Blind Husbands
Dir: Erich von Stroheim | USA | 1919 | 99 mins | DVD
Von Stroheim himself plays the part of a lustful army officer, a serial seducer who sets his cap at the dreamy wife of a rich American whilst they on holiday in the South Tyrol. In a remarkably assured debut von Stroheim displays a nascent virtuosity as he unpacks a morally ambiguous tale of sexual obsession told with what became his trademark sumptuous visual sensibility. More than this though, it is a phenomenally visually and narratively complex film, and beyond its historical interest, an engrossing and poignant melodrama.
The ICO is touring this recently rediscovered and restored first film from director Erich Von Stroheim with the kind permission of the Austrian Film Museum.
The Austrian Film Museum have allowed the ICO a temporary sub-distribution license on ‘DVD facsimile’ taken from the Austrian Film Museum's analog 35mm preservation of the film. The Film Museum have found an extra 8 minutes of footage from previous versions and have re-established the film with a new score, as an authentic masterpiece of silent cinema.
Reviews
- "This film is exceptional. It marks and epoch"
Variety 1919 - "Here is a photoplay which excels because it is built on the solid foundation of a real idea, namely, the universal carelessness and inattention of husbands to their wives after, in common parlance, they have them securely bound by the gold or platinum band of domestic slavery. Just so long as husbands allow themselves to take their wives for granted, to forget the little attentions and kindnesses after the honeymoon is ended, just so long will pretty young wives be the prey of Don Juans who appease them with pretty sayings and suave signs of devotion"
Motion Picture Magazine, 1920
Read the archive reviews
- " It's a moral tale, as simplistic as it sounds, but what makes it distinctive is the use of design and the characters' personal mannerisms as fully functional elements of the director's overall moral purpose. "
Time Out New York
Read the Time Out New York review
