ABSTRACT
For something like a quarter of its history, film lived very happily with the written word as an integral part of the possibilities, even the nature, of the medium. Given the greater complexity of narrative organisation, and the increasing use of closer shots of actors' faces, it was perhaps unsurprising that the audience wanted to know what the characters were saying. Broken Blossoms may be particularly appropriate, as a film with one foot in an earlier, more theatrical approach to both film space and film dramaturgy, and the other in a more filmic approach closer to what became regarded as classical. Outside the main developments of the fictional feature film during the silent period, there existed counter currents of thinking and practice. Though, given the often formal interest in language since the 1960s, it has been left to this avant-garde to undertake some of the most direct and focused exploration of the problems around writing and cinema.
