William A Wellman's 'Frisco Jenny' is an epic film-spanning 30 years, about the life of Jenny, a young woman who through a series of tragic circumstances is separated from her son, only to reconnect many years down the road, with tragic consequences. With this film Wellman proves you can tell an epic story about the moral ambiguities and repercussions that make up our lives and do so in only 70 minutes long. Jenny is such a strong-minded female character, who no matter what is thrown at her from life, seems to persevere. It's kinda said that a film that dates nearly 80 years old, has a stronger female character of empowerment than pretty much anything I can think of which came out in the last year. Anyway, Jenny is played perfectly by Ruth Chatterton, who really captures this perseverance, balancing both the tough, yet fragile sides of this character. Wellman's ability to capture key emotional sequences through his craft is on display, using moving camera, tracking shots, and blurred images to help illicit the raw emotion which Jenny so often experiences. This is just another fantastic film by Wellman that is beautifully tragic yet incredibly affective in it's ability to push the viewer to think about Morals as more than simply "right and wrong" and the grayness which so often exists in life in general. 9/10
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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