The Wind
+ Lola Perrin performs specially commissioned live piano score
Filmmaker: Victor Sjostrom (dir.) & Frances Marion (scr.)
With Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Dorothy Cumming
USA / 1928 / 79 min
BFI Southbank NFT3, Wed 9 March, 6.10pm
A wild wind haunts a virginal girl in this gothic drama of suppressed sexuality
Sweet virginal Hettie (Gish) moves out West to her cousin's ranch in the 'land o the winds'. Forced to marry Lige (Hanson) and inhabit his isolated shack, she is driven insane by the wild wind. Suppressed sexuality and gothic undercurrents run through this film, which was helmed by Lillian Gish and Frances Marion.
Lola Perrin
Working with imaginative jazz textures and minimalist themes, pianist and composer Lola Perrin has been widely published and recorded, and performed on BBC Radio 3. She regularly works collaboratively with film and visual art projects.
'Hauntingly compelling'
Guardian
Lillian Gish
Known as the 'first lady of the silent screen', Lillian Gish was an influential performer who is widely credited as bringing artistic credibility to film acting. Her career spanned 75 years across silents and talkies, and she was received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Film Institute and Academy Awards.
Frances Marion
The first woman to win an Academy Award for screenwriting, Frances Marion has been described as the ‘best scriptwriter the motion picture world has ever produced’ with a legacy boasting over 300 scripts.