The International Institute presents a unique cinematographic experience with the projection of silent films with live piano music. The film we are highlighting for Women's History Month is The Love Light of 1921, which was never formally distributed in Spain. This film was written and directed by Frances Marion and starring Mary Pickford, both pioneering women in Hollywood.
Our film curator, Sibley Labandeira, will give an introduction in Spanish to contextualize the film. Next, sonia megias He will play the film on the piano while we screen it.
The Love Light tells the story of Angela (Mary Pickford), who lives a quiet and modest life in a small Italian seaside town. Everything changes with the First World War, when most of the young people of the town, including her two brothers, go to war. Under these circumstances, Angela will have to take charge of the lighthouse and, one day, she will meet a young shipwrecked man who claims to be an American deserter. The young woman takes pity, hides him and ends up falling in love with her, but it will not be until they have secretly married that she discovers that, in reality, her handsome American is a German spy. Sweet and pious Angela is forced to choose between her husband and her people, this will only be the first of many difficulties that await her.
This film would be Mary Pickford's first strictly dramatic role and would be in stark contrast to her comedic-romance roles and her portrayals of angelic girls, characters who had made her America's sweetheart. Her diminutive size and youthful beauty, along with her talent and charisma, had catapulted her to international stardom with an unprecedented following, but it would be her business savvy that would make her career lasting and end up as an essential figure in Hollywood history, as a founder of United Artists and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among other things.
The film is the product of the professional and personal relationship between Pickford and Frances Marion, one of the most respected screenwriters in Hollywood. Marion was the first person to win two Academy Awards for her screenplay and is credited with defining the careers of some of the biggest stars of the day, including Marie Dressler and Greta Garbo. She was enormously prolific and possessed of great talent, traits that, along with her extensive media presence during her lifetime, made her a source of inspiration for countless female writers.
Presentation of the film in Spanish: Sibley Labandeira, Ph.D..
Pianist: sonia megias.