Experience History With Classic Movie
In a year that has seen a boom of Jane Austen adaptations, it seems only fitting that the Cathedral and the Arts Association should turn to D.W. Griffith.
As this spring’s silent-film presentation at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, the arts association will screen Griffith’s 1920 film “Way Down East,” complete with a musical score written and performed by organist Charles Bradley.
What’s fitting about the choice of this Griffith film is that, much like the themes repeatedly explored by Austen, “Way Down East” is a study both of pride and prejudice.
The difference is that Griffith, one of the film industry’s great pioneers, had a different sensibility than Austen, that novelist of early 19thcentury British manners.
“Way Down East,” for example, has a feeling of melodrama missing from all of the recent Austen adaptations - “Persuasion,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Clueless” (a variation on Austen’s “Emma”).
The modern feel is for humor. It’s as if each of these modern Austen movies is winking at us.
Very little winking goes on in Griffith’s movies. He is, after all, the man who surprised the film world with his technical and storytelling prowess in the 1915 film “Birth of a Nation” while shocking the world overall with that same film’s blatant admiration for the Ku Klux Klan.
“Way Down East,” in contrast, is an old-fashioned morality play. Set around 1910, it is a story of a poor young woman (Lillian Gish) who is duped by an unscrupulous womanizer (Lowell Sherman) into what puritans of the time might call an illegitimate liaison.
Pure at heart, the woman, upon realizing she has been deceived, struggles through loss after loss only to find a measure of peace - and perhaps a chance at real love - in the house of a religious-minded family. But again she is betrayed by the forces of hypocrisy.
And, in true melodramatic fashion, her story is played out across the slippery surface of a shifting ice floe.
Despite its simplistic view of humankind, “Way Down East” features a touching performance by Gish. And the climactic struggle, all filmed without the benefit of modern special effects, is impressive for its authentic feel.
Add the film’s strength to the stirring scores that organist Bradley is capable of coming up with, and this showing of “Way Down East” should prove a worthy treat.
Anyone who acknowledges that will be displaying both good sense and a fine sensibility for film. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MOVIE D.W. Griffith’s 1920 film “Way Down East” will be shown at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 127 E. 12th. Tickets are $7; seniors, $5; 12 and under, $3.50.