Originally posted to Facebook on 3/22/2017
The Sheik was our fourth film from 1921, and is another one of the rare silents that is still referenced now and again in popular culture. It is probably Rudolph Valentino’s best known film, and the only one that we’ve seen him in so far. In addition it is also the first time we’ve seen Adolphe Menjou, who doesn’t look particularly young in this film, but is younger and trimmer than I’ve seen him elsewhere. Valentino of course died just a few years later, but Menjou continued appearing in films up through the 1960s, notably including Kubrick’s Paths of Glory.
To repeat a common theme, many of the movies we’ve been seeing from this period do a lousy job of representing non-Western cultures, and this movie is worse than most in this regard. Valentino plays a nomadic sheik who kidnaps an English woman, played by Agnes Ayres, and forces her to obey his orders. (The bestselling novel upon which the movie was based is apparently much more graphic than the movie, and was considered scandalous at the time.) During her captivity she grows to love him, which seems like a backward and antiquated sort of a development, until you reflect that a film for children with a very similar plot is right now the highest grossing film for 2017. At one point in the movie Ayres is kidnapped by a different desert chieftain -- which is presented without much irony as much worse morally than the original kidnapping. Apparently it is a well-known violation of desert ethics to kidnap someone who has already been kidnapped.
In short, this was not a good movie. One of the most egregious scenes comes near the end, when Valentino’s character has been injured. Ayres is holding his hand, and says to Menjou, “His hand is so large for an Arab.” I paused the film at this point to see how much was left, and discussed it briefly with the kids. (Me: “Is that even a stereotype?” Ben: “Haven’t you heard the old saying: ‘As tiny as an Arab’s hands?’” Me: “Please don’t say anything like that at school.”)
Next up is Destiny, our fifth and final film from 1921, and the first we’ve seen directed by Fritz Lang. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
Sunday, September 2, 2018
The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Originally posted to Facebook on 3/14/2017
The Phantom Carriage was our third film from from 1921, and our fourth directed by Victor Sjöström. Of all the directors of this period, I think Sjöström has the best batting average, and this film continues the pattern -- in fact it is probably the best of his films we’ve seen to date. He again plays the male lead, as was true in all but one of his previous films we’ve seen, and Hilda Borgström, who also played the title character in 1913’s Ingeborg Holm, plays his wife. What sets Sjöström apart is mostly competent and assured storytelling -- though he is as innovative and technically solid as any of his peers. For instance, in the early part of this film, Sjöström’s character begins telling a story, which switches to a flashback. During that flashback, another character begins telling a story, and the film begins showing that narrative. Perhaps that had been done previously, but it seems pretty unusual for 1921; yet it was handled as smoothly as it would be in a modern film.
Sjöström, in the film, plays a character whose alcoholism has ruined his life, and Astrid Holm plays a Salvation Army worker who attempts to save him. She is played as a virtual saint, and apparently has fallen in love with him as well, though that is never fully motivated or developed. (I pointed out to the kids that her character had more or less the same profession as the women temperancists in Intolerance, who are of course portrayed in that movie as shrewish killjoys.) When the movie opens Holm is dying of tuberculosis and wants to see Sjöström before she dies. Most of the story is told in flashbacks -- again, fairly innovative for 1921 -- led by the driver of the eponymous Phantom Carriage, who is the ghost of a man whom Sjöström’s character once knew. I think the plot probably owes something to A Christmas Carol, but it is much more focused on the specifics of Sjöström’s alcoholism than the grand sweep of his life. Another interesting bit of trivia about this film is that there is a scene where Sjöström breaks down a door with an axe, which some people have theorized was the inspiration for the similar scene in The Shining.
Our next film, the fourth from 1921, will be the iconic Rudolph Valentino film The Sheik. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
The Phantom Carriage was our third film from from 1921, and our fourth directed by Victor Sjöström. Of all the directors of this period, I think Sjöström has the best batting average, and this film continues the pattern -- in fact it is probably the best of his films we’ve seen to date. He again plays the male lead, as was true in all but one of his previous films we’ve seen, and Hilda Borgström, who also played the title character in 1913’s Ingeborg Holm, plays his wife. What sets Sjöström apart is mostly competent and assured storytelling -- though he is as innovative and technically solid as any of his peers. For instance, in the early part of this film, Sjöström’s character begins telling a story, which switches to a flashback. During that flashback, another character begins telling a story, and the film begins showing that narrative. Perhaps that had been done previously, but it seems pretty unusual for 1921; yet it was handled as smoothly as it would be in a modern film.
Sjöström, in the film, plays a character whose alcoholism has ruined his life, and Astrid Holm plays a Salvation Army worker who attempts to save him. She is played as a virtual saint, and apparently has fallen in love with him as well, though that is never fully motivated or developed. (I pointed out to the kids that her character had more or less the same profession as the women temperancists in Intolerance, who are of course portrayed in that movie as shrewish killjoys.) When the movie opens Holm is dying of tuberculosis and wants to see Sjöström before she dies. Most of the story is told in flashbacks -- again, fairly innovative for 1921 -- led by the driver of the eponymous Phantom Carriage, who is the ghost of a man whom Sjöström’s character once knew. I think the plot probably owes something to A Christmas Carol, but it is much more focused on the specifics of Sjöström’s alcoholism than the grand sweep of his life. Another interesting bit of trivia about this film is that there is a scene where Sjöström breaks down a door with an axe, which some people have theorized was the inspiration for the similar scene in The Shining.
Our next film, the fourth from 1921, will be the iconic Rudolph Valentino film The Sheik. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
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