Visages d'enfants (1923) Director: Jacques Feyder "The Faces of Children" is a simple and beautiful film. It is a French-Swiss pastoral movie that takes place amidst the incredible landscape of the village of Saint-Luc in the mountainous Haut-Valais region of Switzerland. It is a psychological exploration, remarkably complex for the time, and it tells the … Continue reading Visages d’enfants
cinema
La Roue
La Roue (1923) Director: Abel Gance A Victor Hugo quote begins The Wheel - "Creation is a Great Wheel which does not move without crushing someone." This epic film opens with a dramatic and cataclysmic train crash. Sisif (played by Séverin-Mars who died of a heart attack before the release of the film) the ironically … Continue reading La Roue
Camille
Camille (1936) Director: George Cukor Camille is an elegant and beautiful MGM film starring Greta Garbo, and showcasing the heights of classic cinema in the 1930s. It is a story of a love-triangle, based on an 1842 story by Alexandre Dumas fils (the Younger), La Dame aux Camélias ("The Lady with the Camellias"). He wrote the story at … Continue reading Camille
Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt
Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927) Director: Walter Ruttman Some may call it avant-garde and excessive, while others call it valuable for its historical significance. It is the quintessential "city symphony" film, of which there were other minor films in Paris or Manhattan. In Act I of this plotless film, we find ourselves boarding a train, … Continue reading Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) Director: Wallace Worsley It took Universal nearly a year to build the massive sets for The Hunchback of Notre Dame to mirror medieval Paris, most notably the Cathedral at Notre Dame built to scale. It was a far more lavish affair than was typical for Universal at the time (apparent … Continue reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Foolish Wives
I recently attempted to finish watching Foolish Wives (1922), and it is a monumental task, even for a silent film. It lasts nearly 2.5 hours long, and the plot is vague, slow, and wandering. It tells the story of a man who dubs himself a Count in order to seduce a wealthy women and take their … Continue reading Foolish Wives
Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam
Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (The Golem: How He Came Into The World) (1920) Director: Paul Wegener, Carl Boese The Golem is an impressive early silent German Expressionist horror film. The film is an adaptation of a 1915 novel of the same name by Gustav Meyrink, an Austrian writer best known for The … Continue reading Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam
The Mark of Zorro
The Mark of Zorro (1920) Director: Fred Niblo The Mark of Zorro is a surprisingly impressive film. It stars the great silent-era hero, Douglas Fairbanks, and it was the first in a long series of Zorro films extending to the present day. It was the first film released by United Artists (Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks, and Griffith). … Continue reading The Mark of Zorro
Charlie Chaplin’s First National Films
In 1917-1918, Charlie Chaplin was seeking more independence and greater creative license over his films, which he believed were becoming too stagnant and predictable. His relationship with Mutual ended amicably, and he signed an eight-film contract with First National. His years with First National would prove to be some of the most important in his … Continue reading Charlie Chaplin’s First National Films
Charlie Chaplin’s Essanay Shorts
In 1915, Charlie Chaplin struck up a deal with the Essanay Film Company, a small film company based out of Chicago, IL with another location in California. Through Essanay, Chaplin directed and starred in 14 films in 1915 (there was at least one later film patched together by the studio of Chaplin outtakes during his … Continue reading Charlie Chaplin’s Essanay Shorts
