HUMANS SUCK OR WHY I WON’T TELL YOU I’M IN LOVE
Struggling to come up with something to say to your crush? Even better than being quiet in the movie theatre is that special form of not talking that one experiences only at silent films. Please your cineaste lover by shutting up – this double feature is sure to make you laugh and cringe.
Can you tolerate this excess of production value?
INTOLERANCE is D. W. Griffith’s visual essay on humanity’s inhumanity to man and one of the most impressive works of cinema to date. Using four narratives set in different epochs from biblical times to the then present, INTOLERANCE is held together by themes of injustice and hatred as they pertain to shots of young woman out of luck interspersed with love’s struggle to survive throughout the ages. It may be ironic that D. W. is most famous for THE BIRTH OF A NATION – a film that came out a year prior with the Ku Klux Klan as the heroes in what turns out to be J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Return of the King,” but for racists.
Buster’s stomaching that all’s fair in love and war (esp. in Rome).
On a lighter note comes a comedy inspired by its partner in this double feature. Buster Keaton is a master actor, comedian, and director of the Silent Era. It’s no surprise that he took Griffith’s “apology” film and turned it into a romantic comedy (one might argue that it already was). THREE AGES follows two men in competition for the same woman during the Stone Age, ancient Rome, and the then just beginning era of American prohibition. If there’s one thing that can help you bond with another human being, it’s realizing how laughable is the fact that we’re all really shitty to each other.
APPEALS TO: Historic re-enactment buffs, people with little to say, & those who say, “back in the good old days,” with no context.
THREE AGES (1923) [60 min.]
DIR. BUSTER KEATON
7/13 – 12:00PM & 4:30PM
INTOLERANCE (1916) [170 min.]
DIR. D. W. GRIFFITH
7/13 – 1:15PM & 6:00PM
$8 each, $12 for both.
Brattle Theatre
40 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
The article above is an excerpt from a piece that was originally published on 7/1/2014 by BDCwire. It can be found here.
