Greed (1924)
Country: US
Technical: bw 110m (24fps)
Director: Erich von Stroheim
Cast: Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, Jean Hersholt
Synopsis:
A gold-miner turned dentist marries his best friend's woman, but their lives turn sour when she buys a winning lottery ticket and becomes increasingly obsessive about hoarding their wealth.
Review:
Von Stroheim's masterpiece went horrendously over budget and had to be brutally shortened by MGM from an originally uncommercial running length of over forty-two reels! His desire to translate every detail of the novel to the screen, and include touches of realism that could never be perceived by an unaware viewer, was typical of the director's maverick genius. What remains is still one of the most stunning films ever made, and certainly one of a handful of supreme works of the 1920s. The filming is years ahead of itself in mastery of the close-up, camera angle and attention to realistic detail, essential in this most Zola-esque of novels. Perhaps there are a few too many ominous moments inserted into the flow, lending an air of portentousness, but titles never help in this regard, and one must remember that audiences change. As a study of human nature's ability to destroy itself it remains a pertinent comment on our materialist times, and in Gowland has a stunning central performance, perhaps the weirdest looking protagonist in American film until Jack Nance in Eraserhead.
Country: US
Technical: bw 110m (24fps)
Director: Erich von Stroheim
Cast: Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, Jean Hersholt
Synopsis:
A gold-miner turned dentist marries his best friend's woman, but their lives turn sour when she buys a winning lottery ticket and becomes increasingly obsessive about hoarding their wealth.
Review:
Von Stroheim's masterpiece went horrendously over budget and had to be brutally shortened by MGM from an originally uncommercial running length of over forty-two reels! His desire to translate every detail of the novel to the screen, and include touches of realism that could never be perceived by an unaware viewer, was typical of the director's maverick genius. What remains is still one of the most stunning films ever made, and certainly one of a handful of supreme works of the 1920s. The filming is years ahead of itself in mastery of the close-up, camera angle and attention to realistic detail, essential in this most Zola-esque of novels. Perhaps there are a few too many ominous moments inserted into the flow, lending an air of portentousness, but titles never help in this regard, and one must remember that audiences change. As a study of human nature's ability to destroy itself it remains a pertinent comment on our materialist times, and in Gowland has a stunning central performance, perhaps the weirdest looking protagonist in American film until Jack Nance in Eraserhead.
Country: US
Technical: bw 110m (24fps)
Director: Erich von Stroheim
Cast: Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, Jean Hersholt
Synopsis:
A gold-miner turned dentist marries his best friend's woman, but their lives turn sour when she buys a winning lottery ticket and becomes increasingly obsessive about hoarding their wealth.
Review:
Von Stroheim's masterpiece went horrendously over budget and had to be brutally shortened by MGM from an originally uncommercial running length of over forty-two reels! His desire to translate every detail of the novel to the screen, and include touches of realism that could never be perceived by an unaware viewer, was typical of the director's maverick genius. What remains is still one of the most stunning films ever made, and certainly one of a handful of supreme works of the 1920s. The filming is years ahead of itself in mastery of the close-up, camera angle and attention to realistic detail, essential in this most Zola-esque of novels. Perhaps there are a few too many ominous moments inserted into the flow, lending an air of portentousness, but titles never help in this regard, and one must remember that audiences change. As a study of human nature's ability to destroy itself it remains a pertinent comment on our materialist times, and in Gowland has a stunning central performance, perhaps the weirdest looking protagonist in American film until Jack Nance in Eraserhead.