The Toll of the Sea
+ Live Music + Intro
Friday 23 May, 18:30
Garden Cinema, Screen 1
USA, 1922
Dir. Chester M. Franklin
54min
Silent film with English titles
With Anna May Wong and Kenneth Harlan
Full duration: 65m
An adaptation of the Madame Butterfly story, The Toll of the Sea presents a tale of cross-racial love and loss set amidst the opulent gardens of an exoticised China. The film follows Lotus Flower (played by Anna May Wong in her first leading role), a young Chinese woman who falls in love with an American traveler. Costume and colour are used to highlight a view of East as a land of pleasure and sensuality. Lotus Flower’s vibrant silk dresses in red and green, enhanced by the ‘natural’ process of two-colour Technicolor, connect her Chinese identity and feminine beauty to the natural surroundings. In a failed attempt to assimilate, Lotus Flower shifts to muted Western fashion. Ultimately, though, clothing is unable to change who she is, and she resigns herself to her tragic fate in an exuberantly embroidered silk robe.
With live music by leading silent film accompanist Stephen Horne. Film introduction by fashion curator Isabella Coraça.
Content warning: includes exoticising images that may be culturally insensitive or offensive.
Stephen Horne
Stephen is one of the UK’s leading silent film accompanists. A house pianist at London’s BFI Southbank for thirty-five years, he often incorporates other instruments into his performances, sometimes simultaneously. Stephen has recorded music for scores of silent films and regularly performs across the UK and internationally.