For a brief period between the late 1910s and early 1920s, Swedish cinema challenged the supremacy of Hollywood in the production of sophisticated, mature, and visually majestic films. Filmmakers Victor Sjöstrom, Mauritz Stiller, and the lesser known outside Sweden Gustaf Molander led the way, … [Read more...] about The Strongest
The Strong Man
Harry Langdon’s movie career peaked in 1926, the year two of his best films were released. He had come to Hollywood after nearly 30 years in vaudeville and refined his gently bumbling stage persona into a unique child-man character referred to as “The Little Elf.” Having graduated from two-reel … [Read more...] about The Strong Man
A Strong Man
One of the few surviving silent films made in Poland, A Strong Man (Mocny Człowiek) is also one of the most stylistically advanced. It opens with a stately pan along the riverfront of Warsaw—capital of the nation’s film production—blending into a montage of majestic old buildings. But something … [Read more...] about A Strong Man
Strike Up the Orchestra
This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Cameraman at SFSFF 2019 The hard-working piano player is an iconic image of silent cinema and with good reason: a 1922 poll of theater owners showed that solo piano was far and away the most popular form of musical accompaniment. … [Read more...] about Strike Up the Orchestra
Strike
Once considered one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived, and whose Battleship Potemkin (1925) was once judged by critics and directors to be the greatest film ever made, Sergei Eisenstein has seen his canonization come and go. Now merely a film school requirement, the name never attains front … [Read more...] about Strike
Stephen Horne: The Re-Animator
Look at any review of Stephen Horne’s performances and you frequently find the words “exhilarating” and “sublime,” typically in the same sentence. This speaks to Horne’s facility and sensitivity, how his accompaniments create true cinematic experiences. But if you’re a devoted fan of the Silent Film … [Read more...] about Stephen Horne: The Re-Animator
Stella Dallas
Despite being condemned for her vulgarity and criticized in the New York Times as “vain and selfish,” Stella Dallas has lived a long and profitable life. She first appeared in 1922, when author Olive Higgins Prouty published the popular novel. A stage version followed, then two film versions (the … [Read more...] about Stella Dallas
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
It’s appropriate that the elaborate set piece of Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a cyclone. Legend has it that when Joseph Francis “Buster” Keaton was born in Piqua, Kansas, on October 4, 1895, there was a gigantic windstorm. And when he was just 20 months old, he was supposedly sucked out of an open … [Read more...] about Steamboat Bill, Jr.