Apart from You (Kimi to Wakarete) is Mikio Naruse’s third surviving silent film—one of only five we have left. Like many of his most celebrated works, it is an ode to the working class, the downtrodden and the disrespected, particularly women. Yet the man himself was no radical. Naruse, creator of … [Read more...] about Apart from You
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
In a way, Buster Keaton’s fall—the big, metaphorical one, the first in his life he couldn’t bounce right back from—began when that housefront collapsed over him in Steamboat Bill, Jr. In what is now his most famous stunt, Buster remains unharmed, framed in an open attic window just wide enough to … [Read more...] about Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The Great Victorian Moving Picture Show
The past, like a moving picture, looks different depending where you are standing in relation to it; it is a matter of distance, scale, and clarity. In 1893, in the earliest days of moving pictures, viewing was a solitary activity, seen on a machine for one person at a time—and small—as small as the … [Read more...] about The Great Victorian Moving Picture Show
King of the Circus
In Max Linder’s final film, he indulged a common childhood fantasy. Expectations had been seeded in his childhood that he would grow up to take over the family business, a vineyard. However, he later wrote that “nothing was more distasteful to me than the thought of a life among the grapes.” What … [Read more...] about King of the Circus
Waxworks
Horror movies, or at least their progenitors, have been haunting audiences since the silent era, and the best ones can still make us shriek a hundred years later. With their sinister killers, hazy nightmares, and pointy-fingered vampires, all wrapped up in the menacing mise-en-scène that came to … [Read more...] about Waxworks
Blind Husbands
"If we are not very much mistaken, Blind Husbands will introduce to the industry a new ‘super director’—Eric von Stroheim. Unlike many other directors who aspire to the ranks of the fortunate, he is not a near-Griffith, a near-De Mille, or a near-Tourneur. His work is quite in a class by itself.” — … [Read more...] about Blind Husbands
The Primrose Path
The Primrose Path gives us a blueprint of Jazz Age rendering of cinematic crime. Diamonds are the currency. In its event-packed screenplay, the bosses frame the foot soldiers when the authorities start snooping. There’s a hierarchy of big-time cheats and small-time hustlers, feds and nightclub … [Read more...] about The Primrose Path
Below the Surface
Of all the restorations spearheaded by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, is any more shocking than 1919’s Behind the Door, which screened in 2016? The taxidermist turned World War I Navy captain (Hobart Bosworth) wreaks his vengeance on the German U‑boat captain (Wallace Beery) who has led the … [Read more...] about Below the Surface