Fanchon The Cricket (BLU-RAY)

Fanchon the Cricket based on an “adult fairy tale” by George Sand, stars Mary Pickford as the title character, a strong-willed waif ostracized by “acceptable society” until she shows them the power of love and understanding. Directed by James Kirkwood and boasting exquisite cinematography by Edward Wynard, Fanchon the Cricket was filmed on location in Delaware Gap, Pennsylvania. A natural, sensual and uninhibited Pickford breaks through today’s stereotype of her as “the girl with the curls.” It is also the only surviving film in which both Jack and Lottie Pickford appear with their sister.

Once believed to be a lost film, Fanchon the Cricket restoration is the result of a unique international collaboration between the Mary Pickford Foundation, the Cinémathèque Française and the British Film Institute. A new negative and 35mm prints were created from the restored digital version and the Mary Pickford Foundation paired the film with a new, original score by Julian Ducatenzeiler and Andy Gladbach.

Fanchon the Cricket includes a souvenir booklet featuring rare photographs and essays by Cari Beauchamp.

“There was never a Fanchon like Mary Pickford. Yes, I know that the greatest of the French and the English and the American stars have attempted and have successfully rendered Fanchon, but I stick to my belief that none ever surpassed and few ever approached the work of Mary Pickford.”
- Moving Picture World, May 22, 1915

“Pickford plays the role not so much as a woodland nymph, but more as a rural hooligan… She is extraordinarily beautiful; the first close-up of her face among the glistening leaves comes as an almost physical shock.”
- Kevin Brownlow, Mary Pickford Rediscovered, 1999