The Broken Tower

The Broken Tower is a 2011 American black-and-white student film directed, written, produced, edited by and starring James Franco. The film was made by Franco as his Masters thesis for his MFA in filmmaking from New York University. The film is about American poet Hart Crane. Franco appears in the starring role as Crane along with Michael Shannon as one of Crane's lovers. The Broken Tower made its world premiere in April 2011 at Boston College. It was shown at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) in June and released on DVD in 2012. The film includes the recitation by Franco of several of Crane's poems both as voice-over additions to the film, as well as actual readings of several poems rendered by Franco as portraying Crane himself.