Orphans of the Storm

Griffith continues his '_____ for Dummies' history lessons. I was able to give some allowances for the earlier work, but you could learn 100x this films worth on the French Revolution in the time this takes to painfully draw everything out in melodramatic convulsions. And with the movements of the German/Russians brewing at this moment in history, I feel less inclined to show interest in the little technical value this holds.On the positive, Lillian Gish continues to absolutely stun me.

Griffith is just a master of visual storytelling. This film flows so well, alternating moments of tension with moments of excitement with moments of pathos and so on. The last 45 minutes or so are a frenetic mix of all these elements, bringing the film to a satisfying, if not unexpected, close. Lillian Gish is especially good in the latter portions of the film, while Griffith is able to bring a sense of intimacy in spite of the revolutionary context.

This silent melodrama about the French Revolution holds up fairly well and is impressively staged. That said, it can be a bit up and down, with some parts dragging.

Órfãs da Tempestade estreava há 100 anos nos EUA. Qualquer coisinha tem me deixado de mal humor com os filmes, o da vez é já nos intertítulos de saída alertando aos americanos para ter cuidado com a anarquia e o bolchevismo, a partir dalí eu só queria estar vendo um filme sobre outras irmãs orfãs francesas menos reaças: Justine e Juliette. O plot twist é que os cineastas russos usaram todas as técnicas lapidadas por Griffith para engrandecer o cinema bolchevista. Rá! DVDRip no MakingOff.

84.50

Kind of hard to watch this right after Intolerance but still great. Very moving.

The sequence of the first reencounter of the sisters (when Lillian Gish's character hears her sister singing in the street and first thinks she's going crazy and then rush herself to the balcony) it's a masterpiece on its own. But the film is overplotted and frequently loses its charm.

"'We are SMART cinephiles!'" http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/12/episode-82-cinema-masters-vol-xi.html

Two peaks: The celebration of the revolution has some interesting use of camera and striking editing, and the finale is an all out high melodrama sucker punch as a pardon is rushed to avoid our heroine's demise on the guillotine! Starts slow, but it becomes watchable to the point of it not feeling long at 150 minutes.

An extremely lavish production with energetic melodrama, cute romance, sprawling crowds, comic relief, etc. In short, Griffith delivers an extra large helping of what he's best at, in his most well-shot and consistent feature to date. The history's as oversimplified and muddled as ever (Danton, "the Abraham Lincoln of France," literally rides to the rescue against the intolerant forces of "Bolshevism"), but that's not really what matters in a picture like this, is it?

what a thrilling climax.

Griffith tempers his hillbilly sensibilities and attempts to make a more contemporary film (for 1921) with melodrama included--an ingredient I have little taste for. Nevertheless, he churns out a vaguely watchable silent.

Black and white, silent and very long. This is great story telling. Full of interesting characters and set in a dramatic historical context.

Griffith's desire to make an epic out of this, as described by another review, does take away from what could have been a great historical melodrama, feeling stretched at times despite the grand scope. Everything else about it is very well made, even more so in that the director went out of his way to make a film set in France and using the French Revolution to look at issues of class. Also with Lillian Gish, this is the first time a silent film actress has stuck out for me in terms of presence.

Griffith tries something crazy: technique, and it works out in his favor. It is still long and quite boring at times, but the sophistication of camera language makes it the most tolerable of his films. Also, not one but two Gish's! Dorothy isn't as captivating as Lillian but she keeps up.

The story is actually an interesting one, and using the French revolution as a backdrop to a class system conflict works well. It's a shame Griffith can't let the film speak for itself, but that's not the big problem. No, the big problem is this is two and a half hours when it could be half that length if only Griffith hadn't been so intent on making it epic. He stretches out scenes and a lot of the political stuff feels very clumsily integrated to the narrative.