Frank Borzage

[Stefan Andersson]

Has there been any word on a release of the restored "Secrets" (1924)? https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/9761 And is it the complete version? Couldn't find much about it.

Restoration information:
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/secrets/

[hearthesilence]

Caught the "upgraded" restoration of 7th Heaven at MoMA today. FWIW, back in 2018, as part of a program of restorations from the Fox Film Corporation (i.e. 1920s and 1930s productions from William Fox's studio), MoMA showed 7th Heaven in a "new digital restoration funded by Twentieth Century Fox and based on the only surviving nitrate print" which IIRC belongs to the museum's archives. Pretty sure that's where I first saw the movie.

For this year's To Save and Project, MoMA unveiled a new "upgraded" restoration that per Dave Kehr they were able to do on their own because the film is in the public domain. Their site says it features "improved image quality, stabilized intertitles, and the original color tints." Honestly couldn't tell you how different it is without a side-by-side comparison, and frustratingly the only physical HD release I know of is the French Blu-ray that's long out-of-print (which I don't have). You can definitely tell it's taken from a print and not from the OCN - there's no denying it's at least a few generations removed - but it still looks beautiful. They actually held two screenings for this restoration, and the first was done with live accompaniment - for this second screening, they played the original Movietone soundtrack, which is mostly score but has a handful of sound effects like a door knocking and a clock ticking. What's strange is that the score skipped in places, but backward rather than forward so you heard a beat or two repeat itself. Not sure if this is in the source material or some kind of anomaly in the restoration, but it's probably worth fixing if the film gets a Blu-ray release. I'm hoping it does, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they settle for a regular BD instead of a UHD.

[MichaelB]

Since this thread has been revived, it's probably worth mentioning that Indicator just announced Little Man, What Now? as an April Blu-ray release.

[hearthesilence]

I mentioned this in a different thread, but Twentieth Century Fox funded a 4K restoration of Street Angel from nitrate elements held by MoMA, which also premiered it in 2019, and on Sunday, MoMA unveiled an "updated" restoration. Similar to 7th Heaven, they were able to continue their own work on the previous 4K restoration because Street Angel also entered the public domain as of this year.

With that in mind, perhaps there's real hope that MoMA's latest restorations for both films can see a physical release, especially if Disney/Fox no longer has a say.

[Stefan Andersson]

7th Heaven showing in L.A. Nov. 24 in 4K:
https://www.academymuseum.org/en/progra ... 2a67cb81db

[Red Screamer]

My year-end reflection in the Naruse thread made me realize that I also spent a lot of time with Borzage over the past year and change. Of the films I've seen, he's both impressively consistent and stylistically more flexible than his reputation suggests. Emotionally invigorating films like The Mortal Storm and Little Man, What Now get a lot out of a polarization between ideal foreground / cynical background -- with the former in particular being the only Hollywood WWII film I can think of that focuses on friends, family, and colleagues giving into fascism -- while Till We Meet Again has a robust, physical grace that makes it a would-be MacMahonian classic, and what's left of The River transforms it into a structural experiment whose abstraction only enhances an intensely erotic romance, with the film a series of one-on-one encounters between lovers with crucial intervening events left offscreen (like Heaven Can Wait or Chronique d'une liaison passagère). The improvisations of History is Made at Night (of the let's-put-on-a-show variety) and Man's Castle (of the lyrical, first-person variety) also have their own flavor, distinct from a contemporaneous improviser like McCarey, who was much more prone to chaos, like he was more down to earth in his romantacism, which are maybe the same thing.

I'm looking forward to exploring more of Borzage's filmography -- Bad Girl and I've Always Loved You are next to me on my desk -- and I'm open to any less obvious recommendations, since films as good as Little Man, What Now and Till We Meet Again aren't even in his top 15 most viewed on Letterboxd.

[domino harvey]

I’d bump up Seven Sweethearts as a less obvious pick

[bottlesofsmoke]

I'm looking forward to exploring more of Borzage's filmography -- Bad Girl and I've Always Loved You are next to me on my desk -- and I'm open to any less obvious recommendations, since films as good as Little Man, What Now and Till We Meet Again aren't even in his top 15 most viewed on Letterboxd.

I’d second Seven Sweethearts, though it is definitely different. I also recommend No Greater Glory, which is sort of La Grande Illusion with kids, and if you like Little Man, What Now?, then you definitely should watch Three Comrades, which is very similar. Those two, plus No Greater Glory and The Mortal Storm (and then later Till We Meet Again to some extent) make up a group of Borzage’s anti-fascist films (most made before that was a popular sentiment in Hollywood movies) where fascism and nationalism and the strife they cause are set up as enemies of his biggest concerns: love, friendship, family, etc. They are certainly compelling as a unified perspective that is indeed impressively consistent. That Margaret Sullavan stars in three of them also helps.

Borzage is one of my favorite filmmakers (pretty sure I’ve seen every one of his extant films from 1925 on) so I’ve found little pleasures in many of his otherwise least interesting films - even something like Flirtation Walk has beautiful, lyrical romance scenes that recall his best silent era films - but he definitely has as distinctly “major” and “minor” films as any filmmaker from this era, though as the example of Seven Sweethearts suggests, those that are usually considered minor aren’t necessarily so.

[bad future]

Three Comrades would be my top recommendation out of ones I don't know that you've seen. bottleofsmoke, I'd be interested to know how you think it's similar to Little Man, What Now? as for some reason it's not immediately obvious to me!

[bottlesofsmoke]

Three Comrades would be my top recommendation out of ones I don't know that you've seen. bottleofsmoke, I'd be interested to know how you think it's similar to Little Man, What Now? as for some reason it's not immediately obvious to me!

Primarily, they are both set in Weimar Germany, with inter-war strife and the rise of fascism lurking in the background. There’s a progression, I think, from film to film, in the amount that this affects the characters, a progression that in some ways follows along with the real world’s perception of Nazism between 1934 and 1940: in Little Man, What Now? its mostly background - demonstrations and riots, radical speeches, frustration in the lower classes, etc. - but still an important factor in the lives of the main characters. In Three Comrades, the influence becomes more direct, particularly through the character of Gottfried, and the battles between political ideologies are more foregrounded. Finally, by the time of The Mortal Storm, fascism/Nazism is the primary negative influence in the lives of the characters, not interwar economics, as in Little Man, What Now? or mixed with illness, as in Three Comrades, it is purely the Nazism that tears apart families and lovers, nothing else .

[vertigo]

There's another Borzage's picture made for Columbia, No Greater Glory
Is it restored? Why is not released?

[bottlesofsmoke]

There's another Borzage's picture made for Columbia, No Greater Glory
Is it restored? Why is not released?

There’s a pretty good looking DVD of it in print.

[vertigo]

There’s a pretty good looking DVD of it in print.

Well, I did not know that, thank you bottleofsmoke, but I think, perhaps, to buy a DVD is quite passé. Isn't it?
And if I think, and of course I am thinking, on those rotten discs from American WB ... auto censored words.