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'First tragedy ever filmed' to be screened Monday

By David Gonnerman '90
February 14, 2008

"If the films for which pioneering American filmmaker D.W. Griffith is most famous," says Diana Postlethwaite, who currently holds the Boldt Chair for the Humanities at St. Olaf, The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), are grand epic symphonies of images and emotions, Broken Blossoms (1919) is a lyric piece of chamber music."

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Gish
Broken Blossoms (90 minutes), the second film of the St. Olaf Classic American Film Festival , will be shown Monday, Feb. 18, in Viking Theater of Buntrock Commons. This screening -- like all of the festival's offerings -- are free and open to the public.

In what has been called the first tragedy ever filmed, D.W. Griffith tells the story of two broken people in London's Limehouse slums -- a young girl abused by her prizefighter father, and a lonely Chinese immigrant -- who attempt to make one another whole.

"This old-fashioned melodrama and morality tale centers on aspects of race and gender that still resonate today: racial prejudice and domestic violence," explains Postlethwaite. "In this classic film of the 'silent movie' era, you'll experience the beautiful photography of Billy Bitzer and the luminous acting of Lillian Gish."

About the director, Postlethwaite notes that Griffiths shows himself to be "chillingly racist" in his depiction of African-Americans in The Birth of a Nation. "Some have said that Broken Blossoms was his attempt to make amends," she says.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.