Telluride’s 1994 screening of Paul Fejós’ film brought the Alloy Orchestra to the international spotlight and became one of the Festival’s legendary events. Since then, the reputation of Fejós’ film—a lyrical romance of two lonely hearts in New York—has continued to grow. By popular demand, we proudly present an encore performance from the fabulous Alloys with a brand new restored print from George Eastman House, thus offering another opportunity to discover one of the greatest achievements of silent cinema during its transition to sound. Released with two brief talking sequences and endowed with evocative splashes of manually applied color (a rarity for 1928), this masterwork of poetic realism is regarded as the highest achievement of Hungarian-born director Fejós during his brief career in Hollywood. LONESOME reminds us that the simplest of all love stories can be as compelling as a thriller. –PCU (U.S., 1928, 69m)
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
This rarely screened silent-era gem is a classic boy-meets-girl story set in the hustle and bustle of New York City. Jim Tryon and
Barbara Kent play Jim, a factory worker, and Mary, a telephone operator, who meet at an Independence Day carnival by the seashore. Director
Paul Fejos crams each frame with energy and movement, employing all kinds of expressive camerawork and visual effects. In a montage depicting the hectic drudgery of Mary's working day, he superimposes a clock and several tiny faces chattering away as she frantically works the switchboard; and when the lovers finally find themselves alone on the beach at night, the film suddenly glows with hand-tinted color. Made at the dawn of the sound era (two sound scenes were added later to cash in on the new craze), Lonesome represents the height of silent film artistry. Besides being a charming tale with a neat twist at the end, it is also a visually dazzling cinematic essay on urban alienation and an intoxicating ode to love. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide