresh sinew, but he himself also quoted Griffith's intolerance as an influence to his illustrious debut. Kubrick as well says that he was like Ikurus, when he flew too close to the sun and melted, but regardless he was ambitious at changing film from a novelty to a revered art.So enter "Orphans of the Storm" his period film (similar to that of an older french film he done "The Sealed Room"), which is in essence, topping with Amadeus and Barry Lyndon as the great period drama. And it's this because of the enlightening irrevocable effect of the films doctrines. The french revolutionists are selfish people and Maximilien Robespierre is the one that fostered it. The film chronicles the tragedy of Jean Picard's decision to allow his Daughters to live in luxury. With this judicious, yet regretful decision, Louise (Dorothy Griffith) and Henriette (Lillian Gish) are born. Later in life, Louise is blind and Henriette, her consolable sister, finds word about a cure for it. When they travel away they're separated into the darkness - Louise is lost and Henriette is taken away only to be saved by an anti-french revolutionist Chevalier De Vaudrey, who as one person in the film puts it "I wish more aristocrats were like you" and Louise then falls into the trap of Frochard, which in sequence we see one of the best dolly shots pulled away as she gets manipulated as she is used as a singer in order to get money. Where the reign takes its toll against the Bolshevism, Jacques-Forget-Not subverts the system periodically and this is so powerful because of how character driven it really is, you can empathise with these peoples struggle. However with certain scenes, such as the one where a Man sits on the back of a French Revolutionist, it seems ridiculous, to me it shows how the place has been rendered to many dolorous people. The movie is probably Griffith's least melodramatic film. Its interplay with appropriate characters, offset by a poignant time and ornate setting. The movie is mesmerising - the swordsmanship, the guillotine, the carts, the costume - it all feels authentic and Griffith really wanted to adapt the book faithfully, and that was conducive to the manifestation of a bulb that is replete with such melancholy, ambivalence and escapism.No matter what, the napoleonic scale (as with his prior films) never ceases to spellbind me. I find Griffith entertaining because he's the illusionist that creates totalitarians and characters who we strive for in their victory, and it's all in quick succession. A time well spent.

DW Griffith's fall from grace during the 1920s wasn't just because his technique began to look old fashioned. It was that his stories got worse. His narrative structures were inspired by great works of literature, particularly that of Charles Dickens, but his plots were often sourced from obscure novels or trashy stage melodramas. These stories were often implausible and simplistic, shortcomings he could only make up for with his sensitive cinematic technique and the reliability of his actors.Orphans of the Storm is rather lazily-written, full of one-dimensional characters, predictable situations, and sudden coincidences leaping over gaps in the plot, as two sisters, one of them blind, lose each other, find each other, then lose each other again amid the chaos of the French Revolution. However, it's (just about) possible to overlook a bad story so long as it's well told. Unfortunately, Griffith appears to be following the trend of having more and longer title cards, explaining every point and feeding us superficial lines of dialogue, where the action alone should tell us what is going on. In some scenes, such as those where Dorothy Gish's blindness is brought up, we get the worst of both worlds, having not only the point-labouring title cards, but also exaggerated pantomiming, with characters pointing emphatically at both eyes.Griffith should have known that all his best moments were wordless and understated. Thankfully, he has not forgotten how to direct a good love scene, and those between Joseph Schildkraut and Lillian Gish are particularly effective, framed plainly in a series of close-ups, barely moving their faces but conveying a world of emotion. This was Schildkraut's first American picture, and he is one of the most pleasingly natural and convincing lead men Griffith had worked with thus far. With his fine, sharp features he was also appropriately handsome, although a few films later he would play Judas in King of Kings, and subsequently became a bit typecast. As for Gish, she is far more satisfying here in one of her serene and sensible roles, as opposed to the hysterical girly parts she was increasingly given. The other standout in this cast is Monte Blue as Danton, whipping a crowd into a frenzy without once resorting to hamminess.It was a long-established rule that every major Griffith picture had to feature a battle somewhere in the middle, and end with a climactic ride-to-the-rescue. By 1921 these action sequences were becoming a trifle uninspired. The battle between revolutionaries and soldiers has a great build-up, but then resorts to bland god-shots, making the moment suddenly seem very cold. The finale is one of Griffith's least engaging, I think because while the ride itself is excitingly shot and edited, the business at the guillotine is just a lot of faffing around, a far cry from Bobby Haron's haunting walk to the scaffold in Intolerance.In spite of all this, Orphans of the Storm – like every Griffith feature I have seen – does have its absolutely divine moments. There's a very dynamic sense of rhythm to the scene at the ball and the later celebration of the victorious revolutionaries. The reunion of Schildkraut and Lillian Gish is both powerful and sensitive. Griffith may have been beginning to slip, but at least he was failing beautifully.

A masterpiece.I cannot help being a musician and silent film lover. Do not fault me for my views. :) The music that populates a movie is important - and it is important to me. When I first saw this movie, it was an accident of 1970s channel surfing - remember when we all had less than 10 choices.I walked in when the titles were going up and the piano sounds of William Perry played. And they played into my heart - and have never left there. Repeated viewings with this piano score has indelibly bored itself into my subconscious.Talk about the original score has intrigued me - and the use of the then contemporary music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk did also interest me - somewhat. Other versions I read about talk about the "nice" string score.I just downloaded the AMAZON version of this version and have come away woefully and irreversibly disappointed with the result.What did I hear? Instead of the Perry piano score, I heard some fin-de-siecle tinklings written by Gottschalk. It did not satisfy - it did not bring me into the story - it did not make me want to see this movie in its entirety. Not like another score that stole my heart.If any of you every have a chance to encounter the Willam Perry piano score for this movie - stop, look and listen. His music like NO OTHER evokes every emotion you could possibly imagine - - every nuance -- like no other score will ever do.The score has romantic melodies that one can recognize and return again and again during crucial moments - it has stirring, dramatic sounds - it has the Marseillaise (even though it is historically precedent of this time in the French Revolution) -- it has up and downs, crescendos and diminuendos, it has tender, heartfelt moments of beauty that I will remember for the rest of my life.Years ago, I was able to correspond with Mr. Perry. I had wanted the piano score - to buy. He said to me that none existed. I was astounded because what I thought was a carefully worked out score - was his own - on the SPOT compilation. He said that he had music of the several themes on his piano - and was always watching the action. He "cued" the movie and then played what he had planned - completely on the fly! I told him that the result to me was astounding and so memorable.This is what genius is. Unexplainable.Though I can recommend this movie without any reservation - because it is my favorite silent film - I cannot recommend any other musical score - than the piano score by William Perry.