20 Years since the death of one of the greatest...

 It was October 1994, after years of ill health following a debilitating stroke, that Burt Lancaster died. His death came within a year of the passing of his good friend and acrobat partner Nick Cravat.
 After suffering injuries that cut short his circus career with Cravat, Burt Lang went to Hollywood to pursue a career in acting. He became an instant star at this very first attempt with The Killers, within a couple of years he was already one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and he began to have more creative control over his films. This creativeness included the casting of his old partner Nick in his films, where the two would showcase some of their acrobatic skills from their trapeze act.

By the late 50's Burt had become more than just a movie star, but also a refined actor. The great amount of sensitivity he brought to his role, as well as his male bravado and charisma, made him that all could admire. He would go on to make films with some of the greatest artists in both American and European cinema; such as John Frankenheimer, Luchino Visconti, Bernardo Bertolucci and Louis Malle. Not only a great actor, Burt was a staunch liberal throughout his life and he campaigned alongside Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston and Harry Belafonte during the Civil Rights movement.

Below is a 15 minute tribute to Burt and his cinematic legacy:

Way Down East (1920) Review

D.W. Griffith is without doubt one of the most controversial directors in all of film history. It is, perhaps, due to the flagrantly racist tone of his films (mainly The Birth of a Nation); as well as the "God-fearing" themes in some of his films, that film scholars like to diminish his impact on cinema.

Admittedly his screenplays are steeped in melodrama due to the unyielding virtue of his protagonists. 'Way Down East' can't be excused of these same criticisms. At the same time, there is something in the story of a young woman tricked into a false marriage, before being spurned and tossed aside whilst pregnant, that still resonates with an audience today. Coupled together with Lillian Gish, who must surely be regarded as the one of the first and finest example of screen acting as an art form. Her innocent and pure performance, goes undiminished throughout the film, despite the fate that befalls her; but you always feel the underlying pain and anguish she feels through her guilty secret.

Richard Barthelmess is equally evocative as the admirer of the post traumatic Gish, who is at a loss as to his own rejection from Gish. You can sense the inner turmoil and tension between the two in the second half of the film. This translates superbly even today, with it's subtleties and feeling of unrequited love.

Unfortunately the same subtleties cannot be ascribed to the majority of the supporting cast; who are merely caricatures, whose indulgence only serve to add to the melodrama and aide Griffith's moral diatribe. That said, it is still a story that grips you, and there are more than obvious parallel's to Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbevilles', despite this being adapted from an entirely different stage play.

Like all Griffith work there a more than just a few glimpses of directorial genius. With 'Way Down East' he arguably exhibits the pièce de résistance of his entire career in the ice floe finale. It is to do it a disservice to call it "a feat of early film making", for it stands on it's own in terms of technical achievement and it's provocative images.

Lillian Gish lies afloat a sheet of ice after being overwhelmed by a blizzard; as she lays down the ice begins to break, and the ice-floe begins. Barthelmess sports her limp body flowing downstream and jump across the ice-floe in order to rescue her before an upcoming waterfall. It is 5 spectacular minutes of cinema at both it's most magnificent and it's purest, in this case both leads performed their own stunts and in an actual blizzard and on a real ice-floe. Lillian Gish would suffer from a couple of ailments, that were caused during the filming, for the rest of her life. (This entire scene can be viewed below)

Perhaps on paper 'Way Down East' isn't as ground breaking as 'The Birth of a Nation' or 'Intolerance'; but when taking into account the finale, as well as Gish's performance, it may be argued that it is in fact his most innovative film.

Exciting Greta Garbo footage (featuring Mark A. Vieira)

Greta Garbo has for sometime now being my favourite film star of all time; so it was extremely exciting earlier this year when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released footage of a rarely before seen screen test of Queen Christina photographed by William H. Daniels.

These tests are a sumptuous array of Garbo posing alongside moments where she is relaxed and at ease. Both in close up and long shot she looks radiant and pulchritudinous; and since their release in January we have an exciting exclusive from my friends at GarboForever.com.

Mark A. Vieira, author of some of the greatest photographic collection of some of my favourite stars, has provided some insight into the actual footage HERE . Please click the link to read more about these tests, especially interesting is the analysis from a photographic aspect. Hopefully there will be future "lost" footage of The Divine Woman (both Garbo and the film).

A Lost Art

This is the finest example of why the internet is good.

This documentary will never be released on DVD or shown on television again.

This is because some faceless corporations who own the rights to some of the clips used are blocking it's release. They are not interested in the art and knowledge in which they own; things which aren't as tangiable like money.
They do not understand the wider picture that by showing this great documentary to a new audience they will garner more interest in the films rights in which they own. Kevin Brownlow has dedicated his life to the preservation and restoration of the world's greatest art form: Motion Picture. This is his reward.

This series, will eventually be pulled from Youtube, just like it has been on numerous other Youtube channels down the years.

There is also another issue concerning films made before 1940. A lot of films have been noted as "lost", but this is not strictly true. There are a lot of people in the world who have the original reels of these "lost" films, but refuse to donate them to film institutions as they need a financial incentive to do this.

I want to bring this to people's attention because there is a real risk that all this may one day be lost forever. Silent films is where movie magic was born and cinema is just as culturally significant as a Turner, a Renoir or a Titian.