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Pordenone preview
In a month’s time I will be in Pordenone, north-eastern Italy, taking in Le Giornate del Cinema Muto. I’m really looking forward to catching up with friends, drinking wine on the piazza, and watching a...
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Some thoughts on the archival life of film
[This was originally tagged onto my Pordenone post, but I decided to separate it out ...] This post is just a brief aside … lately I’ve been thinking a lot about analogue film in a medium, both in...
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Hamlet (DE 1921)
What if Hamlet was actually … a woman? That is the central premise of the 1921 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, starring Asta Nielsen in the role of Prince Hamlet. Source: Det Danske Filminstitut...
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Грёзы | Daydreams (RU 1915)
Opening credit shot of N. Chernobaeva (Elena/Tina) Daydreams is a story about love, grief, and the blindness that can result from these states. As the story opens, Sergei Nedelin (Aleksandr Vyrubov)...
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British despatch: London Symphony, and BFI-1914
Is it too soon to speak of a ‘wave’ of 21st century silents? We’ve had a great one (The Artist, 2011), a visually beautifully disappointment (Blancanieves, 2012), and some that totally missed the mark...
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Odds and ends
A quick roundup before I head to Le Giornate del Cinema Muto! First, a few more notes on film preservation. I was interested to read this short article on the complexities of audiovisual archiving;...
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Pordenone despatch
Ahhh … it’s good to be back! I arrived in Pordenone on Friday night, well in time for things to kick off on Saturday – and the weather is beautiful, the people are fantastic, the Spritz-Aperol is...
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Pordenone despatch: the sequel
Herr Arne’s Treasure. I’m back with another report from on the ground at Pordenone! Continuing from where I left off in my last post: Tuesday was a blockbuster afternoon. I considered skipping Herr...
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Pordenone despatch: the wrap-up
(Previously: preview, recap 1, recap 2). This is a rather sketchy recap, as I’m still in the post-festival faze of another wonderful Giornate! But here we go: Jeanne d’Arc (FR 1900) Returning to...
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100 years ago: Figures de Cire | The Man with Wax Faces (FR 1913)
I’m still on holiday, but in the meantime here’s a post I wrote up a while ago: An early work by renowned director Maurice Tourneur, Figures de Cire is a horror film that presages German Expressionism...
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The Anarchist’s Wife (US 1912)
In this Vitagraph short, anarchism threatens to ruin lives and families. Luigi and Rosa are a couple with an adorable child, but trouble is afoot – Luigi has become an anarchist! It’s the French...
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Одна из Многих | One of Many (USSR 1927)
A Soviet girl dreams of Hollywood in the charming short combined live action/animated film Одна из Многих | One of Many (USSR 1927). Like Потцелй Мери Пикфорд | A Kiss for Mary Pickford, also 1927, One...
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Suffragettes on film: Emmeline Pankhurst, Les Femmes Députées (FR 1912), The...
On this day in 1893, the women of New Zealand voted in a general election for the first time. New Zealand was the first self-governing nation in the world to grant universal suffrage, following the...
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Mosjoukine! … Le Brasier Ardent | The Burning Crucible (FR 1923)
Before Morrissey, before Morris Day … there was another: the original Moz. And that Moz is Ivan Mosjoukine, né Мозжухин (Mozzhukhin) … Vanya to his friends. This man. This man. He has been seen before...
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The Italian divas: an introduction
Diva films are a genre that I’ve been wanting to talk about on this site for some time. Many cinematic actresses could be called divas, undoubtedly, but it’s a specific film type that the term diva...
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Ma l’amor mio non muore! | Love Everlasting (IT 1913)
Lyda prima diva! What better place to begin Diva December than the film that started it all: Ma l’amor mio non muore! | Love Everlasting (IT 1913), starring the inimitable Lyda Borelli. Ma l’amor mio...
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Rapsodia Satanica (IT 1917)
Lyda Borelli is the star of this update of the Faust legend. La diva Lyda plays Contessa Alba d’Oltrevita, who at the beginning of the picture is an elderly woman, looking on jealously at the youthful...
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Sangue Bleu | Blue Blood (IT 1914)
With the release of Sangue Bleu in 1914, reviews were glowing: “This splendid masterpiece is transfused by all of Ms. Bertini’s soul as an incomparable artist.” Francesca Bertini was already launched...
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L’Amazzone Mascherata | The Masked Amazon [The Woman who Dared] (IT 1914)
L’Amazzone Mascherata sees Francesca Bertini in the role of Franca di Roberti, a woman who vows to clear the name of her husband after he is framed for treason. Here she is, appearing in the opening...
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Il Fuoco | The Fire (IT 1915)
Il fuoco: la favilla, la vampa, la cenere. The fire: the spark, the flame, the ashes. Menichelli! Il fuoco was the film that established her as a major film diva, in which she plays the femme fatale...
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