Sunday | November 27, 2005 7:00 pm

Isn't Life Wonderful

Live piano accompaniment by Yakov Gubanov
Screening on Film

Directed by D.W. Griffith.
With Carol Dempster, Neil Hamilton, Erville Alderson.
US, 1924, 35mm, black & white, silent, 115 min.

Filmed in post-Versailles Germany, this tough-times drama sees Griffith examining the hardships that prevail in war's aftermath, utilizing a gritty style that some have taken as a precursor to the Italian neo-realism that followed the second World War. Polish orphan Inga (Dempster) struggles to hold together the family that has taken her in while hoping to marry Paul (Hamilton), who returns from the front suffering from gas poisoning. The potato garden he secretly tends at his shipyard job serves as a poignant, if sentimental, symbol of the young couple's shared hopes for the future in this classic love-conquers-all tale.