Those in the audience expecting a difficult film by a gloomy Scandinavian director are bound to be disappointed by Carl Th. Dreyer’s Master of the House. This deft tale of domestic tyranny and subsequent insurgency is characterized by wry humor and bell-like clarity. From its exquisite attention to … [Read more...] about Master of the House
Mare Nostrum
Dublin-born director Rex Ingram had his biggest success with 1921’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez novel, which made a star of Valentino, saved the Metro company from bankruptcy, and earned the director the undying gratitude of the head of Metro, Marcus Loew. … [Read more...] about Mare Nostrum
The Man Who Laughs
You can read the program essay for our 2008 screening of The Man Who Laughs here At one point in King of Jazz—Universal’s all talking! all singing! all dancing! extravaganza of 1930—an unbelievably young Bing Crosby asks the Rhythm Boys “Just what kind of production is this?” “A Super-Super … [Read more...] about The Man Who Laughs
The Lighthouse Keepers
Obscure outside of France, the great director Jean Grémillon is a tantalizing figure even for those Americans who discover him, since most of his films remain difficult to see. Those lucky or determined enough to track them down find works of singular grace and sensitivity, with a vision that is … [Read more...] about The Lighthouse Keepers
A Letter from Location
This historical reprint was published in conjunction with the screening of Mare Nostrum at SFSFF 2018 Dear Myrtle, I have started to write you several times during the four months I have been here with the “Mare Nostrum” company, but something has always interrupted. Nice was a pleasant … [Read more...] about A Letter from Location
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The last silent film to feature Arthur Conan Doyle’s eminent detective has been less a legend than a rumor among cinephiles and Sherlockians. The Hound of the Baskervilles (Der Hund von Baskerville), a seven-reel film with a long German pedigree that even included a movie written while the country … [Read more...] about The Hound of the Baskervilles
Good References
Good References, a 1920 “lost” film recently discovered in a Prague archive and restored by UCLA, is a classic example of the type of movie the silent film business learned was a sure-fire way to make money. Directed by R. William Neill, with a scenario by Dorothy Farnum from an E.J. Rath novel, … [Read more...] about Good References
From Morn to Midnight
What we think we know about German Expressionism and how it began is ordinarily defined by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)—and that’s that. Cultural movements are slow-turning ships, though, and naturally Expressionism itself, as an aesthetic ideal, hearkens back to before cinema, as such, was … [Read more...] about From Morn to Midnight