Our first livestream! And now you can view the film with improvised piano accompaniment, Dr. Carli’s introduction, and a few more words about the film from after the presentation.
“What does the world, told a truth, but lie the more.” From the American Film Institute catalog entry: “Writer-director Lois Weber credited painter Adolphe Faugeron’s La Vérité, or The Truth, as her inspiration for Hypocrites. Interviewed in the 3 Apr 1915 Los Angeles Herald, she said, “From the day that I saw the reproduction of Faugeron’s painting, The Naked Truth [sic], I regretted my inability to teach on the screen the lesson I saw in his painting… Every obstacle we had been taught to avoid in pictures confronted me in the execution of this idea—the introduction of religious subjects, the different and many times double exposures requiring experimentation that would cost time and money, the necessity for an enormous cast, and last but not least, the introduction of the figure of ‘Truth’ in the only guise I could consider if I were to be as honest as Faugeron.”
Weber’s film was a labor of love and commitment, much like her protagonist’s search for conceptual Truth; she had no way to know whether censors would permit it to be screened, due the presentation of Truth as a naked woman (played by Margaret Edwards in her only screen role – the first appearance of a nude American actress in a non-pornographic film).
Amazingly, only the state of Ohio and the city of Boston refused to screen the film, which is highly – almost metaphysically – allegorical. It was accepted by critics and censors as “high art,” possibly through partial incomprehension of Weber’s innovative storytelling style. (Supposedly Boston’s notorious mayor James Curley, who had entered his first term of office one year before Hypocrites was released, wanted clothing hand-painted on Margaret Edwards’ figure in every frame before he would allow it to be exhibited there.)
While the vignettes seen in the mirror that Truth holds up to contemporary Love, Society, and Family are dated (Politics is timeless), they carry us to the world of a century past and invite us to consider what we would see in her mirror today.
The video for this livestream is a glorious restoration by George Willeman for the Library of Congress, from the best copy available – which nonetheless displays the effect of decomposition of nitrate film. We are, in so many ways, lucky to see this film at all. This presentation will be made freely available after the livestream through the Film Vault on this site.
Hypocrites
Our first livestream! And now you can view the film with improvised piano accompaniment, Dr. Carli’s introduction, and a few more words about the film from after the presentation.
“What does the world, told a truth, but lie the more.” From the American Film Institute catalog entry: “Writer-director Lois Weber credited painter Adolphe Faugeron’s La Vérité, or The Truth, as her inspiration for Hypocrites. Interviewed in the 3 Apr 1915 Los Angeles Herald, she said, “From the day that I saw the reproduction of Faugeron’s painting, The Naked Truth [sic], I regretted my inability to teach on the screen the lesson I saw in his painting… Every obstacle we had been taught to avoid in pictures confronted me in the execution of this idea—the introduction of religious subjects, the different and many times double exposures requiring experimentation that would cost time and money, the necessity for an enormous cast, and last but not least, the introduction of the figure of ‘Truth’ in the only guise I could consider if I were to be as honest as Faugeron.”
Weber’s film was a labor of love and commitment, much like her protagonist’s search for conceptual Truth; she had no way to know whether censors would permit it to be screened, due the presentation of Truth as a naked woman (played by Margaret Edwards in her only screen role – the first appearance of a nude American actress in a non-pornographic film).
Amazingly, only the state of Ohio and the city of Boston refused to screen the film, which is highly – almost metaphysically – allegorical. It was accepted by critics and censors as “high art,” possibly through partial incomprehension of Weber’s innovative storytelling style. (Supposedly Boston’s notorious mayor James Curley, who had entered his first term of office one year before Hypocrites was released, wanted clothing hand-painted on Margaret Edwards’ figure in every frame before he would allow it to be exhibited there.)
While the vignettes seen in the mirror that Truth holds up to contemporary Love, Society, and Family are dated (Politics is timeless), they carry us to the world of a century past and invite us to consider what we would see in her mirror today.
The video for this livestream is a glorious restoration by George Willeman for the Library of Congress, from the best copy available – which nonetheless displays the effect of decomposition of nitrate film. We are, in so many ways, lucky to see this film at all. This presentation will be made freely available after the livestream through the Film Vault on this site.