Admittedly, the silent era is not one I regularly seek out for my own personal viewing but I enjoy silent films and it’s always good to look back at the early days. F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise is an excellent example. Though...
The opening titles of Arnold Fanck’s 1926 The Holy Mountain would like you to know that no trick photography was used. It’s referring specifically to the extensive footage of expert ski jumpers doing flips and spins in the air; for a considerable...
Irvin Willat’s 1919 Behind the Door, out now on Blu-ray from Flicker Alley, is an early example of the relationship between technique and emotion that makes a good film a good film. At only 70 minutes, Willat sweeps up the...
Charlie Chaplin THE GOLD RUSH, CITY LIGHTS, MODERN TIMES, THE GREAT DICTATOR, LIME LIGHT Decades before Jerry Lewis claimed the descriptor for himself, Charlie Chaplin was the total filmmaker – he wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and often scored...
D.W. GRIFFITH THE BIRTH OF A NATION, INTOLERANCE, BROKEN BLOSSOMS If you haven’t been to film school or performed the equivalent autodidactic cinematic research, chances are your knowledge of D.W. Griffith comes to some or all of these points: (a)...
