Broken Blossoms
1919, NR, 76 min. Directed by D.W. Griffith. Starring Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess.
REVIEWED By Will Robinson Sheff, Mon., May 6, 2002
Gish plays the 15-year-old daughter of a brutally abusive prizefighter and Richard Barthelmess plays the sensitive Chinese shopkeeper who loves and briefly shelters her. Visually stunning, Broken Blossoms boasts sequences tinted violet, rose, antique yellow, and deep blue, as well as beautiful photography by Griffith regular G.W. "Billy" Bitzer, who captures both the weathered roughness of Limehouse-district London and – with specially created soft-focus filters – the heartbreaking vulnerability in Gish's face.
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Marjorie Baumgarten, June 20, 2001
March 11, 2005
Broken Blossoms, D.W. Griffith, Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess
