Taken from the 1971 TV series The Silent Years hosted by Orson Welles Which usually featured a lecture by Welles about a film from the silent era and then the film itself would be broadcast. This was his introduction to the 1916 D. W. Griffith film Intolerance.
I was not aware of this series. Thanks for the clip. FYI, the footage is not from Intollerance - I believe it is the Italian film Quo Vidas (c. 1914). The elephants were a major influence on Griffith's even more spectacular vision.
bdhardwick 1 month ago
@8825TWO And yet John Ford and even Corman (with his Edgar Allan Poe, low budget movies) proved the very potential of cinema... It is a sad thing that so many movies have been paled due to either being pallid or inaccessible to modern audiences. I'm still glad that they exist in some form though (DVD).
blowskiol 7 months ago
I can't believe the dearth of views this video has earned. I just love hearing somebody in a field such as Orson Welles, with great modesty about his achievements, and always extolling those who came before. Today in the modern cinema, nobody really has that to share with their predecessors; "Intolerance" and "Citizen Kane" should be appreciated on both of their merits; in the end, when Welles says "maybe it doesn't work" is really what makes Griffith's movie fascinating experimentally .
blowskiol 7 months ago
And that's a clip from Cabiria right afterwards, correct? Thank-you for this. I would have liked to have seen Mr. Welles speak more on the film. I have an old VHS of "Orphans of the Storm" from this series, and Mr. Welles also introduces that. Most delightful.
I wish more of these Killiam presentations were available on DVD. William Perry's (?) piano score for "Orphans" is one of my favourite accompaniments to any silent film.
Thank-you again.
JB1912JB 11 months ago