Cinema, as it ages, does not remain merely art and entertainment but also evolves into a panoply of unique cultural qualities—captured time, shared memory, social evidence, cured history sliced for sandwiches, sociopolitical realities fermented into nostalgic headtrips. The range of organic … [Read more...] about Cosmic Voyage
Coeur Fidèle
Who is Jean Epstein? Historian Tom Gunning tells the academic version of the two-guys-walk-into-a-bar story: two film scholars are at conference. One says to the other, “Why didn’t you mention the influence of Epstein?” The second looks confused. “Do you mean Eisenstein?” Epstein is that other … [Read more...] about Coeur Fidèle
Clash of the Wolves
Rin-Tin-Tin started his life in an unlikely and dangerous place: in the back of a bombed-out German bunker in September of 1918. His mother was a member of the German Dog Corps, which participated in the rescuing of injured soldiers. Rin-Tin-Tin would have starved along with his four litter mates if … [Read more...] about Clash of the Wolves
Claire
At the turn of the century, while others were worrying about the millennium bug, San Francisco filmmaker Rock Ross was creating a short film (Stupor Mundi) in defiance of the new age, and producer-director Milford Thomas was making a silent movie with the same type of camera used by cinematographer … [Read more...] about Claire
The Circus
Often imitated yet never equaled, Charles Spencer Chaplin remains the most recognized of all the silent movie stars, thanks to the iconic character he created — “The Tramp.” A key factor in his films is their poignant blend of laughter and sorrow; reflections, perhaps, of the joys and hardships of … [Read more...] about The Circus
Cinema’s First Virtuoso: Georges Méliès
A selection of Georges Méliès short films played throughout the festival. Special thanks to Lobster Films. On December 28, 1895, in the Grand Café on le boulevard des Capucines in Paris, a 34-year-old magician sat among the other 30-odd guests, which included the directors of the Folies Bergère … [Read more...] about Cinema’s First Virtuoso: Georges Méliès
Chicago
An attractive and scantily clad woman with shiny bobbed hair lounges in her apartment, sipping a cocktail while listening to a Victrola recording of “Hula Lou.” It’s a typical setting for a modern woman of the 1920s—except, perhaps, for the man lying at her feet, dying of a gunshot wound. The … [Read more...] about Chicago
Chaplin at Essanay
If the early slapstick comedy of the Keystone Film Company represents Charles Chaplin’s cinematic infancy, the films he made for the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company are his adolescence. The Essanays find Chaplin in transition, taking greater time and care with each film, experimenting with new … [Read more...] about Chaplin at Essanay