The Last of the Mohicans

Programme: Bordwell / Thompson : Carte Blanche Directed by Maurice Tourneur, Clarence Brown (USA 1920) With Wallace Beery, Barbara Bedford, Alan Roscoe 75 min / B&W / Subtitles: ⁄ PIANO Relatively few of Maurice Tourneur’s American films survive, but the ones that do are remarkable. The Last of the Mohicans is set during the French and Indian War of the mid-1700s. Its cinematography is gorgeous, particularly in the scenes set in spectacular landscapes. Tourneur’s signature compositional technique of shooting through an aperture, like a foreground doorway or cave opening, is used several times. The film stands out from most Hollywood films of its day for its uncompromising depiction of the ruthless conflict between the British and those Indians allied with the French. The scene of the inhabitants of the fort leaving under an assumed truce and are massacred can still create considerable suspense today, and the outcome contradicts the notion that all Hollywood films end happily. — Kristin Thompson Theatre: Ledoux