OrgaNova Cinema Symphony / The Crowd / John and Mary... Good Morning, America - NOSPR

After the opening scenes of King Vidor’s film, the awareness that we are watching a silent picture simply fades away... On the screen unfolds a symphony of the great modern city. A brave new world where skyscrapers reach towards the sky, hundreds of boats and barges ply the Hudson, and life is all speed, momentum and youth. Here, the Promised Land and the American Dream are within arm’s reach. When the hands of the clock strike the appointed hour, a human river pours out of New York’s offices and workplaces – young, beautiful, smiling, impeccably dressed. Among them is John.

As he and the charming Mary, whom he has only just met, set off to celebrate their evening together, they spot a clown juggling balls amid the stream of traffic. He is dressed in a comic costume covered in advertising slogans. ‘Poor fellow – I bet his father had plans for him to become President’, John remarks to Mary. The ominous significance of this moment will return at the very end of the film. But first we race through the city of neon lights and roller coasters carrying laughing crowds straight towards the promise of success...

In his 1928 film, King Vidor portrays America of the 1920s with remarkable mastery, at times with an almost documentary eye. Yet he is already listening for the distant rumble of the Great Depression, which will arrive shortly, in 1929. His portrait of the isolated individual adrift in an indifferent world carries an almost prophetic force. John and Mary begin by running through life; later, they move forward with ever greater effort. The hope of a brighter future gradually seems to dry up, as does their love. Household appliances break down, loved ones die, and loneliness in the midst of the crowd arrives silently, invisible to others... Fortunately, feelings remain, as does the welcoming cinema, filled with shared emotion and laughter, softening life’s burdens and offering consolation.

Anita Skwara

Concert duration: approximately 130 minutes 

Language: intertitles in English
Subtitles: Polish

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