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Now on the Media History Digital Library: several of my film magazines
Well, when I say ‘now’, I mean ‘several months ago’. Last year, I went on holiday to Europe (including taking in Il Cinema Ritrovato), and while in the Netherlands, I picked up several issues of the...
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Announcing a publication!
Not long ago, a major project of mine came to fruition. A chance infatuation with the adverts for a particular film grew into a fruitful research project which involved early newspaper comic strips,...
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London Symphony approaches
Almost three years ago, I posted about London Symphony, a contemporary silent film production by British filmmaker Alex Barrett. For this project, Barrett has revived the silent-era genre of the city...
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Queer film history: Diana McLellan’s “The Girls: Sappho goes to Hollywood”
Photoshop by Edith Prestegaard; found on YouTube. At this point in time, it’s by no means a revelation that a number of Hollywood actresses in the 1920s and 1930s loved women, including major stars...
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A rainbow of silent film
Regular readers will have noticed that things have been pretty quiet around Silents, Please! for the last year or so. Partly, this was because I channelled a lot of energy into researching, writing and...
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Even more question marks in Italian silent film advertising
Over the course of my research, I’ve noticed on a delightful quirk of Italian silent film advertising: a prominent and often repetitious use of question marks to build anticipation and enthusiasm for...
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Reflections on writing and research: Fluffy Ruffles, women in silent cinema,...
Earlier this year, I posted about a film/media history article I’d published in the journal Feminist Media Histories, entitled “From the New York Herald to the Italian screen: Fluffy Ruffles, la donna...
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Diva December begins with a rainbow
It’s that time of year again! In Diva December, now in its fourth edition, I look at examples of the ‘diva film’, or the genre of decadent female-led melodramas that were a mainstay of Italian cinema...
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The dream and the myth: Il fauno | The Faun (IT 1917)
Do not flee from me, for I am love. In his character’s introduction, Febo Mari sets the tone for this phantasmic film in which desire and mythology intertwine. In a reverse Pygmalion scenario, an...
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Pride and passion: Pina Menichelli in Il padrone delle ferriere (1919)
Aristocracy, hubris, and hauteur: these are the main ingredients in Itala-Film’s Il padrone delle ferriere | The Master of the Ironworks (1919), starring the majestic Pina Menichelli. I’d intended to...
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Power couples of Italian silent film
It may not be a surprise that the Italian silent film industry was chock-full of couples. Today, for the Feast of Saint Valentine, let’s take a look at these duos with lives spent in film as well as...
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Coda to Valentine’s Day: silent film postcards
Flowers and chocolates and clichés, I don’t care, but I really like the idea of reclaiming Valentine’s Day as a time to express your feelings for the important people in your life. I have so many...
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The perilous camera-eye: El sexto sentido | The Sixth Sense (ES 1929)
The camera never lies. This cliché is now so discredited that even its antithesis is something of a truism: images are almost infinitely manipulable, via both technology, context, and human...
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Buster on the big screen: a visit to the delightful Time Cinema
‘Yesterday again today’ is the slogan for the Time Cinema, one of Wellington’s true hidden gems. Located in the suburb of Lyall Bay on Wellington’s south coast, what looks like a typical suburban...
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Bologna-bound: Il cinema ritrovato 2018
In less than two weeks, the magnificent film festival Il cinema ritrovato (‘Cinema rediscovered’) kicks off in Bologna, Italy. And yes, I’m going to be there! This will be my second time attending Il...
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Il cinema ritrovato 2018 in review
Me, my pal Matti, and Marcello Six weeks after the fact, you say? From the Department of Better Late than Never comes my recap of Il cinema ritrovato 2018: a wonderful festival of archival film of all...
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The fallibility of film history: Valeria Creti unmasked as Filibus
I wrote about the delightful 1915 action caper Filibus a few years ago: a wonderful gender-bending tale of intrigue and adventure, one of my favourite silents. In particular, I praised the performance...
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