Broken Blossoms (1919)
Directed by D.W. Griffith · Cinematography by Billy Bitzer
90 min54 frames
DramaRomance
A tale of forbidden love.
Stills, screencaps & shots from Broken Blossoms
16 of 54 frames — the full set is searchable by lighting, lens, shot size, color and mood with a free account.
Broken Blossoms — official trailer
What is Broken Blossoms about?
The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl, often referred to simply as Broken Blossoms, is a 1919 American silent melodrama film directed by D. W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, and Donald Crisp, and tells the story of a young girl, Lucy Burrows, who is abused by her alcoholic prizefighting father, Battling Burrows, and meets Cheng Huan, a kind-hearted Chinese man who falls in love with her. It was the first film distributed by United Artists. It is based on Thomas Burke's short story "The Chink and the Child" from the 1916 collection Limehouse Nights. In 1996, Broken Blossoms was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Second paragraph from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where can you watch Broken Blossoms?
US availability for Broken Blossoms (1919). Provided by Streaming Availability API by Movie of the Night. Availability changes — check the provider for current listings.
Who stars in Broken Blossoms?
Who made Broken Blossoms?
What does the cinematography of Broken Blossoms look like?
Sampled across 54 frames, the coverage of Broken Blossoms leans on medium shots (46% of the sample) and wide compositions (20%). Cinematographer Billy Bitzer keeps 59% of it in soft, low-key light. Night and dusk account for 50% of the frames. Vintage glass shapes the frame, over a texture recalling 16mm. The production design places the film in the 1920s.
What is the color palette of Broken Blossoms?
The dominant colors across the sampled frames of Broken Blossoms (1919) are #251515, #4b312e, #100a0d, #3a3128, #574938, #8c7769 — measured from the per-frame color data FrameThrower extracts for every film.
#251515#4b312e#100a0d#3a3128#574938#8c7769
See the full Broken Blossoms colour palette — every hex with its share, plus warmth, saturation and luminance.
A reference database for filmmakers
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Techniques in this film
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