“Old black-and-white movies” is a phrase that trips easily off the tongue but, like many common beliefs about silent cinema, it is inaccurate. Color has accompanied motion pictures since the beginning with some of the earliest public screenings featuring hand-colored films in their programs. Because … [Read more...] about Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema
Dorothy Davenport’s Message Movies
This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Mothers of Men at SFSFF 2016 Actress Dorothy Davenport traveled west with the Nestor film company just as the movie industry and the feature-length film was taking form in Hollywood. A prominent player when Nestor was absorbed by … [Read more...] about Dorothy Davenport’s Message Movies
The Divine Decadence of Lya de Putti
This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Varieté at SFSFF 2016 Photos of actress Lya de Putti from the 1920s show a smoldering beauty with heavy-lidded eyes, bee-stung Clara Bow lips, and a severe black Louise Brooks bob. She rarely smiles. In one full-length portrait, … [Read more...] about The Divine Decadence of Lya de Putti
Different from the Others
Divisions always appear sharper in an election year, and this has been one for the history books. Among other stress points, the politicized atmosphere underlined how gay rights have found increasing popular (as well as legal) progressive embrace on the one hand, and ever-more-vehement conservative … [Read more...] about Different from the Others
Destiny
It’s estimated there were 525,000 war widows in Germany the year before Fritz Lang made Destiny (Der müde Tod) in 1921. In each of those households there was an empty place at the dinner table, just as there were hundreds of thousands of empty places in the homes of parents, siblings, and lovers. … [Read more...] about Destiny
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
Behind the Door
Although it’s been more than one hundred years since World War I began, the sacrifice, sorrow, fear, and divisions of that great period of unrest are still evident today. When America finally entered the conflict in 1917, three years after it had begun in Europe, the whole nation rallied behind the … [Read more...] about Behind the Door
Beggars of Life
You can read the program essay for our 2007 screening of Beggars of Life here Louise Brooks has become a legend of cinema who continues to fascinate and Beggars of Life showcases her timeless beauty, her striking modernity, and the depth of her talent. While costar Wallace Beery receives top … [Read more...] about Beggars of Life