A milestone of visual flair and virtuosity in American cinema, the career of Lewis Milestone – a Russian Jewish émigré – bridged silent cinema and the 70mm spectacles of the 1960s. Renowned for having one of the most distinctive and eclectic styles of his generation, his popular and dazzlingly original work ranged from the anti-war magnum opus All Quiet on the Western Front to the popular-front musical Hallelujah, I’m a Bum. As dense, dark, and daunting as his films could get, they were often laced with wit, camaraderie, and bravery amid mass atrocities. Yet, he barely survived the Hollywood Blacklist, which forced him to drift into mediocre assignments. This programme, covering his silent films up until the Blacklist, features new restorations and archive prints, aiming to recover the artistry of a man who fought many battles of humanity in the 20th Century with a sense of wisdom and poetry that can still shake us.

Curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht