If the 12 Mutual-Chaplin Specials of 1916–1917 served as Chaplin’s early comedic laboratory, the best of the films he created for the First National Exhibitors’ Circuit reveal a filmmaker growing into his full artistic power. The First Nationals contain some of Chaplin’s best constructed and most … [Read more...] about The Kid
Jujiro
If one wanted to explore Japanese cinema history by studying the careers of its central figures, one could start with actor-turned-director Teinosuke Kinugasa. His biography is intertwined with each phase of his country’s cinema, from its roots in Japanese theatre traditions to the boundary-pushing … [Read more...] about Jujiro
The Joyless Street
Melchior Street is a microcosm of Vienna just after World War I. Inflation is rampant, poverty and vice are widespread, and the division between rich and poor is vast. Outside a butcher shop, the poor and hungry wait in line, ready to barter whatever it takes to buy a scrap of meat. Among them are … [Read more...] about The Joyless Street
Japanese Girls at the Harbor
When Hiroshi Shimizu released Japanese Girls at the Harbor in 1933, the veteran filmmaker had already made more than eighty-five films. When he died in 1966, he had at least 160 films to his credit in a thirty-five-year career, most of them made at Shochiku, also the home of his friend and colleague … [Read more...] about Japanese Girls at the Harbor
J’Accuse
Five months after the armistice was signed that ended World War I, Abel Gance premiered his epic J’Accuse in Paris. Called the Great War, WWI was also dubbed “the war to end all wars,” and Gance’s film was aimed at making that statement a reality. Many of his own friends had been killed in the … [Read more...] about J’Accuse
It’s Mutual: Charlie Chaplin Shorts, 1916–1917
THE ADVENTURER USA, 1917 Directed by Charles Chaplin Cast Charles Chaplin (The Convict), Edna Purviance (The Girl), Eric Campbell (The Suitor), Henry Bergman (The Father), Albert Austin (The Butler) Production Lone Star Corporation October 23, 1917 Story Charles Chaplin Photography Roland … [Read more...] about It’s Mutual: Charlie Chaplin Shorts, 1916–1917
The Italian Straw Hat
From the Lumières’ point-and-shoot street scenes to Méliès’s fantastical trick films, from the thrilling serials of Feuillade to the foible-filled folly of Max Linder, French filmmakers enthralled global audiences with the worlds they created on-screen. But then the war came and German and American … [Read more...] about The Italian Straw Hat
It
You can read the program essay for our 2001 screening of It here Clara Bow is the quintessence of what the term “Flapper” signifies as a definite description: pretty, impudent, superbly assured, as worldly-wise, briefly-clad and “hard-berled” as possible. — F. Scott Fitzgerald Made at the … [Read more...] about It