Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 210: Tue Aug 7

The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Capra, 1933): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.45pm


This Frank Capra film, which is also being shown on August 18th, is part of the Big Screen Classics strand at BFI Southbank. You can find the full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
Frank Capra's very atypical drama about an American missionary (Barbara Stanwyck) taken prisoner by a Chinese warlord (Nils Asther) is not only his masterpiece but also one of the great love stories to come out of Hollywood in the 30s—subtle, delicate, moody, mystical, and passionate. Joseph Walker shot it through filters and with textured shadows that suggest Sternberg; Edward Paramore wrote the script, adapted from a story by Grace Zaring Stone. Oddly enough, this perverse and beautiful film was chosen to open Radio City Music Hall in 1933; it was not one of Capra's commercial successes, but it beats the rest of his oeuvre by miles, and both Stanwyck and Asther are extraordinary.
Jonathan Rosenbaum


Here (and above) is an extract.

No comments: