Lucky Star (silent version) (1990 NFM restoration) presented by Hervé Dumont

Lucky Star. Charles Farrell (Tim), Janet Gaynor (Mary). Please do click to enlarge the image.

Päivänsäde / Solstrålen. US © 1929 Fox. D: Frank Borzage. DP: Chester Lyons, William Cooper Smith. Starring Charles Farrell (Tim), Janet Gaynor (Mary).
    Originally released as a silent and in Movietone /24 fps/ 97 min.
    The film long believed lost was restored by Nederlands Filmmuseum 1990 as the silent version /24 fps/ 87 min.
    Presented by Hervé Dumont.
    Viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 21 Jan 2005.

Borzage's final silent is a dream-like love poem in the Massachusetts countryside. In the tender friendship of Tim, the young Mary discovers her womanhood. Tim has returned from war confined into the wheelchair. He has turned his place into an enchanted cottage where he can fix most anything. Visually, the film is realized mostly in an atmosphere of grayness, until the finale takes place in dazzling snow. A noble spiritual journey in a world of poverty, even squalor, yet beyond realism. ****