Before this film, the only silent movie I had ever seen was The Artist, which I have already posted about in this blog. However, this film was accompanied by a live band, which was super neat. The band, City Oh Sigh, consisted of: Kate Uhe (cello), Catherine Henehan (guitar), Sarah Smythe (Rhodes piano), and Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa (drums and percussion). I must confess, though, that I was slightly put off by their contemporary music when the movie first started.
But 10 minutes later I was too absorbed in the
film to notice. It’s surprising how quickly you adapt to silent movies.
Although there is the caricature of silent film actors “overacting”, I
personally believe they could run rings around
most modern actors.
The storyline is quite simple. A beautiful,
liberated, young city gal called Alvera implusively marries a much older
tender-hearted hillbilly. When a New York lawyer decides to escape the office to camp
in the Canadian wilderness, he meets Alvera, who has not quite learnt
that marriage means less flirting. As one critic commented,
Clara Bow could have flirted with a grizzly bear. She is really just
sensational.
The film was directed by Victor Fleming, whose other movies include the
Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. It’s amazing how the humour still resonates 86
years later, although new hilarity stems from
the modern audience finding certain things rather “quaint”, such as the
reaction of a gentleman to seeing a woman’s ankle.
It really is a wonderful film and worth seeing if you get the opportunity.
Sorry guys, no trailer for this movie. Apparently it was made pre-trailers.
So until next time :)
No comments:
Post a Comment