Hearts of the World
True Heart Susie
Screening on Film
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Hearts of the World
Directed by D.W. Griffith.
With Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Dorothy Gish.
US, 1918, 35mm, black & white, silent, 98 min.
Print source: HFA
Following the success of Intolerance, D.W. Griffith was commissioned by the British government to craft a film which would encourage U.S. entry into World War I. Hearts of the World follows the travails of two American families living in France who are drawn into the horrors of battle when Germany invades France and bombards their once-tranquil village. Lillian Gish stars as Marie, the plucky daughter who falls for Douglas, her neighbor. The idealistic couple is forced to postpone their planned nuptials when he volunteers for the French army and risks his life battling the Germans. More than mere propaganda, the film ranks as one of Griffith's greatest achievements thanks to his honest depiction of war and its toll.
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True Heart Susie
Directed by D.W. Griffith.
With Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Clarine Seymour.
US, 1919, 35mm, black & white, silent, 70 min.
Print source: HFA
This pastoral romance is the last film in which Griffith draws directly upon his warmest memories of a bucolic childhood, and final reflection on a quickly vanishing America. Without the intervention of subplots, chases, sexually imperiled heroines, and the rest of his beloved melodramatic preoccupations, Griffith employs an urban/country dialectic, a typical strategy of the time, to valorize the virtues of the country girl (Gish) who carefully waits for her man to return to his senses after being "corrupted" by a city woman.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Ballad of a Soldier / The Forty-First
Nightfall / Great Day in the Morning
Verboten! / Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street
I'll Never Forget What's 'is Name / The Jokers
Hearts of the World / True Heart Susie
Anna Christie / The Long Voyage Home
Suddenly Last Summer / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Quiet Days in Clichy / Henry and June
The Freshman / The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sheep Has Five Legs / The Law is the Law
Hobson's Choice / Sidewalks of London
I Know Where I'm Going / Outcast of the Islands
An Inspector Calls / The Belles of St. Trinian's
Mother Joan of the Angels / Thérèse
Dawn of the Dead / Strange Behavior
