Event

ORPHANS OF THE STORM

Tuesday, September 29 at 7:30pm
Live Musical Accompaniment by BEN MODEL on the Cinemas Miditzer Theater Organ
$9 Members / $12 Public / Includes Reception

Active Membership Will Be Checked

Legendary director D.W. Griffith delivers another sweeping historical epic. Sisters Lillian and Dorothy Gish are girls who become separated in the streets of eighteenth century Paris during the dramatic upheavals of the French Revolution. As Henriette (Lillian Gish) searches for her blind adopted sister Louise (Dorothy Gish), she falls in love with a kind and concerned young member of the aristocracy, Chevalier. Unfortunately their love is doomed by her commoner status, and his callous uncle, who railroads her off to prison to keep them apart. The revolution occurs, and Henriette is liberated, but then there's more trouble when mob rule causes chaos in the streets, the guillotine awaits Chevalier, and Louise remains just out of reach. Griffith captures the class injustice at the heart of this story by contrasting scenes of lavish parties at the houses of the nobles with the abject poverty of the beggars outside. The thrilling use of crowds and meticulous historical accuracy make this an epic comparable in scope and theme to Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION.

USA, 1922, 150 min.

For over two decades Ben Model has served as resident silent film accompanist for The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Ben composes and improvises all his own scores and performs in a style that both evokes the silent era and reflects a contemporary (and younger) audience's appreciation of music and film scoring.