revolution_fr | Because it's Panto Season... (Reply)

There are loads of silent films on Youtube (a joy, if you like watching effete men in eyeshadow staring wildly and waving their arms around, which I do, for some reason), and, though Abel Gance's 'Napoleon' isn't up there - yet - D.W. Griffith's 1921 'Orphans of the Storm' is! And it's hilarious! I haven't seen it since I was about 10 so just had a dim memory of how silly it was, but I've just watched parts 9-14 (from the bit where Danton - the fairy godmother of the piece - storms the Bastille (oh, yes, it's that sort of film) to the end, where Danton rides his white charger to...oh, but I won't spoil it for you! Robespierre, btw, is the chap who looks like a cross between the Child-Catcher, the Cabaret MC and Kenneth Williams as Dandy Desmond, and his existence apparently has a negative effect on horticulture. He's also a Bolshevik, according to the inter-titles, and watch out for the wonderful Charleston-dancing Flapper Sansculotte chicks with headbands and off the shoulder dresses!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=7TE68skx4As