The story of Lois Weber is one of the saddest in all of early American cinema. One of two prominent women producer-directors to emerge during the silent era (the other Alice Guy Blache' has a very similar story), she was at one time considered to be the equal of D.W. Griffith and by 1916 was actually the highest paid director in the world. She had total control over her films tackling such inflammatory material as religious hypocrisy, drug addiction, birth control and abortion. Along with her husband Phillips Smalley she ran her own studio where THE BLOT was filmed. By 1921 when this film was released her career was in decline (this was her last independent production) and the studio system with its old world patriarchal attitude began to take hold creating the Hollywood of legend where most women could be stars but little else. Very few of her films survive but this is one of the best (only the controversial THE HYPOCRITES of 1915 is better in my opinion) as it shows how Weber approached filmmaking. THE BLOT's emphasis is on story and character as opposed to action or spectacle and features solid work from Claire Windsor and Louis Calhern as the young couple with a finely detailed performance from Margaret McWade as the mother. The film is well photographed with sophisticated editing for maximum impact. The bittersweet ending is well handled and stays with you long after the film is over. By the end of the decade Weber had lost her studio, her husband, and the opportunity to direct. She died in 1939 at the age of 60 and within a few years was completely forgotten along with virtually all of her films. Only in the past few years has a proper reevaluation begun to take place with three of her films coming out on video. THE BLOT remains her best known feature and is given a first class DVD release thanks to the restoration efforts of Photoplay Productions and Milestone Films. It's the least that this pioneer woman director deserves. Give it a try along with anything else you can find by her and discover why Lois Weber was once known to her contemporaries as "the female D. W. Griffith" then ask yourself why you haven't heard of her.
just ok
This may have been made by one of the first woman directors Lois Weber but it is not flawless. Too many characters are thrown in the beginning of the picture making it hard to follow along. The pace doesn't pick up until the middle of the picture. The leading actress Claire Windsor who plays the poor girl shows some promise. The one thing I liked about the picture was how the neighbor next door started to treat the family with warmth, only after they apologized and made themselves look inferior to her. It showed how people are. More like 2.5. I liked the over dramatic scene with the chicken. Although several sites list this as being fifty so minutes, it's more around 80.
Powerful window into a different world
Lois Weber gets a lot of attention these days as the preeminent American woman director of the silent era, much of which overlooks the fact that most of her films were made in collaboration with her husband Philips Smalley, and we don't really know who wore the jodhpurs in the family. The Blot, however, makes a strong case for having been directed by a woman or at least strongly shaped by the women who wrote it, because the most keenly felt thing in the picture by far is the quiet despair of the housewife trying to keep house with too few resources. At those moments, a simple message picture about why college professors should be paid more than subsistence wages (apparently mainly so they aren't quite so envious of the spoiled young bloods who take their classes) rises to a Stroheimian, even Zolaesque level of intensity in its depiction of the bitter effects of poverty on the spirit.
A striking example of the socially-minded silent (which producer Kevin Brownlow documented in his landmark book Behind the Mask of Innocence), very different from the usual image of silent escapism or melodrama-not to mention proof that Louis Calhern really was young enough once to play an undergraduate.
La Terre is an interesting French silent film. It is based on a novel by Émile Zola and tells the story of an old farmer who, in failing health, struggles to work his land. He decides, like King Lear, to divide his land between his three children. They are placed under an obligation to provide him with a pension of 800 francs plus food and fuel. However the old man finds that they are later less than willing to keep up their side of the bargain. The story is quite powerful and moving, but while the general thrust of the narrative is clear many of the details are rather confused. This may be because the print of the film is incomplete. There are no really obvious breaks in continuity, but on a number of occasions something happens which is not properly explained. The exact nature of the... More Info about this DVD Director(s): André Antoine DVD Release Date: Released the 09 December 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Let me just go on record of saying that the closest equivalent to Lon Chaney that we have working today is Robert DeNiro. Think about it - Chaney went to extraordinary lengths to achieve authenticity (60 pound hump on his back to play Quasimodo, wires to pull his face back in the Phantom's death's-head grin, DeNiro gains weight for Raging Bull, etc), Chaney had a tough, strong, solid physical presence that lends his every appearance a weight and reality that most other actors lack, he often played the darker side of human nature but did so with sensivity, realism, and pathos, and Chaney was a hard working professional, a non-nonsense person who was dedicated to his craft. I've associated Chaneyt and DeNiro in my head for a long time now and have never read or heard that comparrison, so I... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Wallace Worsley DVD Release Date: Released the 28 October 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It is famous for turning cutie-pie Clara Bow into, as critic David Thomson described her, "the first mass-market sex symbol." Somewhat overshadowed by this phenomenon is the fact that It is also a terrifically entertaining picture, an effortless cruise through the manners and morals of the flapper era. Bow plays a shopgirl who sets her saucer eyes on her boss (Antonio Moreno); it isn't terribly hard to land him, since she possesses dazzle, charm, spunk... in a word, "It." And if we're still not sure what "It" is, there's a moment of high camp hilarity when matronly author Elinor Glyn, who penned the original definition of "It," strides through the movie and delivers herself of its meaning. Actually, Bow's delightful performance does more to define "It" than anything else,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Josef von Sternberg - Clarence G. Badger DVD Release Date: Released the 20 February 2001 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Everyone has already said it better than I, so simply drop everything...and purchase this remarkable film.
And thank you, again, KINO, for allowing us the chance to behold these masterworks. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Leni DVD Release Date: Released the 30 September 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Consistently cited by critics worldwide as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's bittersweet drama of life, love, class, and the social code of manners and behavior ("the rules of the game") is a savage critique undertaken with sensitivity and compassion. Renoir's catch-phrase through the film, "Everyone has their reasons," develops a multilayered meaning by the conclusion. A young aviator (Roland Toutain) commits a serious social faux pas by alluding to an affair on national radio. To avert a scandal, the cultured Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio), husband to the aviator's mistress, Christine (Nora Gregor), and a philanderer in his own right, invites all to a weekend hunting party in his country mansion. The complicated maze of marriages and mistresses (social register... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Nora Gregor - Marcel Dalio Director(s): Jean Renoir DVD Release Date: Released the 20 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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