The Dragon Painter (1919/Silent/Milestone Films/New Yorker/DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: B-
As
digital videomaking becomes more and more common and the results more and more
banal, film is being bashed from all sides, including those who do not realize
most feature films are still filmed.
They try to say video is no different that film as if features are no
better than formula television, but the absolute proof that both ideas are dead
wrong is the legacy of the silent cinema. Though far too many films have disappeared
over the years, especially silent ones, many still exist and especially thanks
to the efforts of the likes of Eastman House and Milestone Films. William Worthington’s The Dragon Painter (1919) was thought to be lost until it shockingly
turned up in France.
Now
cleaned up and saved, the hour-long landmark Asian-American film about an
artist and the object of his love is out on DVD from Milestone and it is a gem
that also introduced Japanese culture and designs to U.S. audiences for the
first time. Star Sessue Hayakawa (known
later for David Lean’s Bridge On The
River Kwai) was so big a lead star in the silent era that he even had his
own production company and this film was the peak work. Not only is this a beautiful film, it is also
an interesting one and one that holds up very well as it approaches its 90th
Anniversary.
Of course
it has title cards, but the acting is good and there is both chemistry between
the actors and presence that reminds us what we have lost in too much of our
current cinema. After watching much
sludge of late, it reminded me that much can be gained form the first cinema
and you can see now more than ever in the download and degraded digital video age
that the best stories are told with images as much as anything else and in this
case, the title becomes ironic as if it were a film within a film. The painter’s obsessions come out in his
works and actions.
Hayakawa’s
wife Tsuru Aoki plays the female lead and that makes sense, revealing something
more personal than just another drama, which this is not in the first
place. Toyo Fujita and long time
character actor Edward Peil Jr. also star.
The 1.33
X 1 full frame image is naturally going to show its age, but there is a wide
variety of tinting throughout and this still looks very good for its age. I wish there was some new technology that
could wetgate the small scratches and streaks out of the print, but I was
surprised the detail and depth this old print still had. Frank D. Williams (Tillie’s Punctured Romance, the Millie films) did a beautiful, even groundbreaking cinematography
job that made me even think of Robert Richardson’s work on Quentin Tarantino’s
work on Kill Bill or all things. When you can
see a silent film look this good, you have a whole new respect for early
cinema.
A new
score was made in 2005 by Mark Izu and it is not bad, but it sounds too new to
go with this old film, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo presents the score
simply and with only minor sonic complains.
I would rather watch it with silence or other music of some kind, but
Izu is at least ambitious and trying.
Extras
are many an include stills, a 1921 comedy short with Fatty Arbuckle and
Hayakawa from the Screenshot series (No. 20 here) lasting 5 minutes, Hayakawa
in Thomas Ince’s 1914 film Wrath Of The
Gods (or The Destruction of
Sakura-Jima) and several documents in DVD-ROM form including a new
presskit, Wrath script, How To Build Your Own Volcano by Jack
Theakston, Hollywood’s First Asian Cycle
by Brian Taves and the original novel to Dragon
Painter.
Milestone
delivers once again.
- Nicholas Sheffo
