The Crowd

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Post-film discussion with critic Farran Smith Nehme, author of the new novel Missing Reels! 35mm print

“Certainly one of Vidor’s best films, a silent masterpiece which turns a realistically caustic eye on the illusionism of the American dream. A young man (‘born on America’s 124th birthday’) arrives in the big city convinced that he is going to set the world on fire, only to find that life isn’t quite like that. A humble but steady job leads to love, marriage, kids and a happiness arbitrarily cut short by an accident (one of the children is run over and killed) which leads to the loss of his job, despairing unemployment, and impossible tensions starting to erode the marriage. The performances are absolutely flawless, and astonishing location work in the busy New York streets (including a giddy tour of Coney Island on a blind date) lends a gritty ring of truth to his intensely human odyssey, bounded by his eager arrival among the skyscrapers (the camera slowly panning up the side of a vast office block to discover him at work, lost in a sea of identical desks), and the last shot that has him merging as just another face in the crowd. Simple but superb.” – Time Out (London)

Part of the series Celluloid Dreams

• Country USA
• Year 1928
• Running Time 98 minutes
• Director King Vidor

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.