La Bohème (1926)

La Bohème (1926)

Director: King Vidor Writers: Fred De Gresac (screen play) Henri Murger (suggested by "Life in the Latin Quarter") 13 March 1926 (USA) In 1925 Lillian Gish signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: six pictures in two years for which she would be paid one million dollars. She was given complete control over director, story and cast. Miss Gish was the first established movie star to be signed by the studio. As she walked on the studio lot for the first time, banners festooned the place proclaiming that Lillian Gish was now an MGM star! Unfortunately though, no one seemed prepared for her arrival. There were no scripts for her to look at, no story outlines, not even any ideas about what her first project for the studio might be. Miss Gish relates, “So I brought out my little chest of stories, among which was La Bohème.” The studio approved. Irving Thalberg then asked Miss Gish whom she would like as her director. As she had been in Italy for two years, she had seen few recent films. Thalberg screened several for her including two reels of the yet uncompleted The Big Parade. She was so smitten with what she saw she requested the services of that film’s director, King Vidor, as well as star John Gilbert, leading lady Renée Adorée, and comic sidekick Karl Dane. She also asked for and got Hendrik Sartov as her cinematographer. Sartov had shot some of Gish’s later films for director D.W. Griffith including Orphans of the Storm (1921) and parts of Way Down East (1920). After a rehearsal period (something unheard of in studio film making of the day but part of Miss Gish’s contract) production began Artists struggle to survive in Paris, and a poor woman sacrifices herself to help a young playwright. This romantic drama reflects the sacrifice a woman often makes to help the career of a young man she loves. In modern civilization the quest to achieve success in the arts often requires years of personal sacrifices. John Gilbert was infatuated with Lillian Gish, and would mess up his "love scenes" with her on purpose, so he could keep kissing her.

































































































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

D.W. Griffith – An American Life (By Richard Schickel – 1984)

Image
D.W. Griffith – An American Life (By Richard Schickel – 1984) D.W. Griffith – An American Life By Richard Schickel – 1984 Griffith! Before him, the movies were a nickelodeon novelty, after him, they were an international art form and a powerful, glamorous American industry He was the first to codify the rules and techniques of screen storytelling, the first to establish the conventions by which the unique capacities of the movies for both sweeping spectacle and profound intimacy could be employed in long, complex narratives, the first to assert the director’s claim to primary authorship of a film Above all, it was Griffith who imagined the future of his medium, and with his driving energy, his taste for the grandiose and his flair for publicity, propelled that medium toward that future—only to be crushed by the very forces he had unleashed. D.w. Griffith (1875-1948) Painting; D.w. Griffith (1875-1948) Art Print for sale His story is, in huge measure, the story of how the ...
Read more

Lillian Gish and Jeanne Moreau – Vanity Fair 1983

Image
Lillian Gish and Jeanne Moreau – Vanity Fair 1983 Vanity Fair – October 1983 Lillian Gish Jeanne Moreau This is a summit meeting: a queen paying homage to an empress. Of course, Lillian Gish, far right, is no truer a blueblood than any other homespun midwesterner. But wherever she goes now, she is treated like a monarch, acknowledging standing ovations in allAmerican palaces like Radio City Music Hall. Her admirers aren’t really applauding her 101 films (she has just completed the 102nd, about a sweet old lady and her sweet old dog). They may never have seen her slim but supernally intense performances in the D. W. Griffith masterpieces or in the Victor Sjostrom classics she made in the late ’20s at MGM. Lillian-Gish-Jeanne-Moreau 60s But they sense in her the grace, the purity, the wealth of symbolism that royalty sustains. Gish’s companion here, Jeanne Moreau, radiates a similar authority; what Gish was to the cinema of the ’20s, Moreau was to the cinema of the ’60s. ...
Read more

LEADING LADIES – 1976 (Electa Clark) PDF Download

Image
  LEADING LADIES – 1976 (Electa Clark) PDF Download “Humanity marches on into the new and glorious 20th century!” exults a daily paper in its first issue of 1901. “Come, oh century, child of hope!” begins a long poem on page one. Another column trills, “We are 20th century women … with the dower of privilege and responsibility which enriches women in this wonderful era!” Lillian Gish had a similar effect on millions who saw her in the movies. She was not only talented, she had a unique quality: pure, ethereal, elusive. As if she acted in whispers. As if in her hands, the definite blurred into the indefinite. It was drama critic George Jean Nathan who described her as being “behind a veil of silver chiffon.” He courted Lillian for years, but she eluded marriage. Horse drawn float declares National American Woman Suffrage Association’s support for Bristow-Mondell amendment 1920s Lillian Gish Actress ‘La Boheme’ Oversized DBW Photo by Kenneth Alexander Leading ladies an affectionate l...
Read more