Capital Celluloid 2019 - Day 36: Tue Feb 5

The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Capra, 1933): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 8.30pm


This screening, which is also being presented on February 2nd and 25th, and is part of the Barbara Stanwyck season at BFI Southbank. You can find all the 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.

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