“Fridrikh Ermler was one of the greatest masters in the history of Soviet and world cinema,” writes film scholar Peter Bagrov. “This was acknowledged by such filmmakers as Eisenstein, Chaplin, and Pabst … Why he is unknown in the West is a mystery.” In her 1992 book Movies for the Masses, Denise J. … [Read more...] about Fragment of an Empire
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
You can read the program essay for our 2014 screening of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse here In the 1921 film version of Vicente Blasco Ibañez’s epic novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Rudolph Valentino became an overnight star. Valentino’s smoldering good looks and untimely death … [Read more...] about The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
You can read the program essay for our 2004 screening of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse here APOCALYPSE THEN: 15 THINGS ABOUT FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE 1. In studying the movies (not least the silent variety), we owe it to the medium and to ourselves to come prepared as … [Read more...] about The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
For Heaven’s Sake
Harold Lloyd’s everyman persona, replete with his too-tight suit and thick-rimmed glasses, made him one of the silent era’s most famous and beloved characters. But what is less well known is that Lloyd was also one of Hollywood’s most astute businessmen. Long before he landed in movies, his early … [Read more...] about For Heaven’s Sake
The Flying Ace
African-Americans were not allowed to serve as pilots in the United States Armed Forces until 1940, but that didn’t stop Richard Norman from making a black fighter pilot the hero of The Flying Ace. In this 1926 film, Captain Billy Stokes returns home victorious after World War I to resume his … [Read more...] about The Flying Ace
Flesh and the Devil
You can read the program essay for our 2015 screening of Flesh and the Devil here Reflecting on a career that included 26 years at MGM and six Academy Award nominations, director Clarence Brown summed up the studio system under which he both thrived and bristled: “In those days we didn’t just … [Read more...] about Flesh and the Devil
Flesh and the Devil
You can read the program essay for our 2007 screening of Flesh and the Devil here Flesh and the Devil is one of the very best examples of the palpable romantic eroticism that can often be found in silent films. A huge hit in its own day, it is still remarkably sexy and entertaining, a great … [Read more...] about Flesh and the Devil
The First Born
A sexually provocative melodrama of upper-class decadence with surprisingly sophisticated stylistic flourishes, The First Born is the collaboration of two key players in the British film industry of the 1920s and ’30s whose work has largely fallen into obscurity, Miles Mander and Alma … [Read more...] about The First Born