|
|
Post by snsurone on Apr 1, 2018 15:42:29 GMT
This is one my favorite silent movies, indeed, one of my favorite movies altogether.
The climactic scene of Richard Barthelmess rescuing Lillian Gish from an ice floe before it went over the falls, is all the more exciting because it was REAL.
No CGI here!
However, there is one thing that puzzles me:
In the scene where the Gish character is in labor, there is a title reading "Maternity--woman's Gesthemane (sp?)".
Could someone please tell me what that means?
I know it has something to do with Christianity, but I'm Jewish, not Christian.
|
|
|
|
Post by claudius on Apr 1, 2018 16:46:17 GMT
Gethsemane was the Garden where Jesus had his agonizing ordeal of self-doubt, fear, pain, and resolution an hour or two before he was arrested.
|
|
|
|
Post by marianne48 on Apr 1, 2018 16:56:45 GMT
Labor and childbirth are likened to Jesus Christ's experience at Gesthemane because of its agony and pain, as well as its possibility of immortality. Gish's character's situation also can be compared to Gethsemane because, being young and unmarried, she's an innocent person who has to suffer the burden of someone else's sin, as Jesus had to die for humanity's sins. In Griffith's time, sex was seen as much more pleasurable for men, but more of a chore for women, followed by the ordeal of pregnancy and childbirth, which was also more often fatal in that era.
|
|
|
|
Post by snsurone on Apr 1, 2018 18:32:43 GMT
Thank you both for the info.
And marianne--with all the cases of sexual harassment coming into the open, sex is a pleasure for men and a chore for women even today!
|
|
|
|
Post by newmanium on Aug 1, 2018 20:46:41 GMT
I watched part of it last night on demand from TCM. I'm only up to the part where Richard Barthelmess sees Anna and falls in love at first sight. He did a great job of showing this just with body language and facial expressions, and nobody does wistful like Lillian Gish.
I haven't seen too many silents, but I like them. In fact, I prefer them to the early talkies where everyone is so stilted.
|
|
|
|
Post by snsurone on Aug 3, 2018 15:33:31 GMT
I watched part of it last night on demand from TCM. I'm only up to the part where Richard Barthelmess sees Anna and falls in love at first sight. He did a great job of showing this just with body language and facial expressions, and nobody does wistful like Lillian Gish. I haven't seen too many silents, but I like them. In fact, I prefer them to the early talkies where everyone is so stilted. That's due to static cameras and large, clumsy sound equipment. This is brilliantly spoofed in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. |
|
|
|
Post by teleadm on Aug 3, 2018 16:36:14 GMT
 There is not many making-of pictures from the silent cinema days, but here is one from Way Down East 1920, one of Lillian Gish's arms never recovered from her injuries making these scenes, but she masked it well for the rest of her career. |
|
