El Dorado
Silent Film Evening with Musical Accompaniment
Tuesday, February 12, 7PM
Milwaukee Premiere
Synopsis:
"PASSION...it's Spain and the shivering voluptuousness of Grenada, inebriated with perfumes, insolent castanets, melancholic guitars, and the death rattle of a suffering mother, amongst gypsies and fools, on the trestles of El Dorado."
Shot amidst the monumental architecture of the Spanish Alhambra, L'Herbier's modernist impressionist classic explores the internal struggle of a tormented cabaret dancer (Eve Francis) through a multitude of intense, nuanced and rapidly interlaced visual notations, innovative technical effects, orthochromatic color, and an original score. Cineaste Louis Delluc calls the film a symphonic "music of light"!
Co-sponsored by the Film Studies Program, the Film Department, and the Department of Art History.
Marcel L'Herbier, DVD, 98 min, 1921, France