Broken Blossoms (Griffith, 1919)

Broken Blossoms (Griffith, 1919) - TSPDT #112

A Chinese falls into love with the mistreated daughter of a violent local thug and boxer.

Although it is a rather small story stretched out to somewhat improbable length, it holds up amazingly well against time. Some of the photography is quite remarkable. The use of masks to cover up parts of the picture - resulting in vertical cinematography is used quite a bit - the tinting of imagery has been used by Griffith over and over. There are slightly too many plates already, and the language seems a bit strange - like a sort of "passive formulation".

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