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100 years ago: Ruth Stonehouse in The Gilded Cage (US 1915)
“The heart-rending story of a girl who weds for wealth, and finds that a palace of love is a gilded cage” is how Essanay advertized their 1915 release The Gilded Cage. This film, preserved by the...
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Cinematic poetry: “Silents” by Claire Crowther
A recurring dream about speechlessness, the visage of Renée Jeanne Falconetti in La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, the sight of voices without sound—these elements were the genesis of a recent poetry book,...
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Shanghai modern: the cinematic fiction of Mu Shiying
Shanghai in the 1930s: a glittering city, humming to the rhythm of its jazz-filled dance halls, streets lit up by neon signs, art deco buildings springing up like mushrooms. A whirlwind of dance,...
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Hesperia! The diva as star attraction in Emilio Ghione’s Anime Buie (IT 1916)
Today marks the 99th anniversary of the première of Anime Buie | Dark Souls, fourth in a series of films featuring the character Za La Mort, an honourable French apache (street criminal gang member)...
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A Japanese man in America: Sessue Hayakawa reclaims … His Birthright (US 1918)
Japanese-born actor Sessue Hayakawa was one of the biggest talents of his era. In a time of intense anti-Asian sentiment (and, indeed, legally enshrined discrimination against Japanese people in...
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“Gossip is a fearful thing”: Ruan Lingyu’s 新女性 | New Women (CN 1935)
I’ll be in China in less than a week! I’m going to visit my partner in Guangzhou, and we’ll also spend some time in Shanghai, where I’ve got a cousin living. So this seems like an appropriate time to...
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The film star performing the film star: Asta Nielsen in Die Filmprimadonna...
via European Film Gateway “Lower the flags in her honour; she is incomparable and without peer.” So wrote early film theorist Béla Balázs of Asta Nielsen in his 1924 book Der Sichtbare Mensch (The...
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Silent film fiction: Pearl White, Bert Williams, and Missing Reels
It’s been some time since I’ve done a book review post. Here I’ll talk about my recent fiction reads dealing with silent films or film performers: one novel about a lost film search, and two fictional...
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100 years ago: Ruth Stonehouse in The Gilded Cage (US 1915)
“The heart-rending story of a girl who weds for wealth, and finds that a palace of love is a gilded cage” is how Essanay advertized their 1915 release The Gilded Cage. This film, preserved by the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cinematic poetry: “Silents” by Claire Crowther
A recurring dream about speechlessness, the visage of Renée Jeanne Falconetti in La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, the sight of voices without sound—these elements were the genesis of a recent poetry book,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shanghai modern: the cinematic fiction of Mu Shiying
Shanghai in the 1930s: a glittering city, humming to the rhythm of its jazz-filled dance halls, streets lit up by neon signs, art deco buildings springing up like mushrooms. A whirlwind of dance,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Liebster!
I’d like to thank the Academy … :) The Liebster Award is a way for bloggers to recognize other bloggers and welcome each other into the community. I was extremely chuffed that both MIB’s Instant...
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Emilie Sannom, daredevil of the movies
In the history of film, the 1910s was the premier decade for female action stars. Long before Ellen Ripley became the prototype for the modern female badass, silent movie screens were filled with...
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Film advertising: Italian question marks
Looking through the Italian 1910s periodical Film, I regularly noticed adverts for coming attractions/productions that prominently use question marks. Tactic to heighten suspense, lack of concrete...
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Diva December! Lyda Borelli in Malombra (1917)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to a very important blogging event: Diva December! This is the month that I devote to coverage of the Italian divas and their films. If you are wondering: “who?”, I...
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1918: Fragments of Menichelli. On the trail of “Gemma di Sant’Eremo” and “La...
Pina Menichelli in Gemma di Sant’Eremo. Museo Nazionale del Cinema, ref. F40062-013. Recently, I was reading Italo Calvino’s wonderful book If on a winter’s night a traveller (1979), and the following...
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Diva December: Helena Makowska in Caino (IT 1917)
The holy trinity of Lyda Borelli, Francesca Bertini, and Pina Menichelli are generally considered the crème de la crème of diva film actresses. Yet, of course, there were many others working in this...
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Diva films about diva films
After spending some quality time with the films of Borelli, Menichelli, and Makowska, now I want to cast my net a little wider. Diva films were a major force of the Italian film industry in the...
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2015 in review: 10 memorable (non-silent) films
As part 1 of my end-of-year wrap up, here are 10 memorable talking pictures that came into my life in 2015. I’ve split the list between recent and older films. Morgiana (dir. Juraj Herz, CZ 1972)...
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2015: the year in review
With but two days left in 2015, it’s time to take stock of the year. Here are a bunch of my thoughts, and a prizegiving of sorts! Writing about film This year, I continued to look closely at the 1910s...
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