Orphans of the Storm

D.W. Griffith’s wildly entertaining, pop-historical epic stars Lillian and Dorothy Gish as orphaned sisters swept up in the eye of the French Revolution as they suffer first at the hands of the decadent aristocracy and then face the Reign of Terror. The culmination of a dazzling run of groundbreaking smash hits that included Intolerance and Broken Blossoms, Griffith’s last great triumph has it all: blind innocents terrorized by hand-rubbingly evil villainesses; a memorably menacing Robespierre clashing with a heroic Danton; orgiastic, cast-of-hundreds bacchanals; a sprinkling of then-relevant anti-Bolshevist sentiment; and, to top it all off, a nail-biting, race-to-the-guillotine climax. Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art with support from The Lillian Gish Trust for Film Preservation. The screening will be accompanied with a live piano performance by Donald Sosin. Please note that this special live event will not include an intermission.