Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) Director: Frank Capra Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is Frank Capra's masterpiece, the natural parallel to his earlier Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). This was Jimmy Stewart's fifth film, and certainly his career-defining breakthrough, after the prior year being also cast alongside Jean Arthur in Frank Capra's You Can't Tske It … Continue reading Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
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Stagecoach
Stagecoach (1939) Director: John Ford Stagecoach brought about a revival in the Western genre, which had largely fallen out of favor in the late '20s and '30s. The Western is a mythic depiction of the Western country and prairie, a largely historically untrue heroic story of courage and goodness in an amoral land of savages … Continue reading Stagecoach
Visages d’enfants
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
A Woman of Paris
A Woman of Paris (1923) Director: Charlie Chaplin Unlike Chaplin's other films, A Woman of Paris, is a tragic drama and Charlie Chaplin does not appear in the film. It was a box office failure, as many audiences came to the film expecting to see a classic Chaplin film. Its financial failings caused great pain to Chaplin at … Continue reading A Woman of Paris
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
The Fall of the House of Usher
La Chute de la maison Usher (1928) Director: Jean Epstein Apparently there were two highly stylized avant garde silent films focused on this Edgar Allan Poe short story, both released in 1928. In some ways I . prefer the loose structure and surrealist version by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber (a silent film lasting … Continue reading The Fall of the House of Usher
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
