Set in a remote Isle of Man fishing community (but shot in Cornwall), The Manxman is Alfred Hitchcock’s penultimate silent film and one of the best and most mature works of his early career. The film was adapted from the bestselling novel by Sir Hall Caine, published in 1894, which had sold half a … [Read more...] about The Manxman
Mantrap
Released in 1926, smack in the middle of the Jazz Age—the time of Bohemian free love and high-living, high-society flappers, of Bessie Smith’s earthy blues artistry, and the popular embrace of female suffrage—Mantrap celebrates woman’s sexuality as a life force. It also established its star Clara … [Read more...] about Mantrap
Man With A Movie Camera
The spinning of a child’s toy top or the whir of a film strip running through the wheel of an editing table—differing legends explain the inspiration for David Kaufman to adopt the alias that history immortalized: Dziga Vertov. In the new Soviet state, the onomatopoetic nom de plume of the … [Read more...] about Man With A Movie Camera
The Man Who Laughs
You can read the program essay for our 2018 screening of The Man Who Laughs here Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle had a fascination with French literature that resulted from a combination of his first-generation immigrant status, his intuitive marketing savvy, and his assimilation of 19th … [Read more...] about The Man Who Laughs
The Man Who Laughs
You can read the program essay for our 2008 screening of The Man Who Laughs here At one point in King of Jazz—Universal’s all talking! all singing! all dancing! extravaganza of 1930—an unbelievably young Bing Crosby asks the Rhythm Boys “Just what kind of production is this?” “A Super-Super … [Read more...] about The Man Who Laughs
A Man There Was
What’s immediately striking about Terje Vigen, released in the U.S. as A Man There Was, is the power of its imagery. Stripped to its bare essence, the film is a visual encomium to the sea, or rather, to a Romantic understanding of the sea’s might as wedded to man’s emotional state. Based on a poem … [Read more...] about A Man There Was
The Man in the Center Ring: Serge Bromberg Saves Cinema
2015 SF Silent Film Festival Awardee Serge Bromberg Serge Bromberg is an impresario, a ballyhooer of cinema in the best tradition of Barnum and Bailey. Fortunate audiences around the world know him for his Retour de Flamme clip shows, during which he may burn a bit of nitrate film stock on stage … [Read more...] about The Man in the Center Ring: Serge Bromberg Saves Cinema
The Magic of the Magic Carpet
This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Thief of Bagdad at Silent Winter 2013 Among the wonders of The Thief of Bagdad are the mechanical and special effects created by Hampton Del Ruth and Coy Watson, under the supervision of the film’s technical director, Robert … [Read more...] about The Magic of the Magic Carpet