Part of the appeal of silent-era movies is their ability to give today’s audiences a glimpse of lost worlds. With these newsreels, travelogues, animation, comedy, and adventure films, the British Film Institute provides a look at what average British moviegoers might have seen at their local picture … [Read more...] about A Night at the Cinema in 1914
The Navigator
While Buster Keaton was winding up production on his second feature film, Our Hospitality, in the summer of 1923, his technical director, Fred Gabourie, was loaned out to First National Pictures to look for suitable sailing ships for the studio’s upcoming production The Sea Hawk (1924). During his … [Read more...] about The Navigator
Nanook of the North
In the language of the Inuit people, “nanook” or “nanuq” means “polar bear,” as in the greatest hunting animal of the north, a thousand pounds, aggressive but stealthy, and a spiritual ideal for the Inuit. Yet in the movie Nanook of the North there are no polar bears. One reason for that has to be … [Read more...] about Nanook of the North
The Nail in the Boot
Program preceded by the orphan film Madison News Reel (c.1932) presented with CHESS FEVER USSR, 1925 • Directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin and Nikolai Shpikovsky Cast Vladimir Fogel (the Hero), Anna Zemtsova (the Heroine) Editor Vsevolod Pudovkin Scenario Nikolai … [Read more...] about The Nail in the Boot
My Best Girl
On June 21, 1928, less than a year after the release of her final silent film, My Best Girl, Mary Pickford walked into Charles Bock’s salon in New York City for a haircut. The Girl with the Golden Curls needed a change. So, at her request, Bock clipped 12 long ringlets from perhaps the most famous … [Read more...] about My Best Girl
Mr. Fix-It
When production began early in 1918 on Mr. Fix-It, the world was in the grip of the Great War, the fires of revolution were burning in Russia and Mexico, and modernism was turning the art world upside down. France and Germany, two centers of world cinema, were devastated, and, while Hollywood was … [Read more...] about Mr. Fix-It
Mothers of Men
In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the issue of voting rights for American women was widely debated across the nation. Five states, including California, granted women the right to vote in the early 1910s, several more states held referenda on the issue, and Congress debated women’s … [Read more...] about Mothers of Men
Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness
Tired of the “detective stories, royal dramas, Indian hunts, and Oriental fables” glutting German movie houses in the early 1920s, writer Bela Balázs called to replace them with the “heroic legends” of revolutionary struggle “whose tempestuous movement, monumental visuals, surprising entanglements … … [Read more...] about Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness