Norwegian feature film production in the 1920s was infrequent. It could hardly be considered a major industry at the time; there were very few full-length movies being made annually and very few trained and experienced filmmakers working in Norway. It was quite a sensation when someone suddenly had … [Read more...] about Pan
Norrtullsligan
Four working girls sharing an apartment in the big city might sound more like the premise for a 2015 American cable series than a 1923 feature from Sweden. But not only is Norrtullsligan a silent-era film set in Stockholm, it was adapted from a serialized novel published fifteen years earlier. The … [Read more...] about Norrtullsligan
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 Last Laugh
The now-forgotten expression “clothes maketh the man” dates to the Middle Ages, but it seems to echo loudest from the early twentieth century when office jobs multiplied in new skyscrapers and country folk migrated to the cities by the tens of thousands. It could have been coined to describe the … [Read more...] about The Last Laugh
Kevin Brownlow: Monumental Man
An Appreciation A film collector since the age of eleven, the British-born Kevin Brownlow is responsible in large part for the revival of silent-film art around the world. Brownlow’s tireless sleuthing has led to the rediscovery of many of Hollywood’s silent-film landmarks, … [Read more...] about Kevin Brownlow: Monumental Man
The Inhuman Woman
When film historians sketch the genesis of Marcel L’Herbier’s L’Inhumaine (The Inhuman Woman), readers are typically treated to a familiar show biz story: brilliant young director attempts ambitious, boundary-pushing film, which is botched by the egotistic star (Georgette Leblanc) who controls the … [Read more...] about The Inhuman Woman
Heroes v. Villians
This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Black Pirate at A Day of Silents 2015 A hero is only as good as the villain he or she has to defeat and the silent era was full of dynamic rivalries. Some were so dynamic, in fact, that they called for a rematch. Douglas … [Read more...] about Heroes v. Villians
Handheld History
This interview with BFI Curator Edward Anderson was published in conjunction with the screening of the program Around China with a Movie Camera at A Day of Silents 2015 Around China with a Movie Camera contains such a wide variety of footage. How unlikely is it that these kinds of films … [Read more...] about Handheld History