tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64395186593761850632024-03-21T21:24:04.581-03:00Silent BeautiesThis site is dedicated to the preservation of memory of silent films. Although they were quite important in the evolution of cinema, they remain virtually forgotten nowadays. Since the best way to understand the present is taking an attentive look at the past, here you have some movies, pictures, interviews, etc. on silent cinema. Some occasional material on sound films will also be presented. I hope you enjoy getting to know a bit more about the beauty and sheer fun of these golden oldies.silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.comBlogger2101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-56671139216575557722023-08-21T22:39:00.000-03:002023-08-21T22:39:07.712-03:00The Girl Raised As A Future Daughter-In-Law (South Korea, 1965)<p></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In an unspecified period of time, probably centuries ago, there was a
very poor girl called Jeom Soon. She was already a young adult, and
would have an arranged marriage with the son of a wealthier family
because she lived with her widow mother and they were about to lose
their poor house and then the marriage would be a way for her mom to
save her house.
</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And Jeom Soon went, she moved out to the house of her future husband.
He was much younger than her and his father was nice, but her future
mother-in-law, Lady Park, was terrible, treated her as a maid. Jeom
Soon had to do all the heavy work of the household while Lady Park
did nothing and she really maltreated and humiliated her future
daughter-in-law. However, despite the difference of age, Jeom Soon
got along very well with her future husband. Her future husband loved
Jeom Soon very much and was very caring with her, which just worsened
her situation because when Lady Park realized that, she thought that
her daughter-in-law would steal her baby boy from her. And then her
husband, the future father-in-law, tried to control the temper of his
wife but it didn't work.
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<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTrTsuwTEqR3vYvUPcU-aDeCQCitOqrPrEe65rcXOMSpGgXSMZ8Xb65Gmx5BDCR_Rn1qlC7QwSEefvbu_gqK2exzkijWpSuD55g0Md8gsX_a3wbvAdjbrNijCiSCS0Vey3KZU-ihsDZ-fX7yds6bCn14IS8_czxdVc2ArVoZhfdiNY_whx5YX9nybKF00/s225/01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTrTsuwTEqR3vYvUPcU-aDeCQCitOqrPrEe65rcXOMSpGgXSMZ8Xb65Gmx5BDCR_Rn1qlC7QwSEefvbu_gqK2exzkijWpSuD55g0Md8gsX_a3wbvAdjbrNijCiSCS0Vey3KZU-ihsDZ-fX7yds6bCn14IS8_czxdVc2ArVoZhfdiNY_whx5YX9nybKF00/w320-h320/01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
One day, Jeom Soon went outside to get some water and then she met by
chance a suitor that she had in the past who begged her to leave the
house of her in laws, that he would pay her debt with them but she
refused even to talk to him. Jeom Soon told him directly that she was
engaged to someone else and he was supposed to forget about her.
Unfortunately to Jeom Soon, some other women of the neighborhood saw
her talking with this guy, and they told Lady Park. Right Afterwards,
Lady Park really beat Jeom Soon up with a whip. Some days after this
humiliation, the girl got sick. And when Jeom Soon got sick, Lady
Park sent her back to her mother because she didn't want to stay with
that sick girl who would be unable to do anything in the household.
However, Lady Park’s son, even though he was still a child, ended
up following his future wife because he loved her very much. He
wanted to stay with her. Then Lady Park arrived in Jeom Soon’s
house, insulted her mother and took her son out of there by force.
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<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUWSxdVBo7mWZy5EaySZ1q54YM_uQX4GxWokVFSSuoZWfrjTkn4geZreHNoQZxmLzkZa06WOki64jiqc6ODv66uaISNPwnu3TIqUiYmwIu-DAeNzuWUH5R6SIC6N7olJ2fiXC6zB6sSW03pENCRPnkA2sS61Fy_AZYPujP29THLcdH2-5v2GQue95r25s/s330/03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="153" data-original-width="330" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUWSxdVBo7mWZy5EaySZ1q54YM_uQX4GxWokVFSSuoZWfrjTkn4geZreHNoQZxmLzkZa06WOki64jiqc6ODv66uaISNPwnu3TIqUiYmwIu-DAeNzuWUH5R6SIC6N7olJ2fiXC6zB6sSW03pENCRPnkA2sS61Fy_AZYPujP29THLcdH2-5v2GQue95r25s/w275-h148/03.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><br />
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
After this event, Jeom Soon’s mother realized that she would be
forced to sell her house to pay her debts, and then they would have
to find somewhere else to live, maybe even on the streets. Lady
Park’s son begged her not to insult Jeom Soon’s mother, but it
didn't work out. Therefore, the engagement was over, because after
all, Lady Park brought Jeom Soon back home to her mom as if she was a
bag of potatoes. And she had a terrible temper, Jeom Soon’s mother
realized that her daugther was brutalized there and did not want Jeom
Soon to return anymore.<br />
<br />
</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
However, Lady Park’s son and his father did not want to accept it
because they loved their future wife and daughter-in-law, after all.
Thus, in order to change Lady Park’s mind, the son pretended he was
sick while his father tried to find a shaman who would tell his wife
that it would be better to bring Jeom Soon back home because she
would be precious to the family and if she did not do that, her baby
boy would pass away very soon. Of course that Lady Park got very
scared. It was her only child and she did not want to lose her son.
And then she discussed with her husband if it would be better to
bring Jeom Soon back or not. <br />
<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc06C6Xgj0xsQUpg15gxenUTRUfuD2NU5khQ_MEbgW7_Ty8ZEYUMrB34uUqAY30d6VI6Jkxls2df82ylFXAMHMA67f8Oz7hWRuaxpWKT7ur-SWdA7bmAkDa_xgxMeII1CqkUvnG_ZMWib9piloVgDiYvSpKLCzhzqASvyi6EfuKRjONSTPGuKS6dY4zz4/s321/02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="157" data-original-width="321" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc06C6Xgj0xsQUpg15gxenUTRUfuD2NU5khQ_MEbgW7_Ty8ZEYUMrB34uUqAY30d6VI6Jkxls2df82ylFXAMHMA67f8Oz7hWRuaxpWKT7ur-SWdA7bmAkDa_xgxMeII1CqkUvnG_ZMWib9piloVgDiYvSpKLCzhzqASvyi6EfuKRjONSTPGuKS6dY4zz4/w263-h157/02.jpg" width="263" /></a></div><br />
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In the meantime, Jeom Soon and her mom sold their house and moved
somewhere else. They were totally unaware that Lady Park wanted Jeom
Soon back, because both families lived in villages that were
relatively distant from each other. At the same time, the Lady Park
genuinely regretted her actions and wanted Jeom Soon back, realizing
that she was caring with her son, she did all the housework, she was
never a bad person, and she tried to please her in every wat. But
then, of course, Jeom Soon and her mom had already left home with
their belongings. But they left on foot, so it would not be too hard
to find them.
</p>
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<br />
</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
At first, while Lady Park tried to find Jeom Soon and her mother,
they went to the wrong way, but after a while they got to find the
girl and her mom. Then, Lady Park talked to them. Jeom Soon’s
mother was extremely insulted of the treatment that Jeom Soon had,
because she knew that her daughter was beaten up, humiliated, her
work was exploited, and of course that she did not want her daughter
to return. However, Jeom Soon only had problems with the
mother-in-law, but she missed her father-in-law and her future
husband. Despite the big difference of age, there was genuine love
and affection between them both.</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
Thus, when Jeom Soon realized that her in-laws wanted her back,
the girl wanted to return. She understood that Lady Park was doing
the best she could, then she convinced her mother to let her go. And
this is what exactly happened. As Jeom Soon’s mother was ill, she
could not leave her mother behind. So, Lady Park invited her mother
to live with them too. At first, the mother refused because she
thought she would be exploited and treated as a maid too. But the
Lady Park convinced her otherwise, claiming that she regretted
everything she did, that she had disgraceful attitudes before.
Therefore, It would not happen again. Then, Jeom Soon’s mother
was convinced to go. After all, both mother and daughter did not have
anywhere else to go anyway. So they went to Lady Park’s home.</p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBD_MkrnepYOgcz2oK223_ewato3ch0ZcDrMkDzqQTWWom-r-djBOtV7yE0SODka5e7t2PYXxTeEVLHlgWi_FupO-ohKa7jLlZHhUreUtgzvFSZSttsnSZKNpBcqljZ_CX4JoEy9rq7f7S3X1ZZVL9yUgMMa_bCcWzfZeBFX91HymEiI-INdj-CdGX0f4/s300/04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBD_MkrnepYOgcz2oK223_ewato3ch0ZcDrMkDzqQTWWom-r-djBOtV7yE0SODka5e7t2PYXxTeEVLHlgWi_FupO-ohKa7jLlZHhUreUtgzvFSZSttsnSZKNpBcqljZ_CX4JoEy9rq7f7S3X1ZZVL9yUgMMa_bCcWzfZeBFX91HymEiI-INdj-CdGX0f4/w295-h179/04.jpg" width="295" /></a></div><br />
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;">Furthermore, in the very end of the film we can see that the boy,
although still a child, got to follow his mother and take his future
wife home. Jeom Soon was very touched by this act. And then they were
happily together home. </span><span style="text-align: left;">It seems that after all this mess,
nothing bad would happen again.</span></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This film provides valuable insight about how life was like in
ancient Asia. We do not know exactly the time frame when this plot
happened, but we can see how people lived by doing manual work, how
they related to each other, the clothes they wore. So it's a really
nice time machine. Those old Korean films, they are important to
understand the current K-dramas. It's a good cultural experience.
</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If you don't get to find the films in DVD or online, you can
find some writings about them in blogs, in websites. So it's a part
of cinema history that is really important to know, but at the same
time it's so underrated. It is nice to see how love can happen, even
though there are bad circumstances and how poverty can crush people
so much, but at the same time we can see that things can have a good
and positive outcome.<br /></p><p></p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-75121860986820200862023-08-19T21:37:00.001-03:002023-08-19T21:39:20.258-03:00Rope (USA, 1948)<p></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
Two guys strangled to death their old colleague. After the crime they
put his body in a trunk and then they organized a kind of a party and
invited the parents of the colleague they have just killed, his
fiancé and another common colleague they had. One of the guys who
committed the crime was really sure about what he wanted to do, but
the other guy seemed to have been forced by the other one to kill. It
seems that he did not want too much to kill, but the other guy
influenced him negatively. Then the guy who seemed to be a kind of
leader, and the one who really was certain and proud of his cruelty,
also invited to the party a guy who used to be his teacher in the
college, the latter played by actor James Stewart.</span></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI0SlnhKUco4MOWkyj9mfHHvYZG5LoudsHo-KWoAhuZiT3Urh7DZMABNvNCvxMlXwbg3zT4mRF4o0WC3g-G4qKc0pkE2vlElfybngDl28q-FwqSuynXI2Z0ph0MoH171_irotpErI3uEbhVC6Yr1EU3PWHhypx22szFE1N0e-Y58fUQXOpza8LMbSnD-w/s261/04.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="261" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI0SlnhKUco4MOWkyj9mfHHvYZG5LoudsHo-KWoAhuZiT3Urh7DZMABNvNCvxMlXwbg3zT4mRF4o0WC3g-G4qKc0pkE2vlElfybngDl28q-FwqSuynXI2Z0ph0MoH171_irotpErI3uEbhVC6Yr1EU3PWHhypx22szFE1N0e-Y58fUQXOpza8LMbSnD-w/w320-h237/04.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
We can observe that this specific teacher had some weird
beliefs that murder must be something committed by a few privileged
people, and then the lives of those people who did not matter to
society must be eliminated. There were even comparisons with the
terrible events that happened in World War II that killed many people
and they also thought that some people were superior to others. So,
this teacher had this kind of mentality. The criminals invited the
teacher to the party because they thought that if the teacher knew
about the murder, maybe he would understand why they committed the
murder and even applauded them.</span></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
The criminals also had an elderly maid and she realized that there
was something wrong in the house because she made the dining table,
she organized everything, the plates, the glasses and all of a sudden
the guys changed their minds and wanted to serve food in a trunk and
the table was so well organized and they seemed nervous. The maid
quite could not understand that. However, the party began without
problems. The parents and the fiancé of the murdered guy arrived and
all of them wondered why the guy didn't arrive yet. He was never
late. His fiancé was worried. His parents were worried too. But of
course that they could not imagine they were having dinner in the
trunk with the body of their son, of their loved one, inside that.</span></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5zIb47jdtLVZrlOpi7ly0loJI-P1BRtHbSeQtuxnpzyM8MQ_VSLt3fiMpW966gHVPG_RqFZCTJ2-R0ICw3W4wtdlRE3DLzkmNCuEWOrAhK0ef11BvpEPrD9WU7F0S9hPYaVIBQtiWVC1ZZlrWVtN20N3dQizIuowtFvOqwKLTAMV9TMOJQTLvpMf_YxQ/s258/03.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="258" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5zIb47jdtLVZrlOpi7ly0loJI-P1BRtHbSeQtuxnpzyM8MQ_VSLt3fiMpW966gHVPG_RqFZCTJ2-R0ICw3W4wtdlRE3DLzkmNCuEWOrAhK0ef11BvpEPrD9WU7F0S9hPYaVIBQtiWVC1ZZlrWVtN20N3dQizIuowtFvOqwKLTAMV9TMOJQTLvpMf_YxQ/w320-h242/03.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
Then the teacher arrived and he started to realize more than anyone
else that there was something wrong in that house. The guy who was
not too willing to kill was extremely nervous. The teacher had been
the former teacher of all of those guys, both guys who committed
the murder and then of the colleague of them was called, and then he
saw that they were weird but it was just a suspicion. After a while,
the maid told him that she also thought that the guys were weird but
the teacher had no proof of his suspicion. After a while, the parents
of the murdered guy decided to leave the party because they were too
worried with his son. The teacher left too. But when the teacher
was leaving, the maid instead of giving him his hat, she gave him, by
mistake, the hat of the guy who was murdered. And the teacher knew
that because of the initials of the murdered guy inside the hat. Then
he had some sort of evidence that something was actually wrong. After
a while, he returned to the apartment pretending to have
forgotten his cigarette case and then he started to make questions.
He pretended that he wanted to have a drink, to talk and after a
while that guy who wasn't too willing to kill was completely nervous
and ended up confessing the murder.</span></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Fv8JtdCt-wHy3syeFGWXqltoK3vLBi-oukBu9g2o6kTX9wL_wE5ss90BIQ2v7hPnadm7cjYLf6duUxzYXhw8zFmBngmEfkr3DZmVCynGWAEf7xOKtAxGbPIGkM8gaE7xCM5tLnmNspaeYgVPQ7eLO0zMJylURCvLGHsn-WsuXgZolZ7LLFG43Slcffw/s220/02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="157" data-original-width="220" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Fv8JtdCt-wHy3syeFGWXqltoK3vLBi-oukBu9g2o6kTX9wL_wE5ss90BIQ2v7hPnadm7cjYLf6duUxzYXhw8zFmBngmEfkr3DZmVCynGWAEf7xOKtAxGbPIGkM8gaE7xCM5tLnmNspaeYgVPQ7eLO0zMJylURCvLGHsn-WsuXgZolZ7LLFG43Slcffw/w320-h228/02.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
The other guy who was the leader and thought that murder was supposed
to be committed by a superior few also confessed the murder to the
teacher and the teacher, instead of finding that wonderful, got
horrified and even more shocked when he realized it was his theories
that influenced they to do that and he said to the guys that he was
extremely ashamed of his theories for the first time in his life,
that he wasn't aware of the harm that they could cause, and then he
made a sort of speech that is very interesting, that who are we to
decide who is superior, who is inferior? We are not God and all
lives have value and everyone deserves to live, to be happy, to work,
to make their dreams come true. After this moment of tension, in
order to call the attention of the police, the teacher shot by the
window. At that moment, both guys, especially the one who was the
leader, were coldly waiting for the police to arrive. It must be
pointed out that it is not shown what will happen with the characters
afterwards, but it is implied that they were arrested and punished
for their crime.
</span></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_CqsboNpbO5kzOs6g386xxXB0oVXwc4rfXU_dyZNPqBbqAIqCQprF2Gh3dQg2oc9ET9OnCdOxl_aBUx9k0Bt1VHYJm7oTRL6E68HFBfI6L2_XmjEGTUvakNb_TLVoNuKqlgCWN2OvOgQTshjtNwBoFsLzDHwmGhF3iBU2Sdl_DxJzFpmwvSADAcmut9o/s265/01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="265" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_CqsboNpbO5kzOs6g386xxXB0oVXwc4rfXU_dyZNPqBbqAIqCQprF2Gh3dQg2oc9ET9OnCdOxl_aBUx9k0Bt1VHYJm7oTRL6E68HFBfI6L2_XmjEGTUvakNb_TLVoNuKqlgCWN2OvOgQTshjtNwBoFsLzDHwmGhF3iBU2Sdl_DxJzFpmwvSADAcmut9o/w320-h229/01.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
It is a very interesting film, especially because it was made a few
years after the end of World War II when this kind of racist and
eugenic ideologies were in vogue in some groups. It is a good
analysis of the perversity of human mind. The criminals were so cruel
that they used the rope with which they killed the guy to tie the
books they gave to the father of the guy they had just murdered. And
they showed no remorse. We must also keep in mind that the other guy
who was too nervous, he did not exactly show any remorse. He was
nervous in fear of being caught. He was not exactly regretting
what he did. He was just a little bit more fearful and more
influenced by the other guy. But it was not remorse for the life he
had just taken. Another point that stands out is that the murders did
not call their other colleague to the party because they found the
guy nice or anything. It is because the fiance of the murdered guy
used to be his girlfriend before she started dating the murdered guy.
Thus, the criminals kind of wanted the woman to cheat on her recently
deceased fiance with her former boyfriend, which was something really
sick. This film is famous for its long shots. It's one of the most
experimental films by Alfred Hitchcock, and in a short period of
time, the narration is shown in a very smooth way, and there's
nothing lacking in the suspense. The long shots give an extra effect
of the tension, because we feel as if we were by the side of all
characters. So we do not feel as if we are watching, we feel as if we
were there seeing everything happening. Nearly all the scenes took
place inside the apartment, except for the initial scene of the film,
which took place on the street. It is a remarkable example of how perverse some people can be
and how their minds work. It is also important to see the danger of
some weird ideologies and how they can be used as an excuse to commit
the most terrible acts. It is a film that never gets old.</span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-64960983489761066122023-08-19T11:10:00.001-03:002023-08-19T21:25:46.367-03:00The Only Son (Japan, 1936)<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This film talks about a poor widow and her son. At first the mother
couldn't really afford the son to continue with his education.
However, her son had a teacher who really encouraged her to make
her son to keep on studying. But to do it, the mother would need to
send her son away to Tokyo because they lived in a small city. She
would need to send him to Tokyo and pay for his education, which was
too much for her because it was a really poor family. However, she
realized that the boys of the neighborhood were going to Tokyo to
have an education and she didn't want her son to miss an opportunity,
so she made all the sacrifices possible, she struggled so her son
could have an education in Tokyo. Many years have passed and her son
was now 27 years old and then she decided to visit him there by
surprise.</p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDWdY8riAr_nsi9gD0lU1V-e2qseYX1rs355L7PfN3E-QAaJKNrqNxgEmZ1LBZXv8Dex9kxGok9ysc_UnkHQUgPJcoWsJz89yiAHxjIa1XKAjKLgJ_q518K2EWU7PZf2zt73L_pd7rG0YnvafH7HyZa_58bb4f2zZUqzliM42Zk1SlY4ZGniaZKfPfXs/s260/04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="260" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDWdY8riAr_nsi9gD0lU1V-e2qseYX1rs355L7PfN3E-QAaJKNrqNxgEmZ1LBZXv8Dex9kxGok9ysc_UnkHQUgPJcoWsJz89yiAHxjIa1XKAjKLgJ_q518K2EWU7PZf2zt73L_pd7rG0YnvafH7HyZa_58bb4f2zZUqzliM42Zk1SlY4ZGniaZKfPfXs/w320-h239/04.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;">And when she arrived in Tokyo, she realized that her son wasn't
as successful as she imagined. At first, she was scared, not
necessarily with the city, but with the neighborhood where he lived,
which was really poor, and she also got to know that her son was
married and had a baby son of his own. And of course she was in shock
because she imagined that her son would study and be successful. And
the son, he was happy to see his mother, of course, but he was
extremely sad that his mom saw him in this situation. He would rather
her to visit him later when he had a better financial situation.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRIXkTHU3e-hpT40A4naHslt6pCSdhxd5EjRKgtcAiMNNVZsILqy-SQbVRbvXWBaF8iEjhH_2gzXZ2Ew5M68WOohWY8bf1SkGHAX7mRVNKyZ6COQqzg6ym0Q0IfUWHyvk_weEu6BkbIBiNkTVRZAOc_cyyVDr12kDMhFziAs4YwRBz6MwYBGKK4hr7OvU/s275/01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRIXkTHU3e-hpT40A4naHslt6pCSdhxd5EjRKgtcAiMNNVZsILqy-SQbVRbvXWBaF8iEjhH_2gzXZ2Ew5M68WOohWY8bf1SkGHAX7mRVNKyZ6COQqzg6ym0Q0IfUWHyvk_weEu6BkbIBiNkTVRZAOc_cyyVDr12kDMhFziAs4YwRBz6MwYBGKK4hr7OvU/s1600/01.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The son’s wife was a really good person. She treated his
mother as it was her own mother. She was very gentle with her. The
son treated his mom wonderfully too. He tried to borrow money from
other people, so he could take his mom to places. But, of course,
that she couldn't disguise the fact that she was disappointed. The
son talked to his mom in private and confronted her about it. And he
said that he knew that she was very disappointed, that he did
everything he could, that he was aware of how much she suffered to
pay for his education, that he tried his best to honor all her
effort. But Tokyo is a very populated and big city, competition was
wild, that he wanted to be more than a night school teacher. Then the
mother said that he shouldn't give up so easily, he was still young,
his life was just beginning, and he shouldn't act like a coward, that
he should keep on trying to improve his situation, he was still
young, he had the means.</span></div>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJisY-o4NX3Yfa1c9bD3WSvTx8yPwXtGXHEneK6iWn2r5hH9ZQOKZaWarKE7e4iSYx9otD47kvewdsN4wZeEmPlp8M5jhcgRT_qfRFLUyo3D3GO_66fI0A0gM3H898NnZVfxjprra6mRynR7_YxPtYkSsGGf6Uzo9R7PLyyo_106xQ89bqLqvHB84YvrA/s259/02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJisY-o4NX3Yfa1c9bD3WSvTx8yPwXtGXHEneK6iWn2r5hH9ZQOKZaWarKE7e4iSYx9otD47kvewdsN4wZeEmPlp8M5jhcgRT_qfRFLUyo3D3GO_66fI0A0gM3H898NnZVfxjprra6mRynR7_YxPtYkSsGGf6Uzo9R7PLyyo_106xQ89bqLqvHB84YvrA/w320-h240/02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And then when they talked about the same subject again at night, his
wife overheard everything and started crying. And she was feeling
very bad that her mother-in-law was in this situation, sad all day
long, taking care of her grandson. And then she decided to do
something. She sold her kimono and gave the money to her husband so
he could afford taking his mother to places, to go out with her so at
least she could cheer up a little bit. And they planned to do just
that. The entire family would go out, take his mother to no more
corners of Tokyo. However, a boy of the neighborhood had an accident
with a horse and he needed to go to the hospital.</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Then the elderly mother's son took the boy to the hospital and
even helped his mother with some pocket money for the expenses
because his son didn't have anything serious in the accident but he
broke her leg so he would need some care and it would be difficult
for her because she was very poor too. After a while, when they left
the hospital, the son told the mother that this event ruined all the
plans that he had for today. He intended to go out with her, to do
things together, but this accident, it destroyed everything. Then the
mother told him that she was proud of him because when you very poor,
the generosity of other people make you feel so grateful and that she
knew how the neighbor felt because she was very poor too and she said
that it was much better that her son had helped the neighbor than
going out with her that it would be the best memory she would have
from her time in Tokyo.</p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;">When they were talking about the financial situation of the son, she
confessed to him that she had to sell her house to pay for his
education and that she was sleeping in the dormitory of her
workplace, but that he shouldn't need about her, that she doesn't
care about the housing or anything. All she cares about is that he
study hard and then improve his financial situation. After the mother
left and returned for her city, the son told his wife that he would
return to school and try to specialize to give classes to college
students, so he would earn more money, because his son, his baby son,
wouldn't be a baby forever and he would need money.</span></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_JPAQIpbJJTsT9qk1oYHXFCVOM9tAEQ4jx58UVOOPhEustjtguSo0PKvkV7wIarSfb4D5pWWkPG29pCslDEiO_TDW67nEPSpa2ebkPiWKXXcHrtgNxyUHC0Ss-aue_xILwQad-i-MdOp80zi_GNS2Mm8bLnTrkG_vaWM0RlK9qBGuGep47jD7sysAGrk/s300/03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_JPAQIpbJJTsT9qk1oYHXFCVOM9tAEQ4jx58UVOOPhEustjtguSo0PKvkV7wIarSfb4D5pWWkPG29pCslDEiO_TDW67nEPSpa2ebkPiWKXXcHrtgNxyUHC0Ss-aue_xILwQad-i-MdOp80zi_GNS2Mm8bLnTrkG_vaWM0RlK9qBGuGep47jD7sysAGrk/w300-h179/03.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;">We can see in the beginning of the film that the elderly mother
returned to her village. And when her friend asked about Tokyo and
about her son, she said that Tokyo was beautiful, that her son was
well, that he became a great man. So she said good things about her
son, that he found a good wife. She really liked his wife very much,
but we could see on her face that she was extremely sad because she
thought her son would be more successful. The plot of this film is
very universal because parents always want their children to have a
better situation than they have. They always want the best for their
children. And when they realize that their children didn't do as well
as they expected of course that they feel sad.</span></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;">On the other hand, she could recognize that her son was a very nice
boy, who had a nice wife, a nice family, who never did anything
wrong, never stole from anyone. She also saw that the teacher of her
son, who also went to Tokyo, instead of still being a teacher, he was
working in a restaurant frying food. So, things were very difficult
for his former teacher too. So it wasn't only her son was struggling.
And that competition in a big city is indeed very bad. But she had
the highest expectations about her son because he was everything she
had in life. And unfortunately, it wasn't as she imagined and it's a
very touching film, even sad, but it's a plot that never gets old,
it's delicate as Ozu's films usually are. It is one of the few Ozu’s
films were his sentimentality is openly shown, in contract to most of
his films, where it is more covered.</span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-33525005049103841132022-06-12T21:12:00.001-03:002022-06-12T21:30:47.599-03:00An Andalusian Dog (France, 1929)<p style="text-align: justify;">This famous silent film short is a result of the cooperation of Luiz Bunel and famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali in the production/direction. And much has been said – even by Dali himself -that nothing in this film was meant to make any sense, still many reviewers and scholars have tried to find some meaning and connection between all scenes throughout the decades. Maybe an attempt to try to find coherence by all means or would there be any sense in the images shown, after all?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The film starts with a tango song in the background and the image of a man sharpening a razor. He goes to a balcony while holding the razor and smoking a cigarette. Then a woman who is sitting down is shown with her eye being cut by the razor at night. Eight years later, a man is shown riding a bicycle on a deserted street in a sunny day. He is wearing unusual clothes and the street looks beautiful. Right afterwards, the woman who had her eye cut a while ago is shown while sitting down on a chair and reading something. The background music changes, the guy on a bicycle pops up again. The woman gets tense, stops reading and goes to the window. The guy on a bicycle is shown again, this time from above. He falls off the bicycle on the sidewalk and the woman goes downstairs to help him.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3ApOPfYfGyXTvOxSBPcnJsogxos6Rtt0t4cnQaYRwtLlXSSABsgi0CDm6SGxqtrMcsdbGpRw0JDSvd_a5S7FvYym0gIIQ4n4Rqzd8rpztVzQe1pnM_WfIhl-Rs2i89Ft6rhW6EbmcnHiHCo7opkCL-uKeR_fraMHk_cBuQsuD9RiKPsdA_qtQmCT/s516/An%20Andalusian%20Dog%20(Un%20Chien%20Andalou)%20(1929)%20039.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="516" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3ApOPfYfGyXTvOxSBPcnJsogxos6Rtt0t4cnQaYRwtLlXSSABsgi0CDm6SGxqtrMcsdbGpRw0JDSvd_a5S7FvYym0gIIQ4n4Rqzd8rpztVzQe1pnM_WfIhl-Rs2i89Ft6rhW6EbmcnHiHCo7opkCL-uKeR_fraMHk_cBuQsuD9RiKPsdA_qtQmCT/s320/An%20Andalusian%20Dog%20(Un%20Chien%20Andalou)%20(1929)%20039.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">The woman is shown in her bedroom upstairs again. She is holding a tie and puts it on the bed together with the clothes that belonged to the man who fell off the bicycle. She sits down on a chair and stares at the bed with the man’s clothes on it. Suddenly, a man is shown in the bedroom and he’s looking at one of his own hands and there are ants on it, which seems to be a symbolism of his urge to kill. The images change abruptly, almost in a raw way, and we can now see a man with androgynous features and clothing playing with a human hand with a can while a crowd is around him. Would it mean the use of of human suffering and misery for the entertainment of masses? Would this man be blind or something like that? A policeman comes and disperses the crowd. The man keeps on playing with the human hand with his can and the policeman bents down to collect the hand, puts it on a small box and delivers the hand back to the man.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHvLK-bEwUVdv6JzksPj6PdTcNhcggAIWTm3Orsb0XuYbtoYCe_qw4Cv54zjxywR_wy5sNm2cpsrG8twZLNkxQM5kQCTqRbiPiVcdCUsYW6iNXDGE4vE7MmkNQiaJAyiRaTOLvcwVsv9VW4hHNn18_C8dRvC_cGEkD5FqmxOrrtuXIwFcuD9sSoec/s516/An%20Andalusian%20Dog%20(Un%20Chien%20Andalou)%20(1929)%20143.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="516" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHvLK-bEwUVdv6JzksPj6PdTcNhcggAIWTm3Orsb0XuYbtoYCe_qw4Cv54zjxywR_wy5sNm2cpsrG8twZLNkxQM5kQCTqRbiPiVcdCUsYW6iNXDGE4vE7MmkNQiaJAyiRaTOLvcwVsv9VW4hHNn18_C8dRvC_cGEkD5FqmxOrrtuXIwFcuD9sSoec/s320/An%20Andalusian%20Dog%20(Un%20Chien%20Andalou)%20(1929)%20143.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Both the man and woman in the bedroom follow up this commotion from their window. The man on the street remains there, lonely, holding his small box with the human hand in it until he is hit by a car. The other man by the window seems to be deeply impacted by the event unfolding downstairs. The background tango song is back. The man in the window looks at the woman besides him in a rather scary way and then the shock: He tries to sexually assault the woman by his side even though she refuses his advances. The woman pushes him and runs inside the bedroom and tries to protect herself in any way she can. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Then the man pushes the strings of two pianos and the audience can see two dead donkeys and two priests also being pushed, which weights down on the man heavily. Would it be a representation of the weight of the church and authorities over the back of common citizens? Upon seeing this, the woman leaves the room in horror. The man tries to follow her to no avail and then it is still visible to the audiences the ants on his hand, which might mean his wish to kill and the fact that his bad passions dominated him. Right afterwards the man is suddenly shown laying down on the bed in the same room where he was in the previous scenes.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LuY_dSXlVrL7l80uvn7g-rIialyYgB7ldWmW49WFh7rokFlnSSQIkcmS22LCWqTLyzAo3fyi5MTLZyf0Dxsj0DFib3GwKN7q0yicN3S1kIU8BBysQpfbFIIOXyAuI8skmvKsF7OECT35z3FHdQJkLZMh57FcNyIcPuLvP05zlJ888GXA4tzU332d/s516/An%20Andalusian%20Dog%20(Un%20Chien%20Andalou)%20(1929)%20252.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="516" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LuY_dSXlVrL7l80uvn7g-rIialyYgB7ldWmW49WFh7rokFlnSSQIkcmS22LCWqTLyzAo3fyi5MTLZyf0Dxsj0DFib3GwKN7q0yicN3S1kIU8BBysQpfbFIIOXyAuI8skmvKsF7OECT35z3FHdQJkLZMh57FcNyIcPuLvP05zlJ888GXA4tzU332d/s320/An%20Andalusian%20Dog%20(Un%20Chien%20Andalou)%20(1929)%20252.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">“Around three in the morning” (as an intertitle says), another man rings the bell and the woman who was previously in the bedroom opens the door. This new man goes straight to the bed where the another man is laying down and he apparently urges him to stand up. The man laying down is quite puzzled and has a submissive attitude. Would this new man be the boss urging his employee to stand up and work, perhaps?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another intertitle says “Sixteen years before”. Both guys now appear to look the same, even though the submissive guy keeps his oppressed attitude unchanged. There is a messy office desk with torn and dirty papers on it. One guy hands over a book to the other, the image blurs briefly and the submissive man is holding a gun towards the bossy man. He shoots. Would it be the embodiment of the oppressed becoming the oppressor and representing the change of luck of a person in life?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">When the shot guy falls, he falls in a place outdoors and we can see the back of a half naked woman, who looks like the woman who was previously in the bedroom. The woman disappears after a short while. Some men are shown in this outdoors place and they find the body of the man who was shot and he is carried by the other man. It seems it was already too late to save his life. Would it be a representation that everything in life will eventually come to an end?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The old bedroom is shown once more. The woman is returning to the bedroom, there is the close up of a small butterfly. The man was waiting for her, which means that the old couple of the bedroom is reunited once more. The man rubs his hand on his lips and we can see that his mouth was deleted from his face. The woman applies some lipstick in her own lips. The man still has no mouth and the woman realizes that her body hair was also gone. She pulls a face on the man and leaves the bedroom again.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7YoGyDc2pOGyK5vbpemOsiOpzNsKFLd-FOw4dZjqgh6aMjjFzRAjsui5PjKvJn6X2VZxL5CB-37249P2EcpMFC07q2FX0UBPNl4yGiQJYEv6ItcUUQjQ2r3f3c4gFjvozfaW8fNl0DK3JpE_vA6ael8oVPq7vLDpUpZeRD3GcQYAqjcaerI2MLBY0/s516/An%20Andalusian%20Dog%20(Un%20Chien%20Andalou)%20(1929)%20427.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="516" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7YoGyDc2pOGyK5vbpemOsiOpzNsKFLd-FOw4dZjqgh6aMjjFzRAjsui5PjKvJn6X2VZxL5CB-37249P2EcpMFC07q2FX0UBPNl4yGiQJYEv6ItcUUQjQ2r3f3c4gFjvozfaW8fNl0DK3JpE_vA6ael8oVPq7vLDpUpZeRD3GcQYAqjcaerI2MLBY0/s320/An%20Andalusian%20Dog%20(Un%20Chien%20Andalou)%20(1929)%20427.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">It’s windy outside, we can see the man on a beach, the woman walks towards him and the man on the beach is appears to be the same man who has just been seen in the bedroom but in another outfit. He shows his watch to the woman, as if he was reprehending for having arrived late. The woman kisses the man and they embrace. The beach gets muddy and they see some garbage, including old clothes, which look like the clothes that belonged to the man who fell off the bicycle in the beginning of the film. Would it be a representation of leaving the past behind and start a new life?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The couple walks happily on the beach and then another intertitle says “In the spring” and the couple is shown buried in the sand, apparently dead. A strong scene which maybe would mean that life is brief and that, despite all ups and downs, it eventually ends for everyone?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">A surrealist work of art gives room for all sorts of interpretations. It can mean nothing and everything, all at the same time, but the imagery always makes people uncomfortable and raises lots of thoughts, which is the intent of the surrealist movement. Definitely it is not a film for everyone and it helps audiences if audiences are open minded about non linear plots.</p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-85154508422502390572022-03-08T15:08:00.005-03:002022-03-08T15:08:56.055-03:00Roman Holiday (USA, 1953)<p style="text-align: justify;"> Some films age well, some don’t but there are films that only get better as time passes. The story of a princess who spent a day out without the obligations of her secluded life may seem a bit dull for nowadays’ standards. But the discovery of small pleasures in life (the first ice cream, pair of shoes, haircut, etc.) and the carefree relaxation and touching human connections make this film more relevant than ever in world where those feelings seem scarce. It is also a witness of life in post world war 2 era and of birth of a new star, Audrey Hepburn, who is on the main role, and won an Oscar in for this film, in her first major Hollywood role.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The young princess Ann of an unidentified European kingdom is on a diplomatic visit to Italy while on a goodwill tour of European capitals. We can see right in the beginning that her life consists in strict protocols and social obligations without opportunity for entertainment and she is bored with all that, longing to enjoy life without those impositions. We can also see the scenes made in magnificent sceneries, beautiful clothing, sophisticated places, everything emphasizing the luxury life of the princess. In her first diplomatic commitment, which mostly consisted in shaking hands of foreign dignitaries, she was always polite, gentle, did everything expected from her, but she was clearly impatient with all stiffness. </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">After the social gathering, princess Ann is seeing in her bedroom behaving silly and frantically like a youth of her own age and then all her obligations gave her an anxiety attack. A doctor was called, who administered her injectable sedatives so the princess could relax and sleep well because she would have lots of commitments on the following day. After being left alone in the bedroom and hearing the sound of people partying she gathered courage to venture outside and explore Rome on her own. She leaves unnoticed after jumping inside a truck.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately to Ann the sedative took effect a little too late and she fell asleep on the street at night. Joe Bradley, expatriate reporter for the "American News Service" finds her without having any idea that she was a princess and thinking she is just a random drunk woman. As Joe could not know where she lived he takes her to his house to recover. Meanwhile, it was announced in the press a sudden disease of the princess as a cover up for her disappearance and her press interview had to be canceled.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjwThj30FFfwLM0PYvSjVZWjo90hf-4cIOex08XTUdFqvHOgu4Kr6uvDWCOUTogLxq35VXrlbd7snzEnVwO8iT-REU_E-pQVoYT_UxOqIiKmsLdO88IcuMrujOlMNwfobOLEo2nODZkoF-BNAypI_QM48mDixqnqC8RJCrfxk0ytPLQ0SXNCE6_Tdq8=s717" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="717" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjwThj30FFfwLM0PYvSjVZWjo90hf-4cIOex08XTUdFqvHOgu4Kr6uvDWCOUTogLxq35VXrlbd7snzEnVwO8iT-REU_E-pQVoYT_UxOqIiKmsLdO88IcuMrujOlMNwfobOLEo2nODZkoF-BNAypI_QM48mDixqnqC8RJCrfxk0ytPLQ0SXNCE6_Tdq8=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Joe Bradley was one of journalists supposed to be in the interview, but he overslept and lied to his boss about being there, as he was not aware of the cancellation at first. After a short time his boss told Joe that the princess was weak and therefore her interview was canceled and showed this news in the newspaper. When Joe saw the picture of the princess in the newspaper he instantly recognized her as the girl sleeping in her apartment. He called his Irving, his bon vivant photographer friend so they could both write a reportage on the princess. </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">When the princess wake up, she take a shower and left Joe’s apartment. Having never carried any money with her, she borrows some with Joe and went outside. Joe follows her. At first Ann is not used with those crowds around her and the frantic pace of the big city, but she adjusts after some minutes. She buys a pair of shoes, have her hair cut and then Joe met her and they have an ice cream together. In order to gain time while he waits for Irving to arrive, he volunteers to show the city of Rome to Anna and she accepts it. He shows her lots of touristic attractions and have the best fun, including a rather awkward scooter riding by both Ann and Joey, which caused lots of physical losses for people around. After spending a while at the police department they are finally released after Joe lying that he and Ann were getting married.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgepH4vkiabK1AcX5uUQgi-Yv2MkfpPHMJg9-gsZOFYc43wmi-MYqZTNAcVkakDsF_3D_866HkvZjuhhGDptH3pVSVw01c_S9cRZqB0e-DVlsZBJUSHjnpAjzNxe9i0qJJXEcmI7iAgCQKq05-pCeqlV3x5BodCOugticAb3UtjJuwhkPkdU-bejW_3=s220" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="165" data-original-width="220" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgepH4vkiabK1AcX5uUQgi-Yv2MkfpPHMJg9-gsZOFYc43wmi-MYqZTNAcVkakDsF_3D_866HkvZjuhhGDptH3pVSVw01c_S9cRZqB0e-DVlsZBJUSHjnpAjzNxe9i0qJJXEcmI7iAgCQKq05-pCeqlV3x5BodCOugticAb3UtjJuwhkPkdU-bejW_3=w320-h240" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">After being released from the police station, they attend a party by the sea in the evening. When things were so nice and relaxing at the party with people dancing and chatting and Ann even met the hairdresser who cut her hair that afternoon, it arrives agents from the secret service of Ann’s country in the party. Her father had asked for the secret service look for Ann and bring her back home. Ann recognizes the agents, tries to run away and then there is a generalized fighting with both Ann and Joe falling inside the river. After they leave the river and Joe heats her up, they kissed, but stop soon when the both realize it is something inappropriate for a princess.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was all fun and games but 24 hours have passed since Ann had left and everyone was worried with her in the country and her disappearance have already become a diplomatic problem. She knew she had to return to her headquarters without delay. After taking a shower in Joe’s apartment she asked him to drive her to the corner of the embassy of her country in Italy. He does it and it is quite painful for them to say good bye because it was clear they would never see each other again. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaHwW-_gG1HYb5z-M1DkvPvTpXH3A8shgR7qEOkZWC0HWzATC3pEnehTW7oZvt4O3ApkCCyMMC1zeOQiTDwmynWheZ3DmHeeZ61hp_CKm7nhVpfmWZdPKaPvJVvVOChIWN4slh1cWatNYoV8LQvUbx_Z6qK4t9g5jYJL3akcmUdAPSakjUqvNr_W0k=s640" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaHwW-_gG1HYb5z-M1DkvPvTpXH3A8shgR7qEOkZWC0HWzATC3pEnehTW7oZvt4O3ApkCCyMMC1zeOQiTDwmynWheZ3DmHeeZ61hp_CKm7nhVpfmWZdPKaPvJVvVOChIWN4slh1cWatNYoV8LQvUbx_Z6qK4t9g5jYJL3akcmUdAPSakjUqvNr_W0k=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Anna returns and is scolded for having disappeared like that and, as she was back, she had to meet her official commitments in Italy, including the press interview. Upon her arrival in the interview, Ann recognizes both Joe Bradley and Irving in the press area and gets shocked. However, they do not have any intention of publishing the story, it is only that she is not aware of it yet. Acting out of protocol Ann says that Rome was her favorite city among all others she has been recently visiting in Europe and she also expressed her wish to greet the journalists with a handshake. When she greets both Joe and Irving she gets to know to which agency they work for and receive the pictures that Irving took that day and it is stated to her that her day out would remain a secret. And then she leaves Italy and everyone return to their respective worlds after having the time of their lives.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This film remains as a beautiful witness of post World War 2 life and the recognition of importance of a person’s individual freedoms and small pleasures in life. How important it is to enjoy those small pleasures, have good quality of life and healthy congregates with both people and places around us. And how days apparently common can be unforgettable times. In an era when things get increasingly dangerous and the connection with simple things are sometimes forgotten it is a pleasure to see that people do not need too much to be happy and enjoy life.</p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-10350934249258589982022-02-21T16:17:00.002-03:002022-02-21T16:17:48.311-03:00Those Country Kids (USA, 1914)<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Al St. John (who were respectively
uncle and nephew in real life) play two rivals in this in this
one-reeler film for the affection of their sweetheart (played by
actress Mabel Normand). In the beginning of the film, Mabel is at
home and she sees Arbuckle on the fence and goes outside to meet him.
They both hug and start talking. After a short time they start
arguing but soon reconcile. Mabel’s father sees her talking to
Arbuckle, gets furious and goes outside carrying a gun. The father
does not actually shoot, but ends up literally kicking Arbuckle out
and prohibiting Mabel to ever talk to him again. Right afterwards
Arbuckle uses a slingshot to take revenge on Mabel’s father, who
wastes no time to shoot back on Arbuckle’s butt. Mabel protests, to
no avail.</p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiX31txLPFReQt9EVZCFiiPegI3YXKwSXoKmVNTJ2JB0Te1q9HZ7tRzDyR1hv-6nHgTqKaED-no1zTG96XJ12a9rB4SCHBdGS4i4XzsfmdAPhzYNvpU3dqYxZ7akbHfoLTD35w2zOQX0-Wb59h6mersX8rWuCJPQYd8ucTtFkfUFXG0zGje5GPWDD1-=s640" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiX31txLPFReQt9EVZCFiiPegI3YXKwSXoKmVNTJ2JB0Te1q9HZ7tRzDyR1hv-6nHgTqKaED-no1zTG96XJ12a9rB4SCHBdGS4i4XzsfmdAPhzYNvpU3dqYxZ7akbHfoLTD35w2zOQX0-Wb59h6mersX8rWuCJPQYd8ucTtFkfUFXG0zGje5GPWDD1-=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-align: left;">Then
an intertitle announces Mr. Reddy (played by Al St John), another
suitor of Mabel, who arrives on horseback. He was very much
interested in Mabel, but it was unrequited Mabel because she does not
feel the same. Arbuckle sees Mr. Reddy around his girl and gets
disgusted and, to make things worse, Mr. Reddy tries to kiss Mabel
without her consent. Something has to be done and Arbuckle
immediately separated Mabel from the unwanted advances of the other
suit. She rewarded the kindness by kissing Arbuckle, who was the man
she really loved. Both man start to fight and Mabel takes some
distance in fear but it was such big chaos that she ended up being
accidentally hit anyway.</span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Arbuckle
retaliates by throwing bricks on his opponent. The situation
escalates when a brick is throw towards the house, crosses the window
and ends up hitting Mabel’s father by accident. As he was still
holding his gun, the gun was also inadvertently shot, which scared
all other family members who were at home and unaware of the
situation. Mabel’s father got furious again and threw water out of
the window and wet somebody else by the mistake. Meanwhile, the
fighting between both suitors of Mabel was still going on outside.
Mr. Reddy sits on a water well, but Arbuckle hit him with a brick,
which made Mr. Reddy falling inside the well. Arbuckle and Mabel try
to rescue Mr. Reddy, who was drowning.</p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvikF64Ei0MypzvrQ3MiXJnodcAK3LOOS--955sI8QGfV55UmwqQVeV6F9EofFyIJiJuI4FmIyk6pLFP5e1QY4WFDQak5NZcEk2QOCHe1WUh5P31x9tJ4k1sR4zFxuPjQK0qUNlGg1Bdje6GklX0MvJdOjxcq7FVtOxH-7Avs94vL0pQTdkv24-cfY=s640" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvikF64Ei0MypzvrQ3MiXJnodcAK3LOOS--955sI8QGfV55UmwqQVeV6F9EofFyIJiJuI4FmIyk6pLFP5e1QY4WFDQak5NZcEk2QOCHe1WUh5P31x9tJ4k1sR4zFxuPjQK0qUNlGg1Bdje6GklX0MvJdOjxcq7FVtOxH-7Avs94vL0pQTdkv24-cfY=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-align: left;">Mabel
returns home to ask for help and returns with some of her male
relatives. In the middle of all mess, Mabel’s mother calls the
Sheriff’s Office. The other policemen in the office were sleeping
and the sheriff had to wake them up by shooting his own gun to the
air. Then the incompetent Keystone Cops come to the rescue. Mr. Reddy
is finally rescued and Arbuckle and Mabel try to go away in the
middle of confusion, but her relatives realize it and they are chased
by everyone – even the Keystone Cops. Fortunately traffic jams were
not really a problem back to the 1910s. After this chaotic chase,
Mabel and Arbuckle get to arrive in a house, where they meet a
clergyman and get married. Much to Mabel’s family annoyance, it was
too late to prevent anything and they were already officially
married.</span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3_OnS7nyl-HjuCKihNpAO0RKbyyfJPTGwckb9l7FzKn-dsaPs4nc9RnFF5znCxbjo4DRvhAC-lP8R-fhFQYfHyI1C6wXITjLOFXKVl56S7C7h4BXffgX3EMaPGU6V-w4U_puoReHqg_SUq2wU2-dq1DrCRES1RLqYJLnk3WFX6xMnF09SN3F3sJwO=s640" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3_OnS7nyl-HjuCKihNpAO0RKbyyfJPTGwckb9l7FzKn-dsaPs4nc9RnFF5znCxbjo4DRvhAC-lP8R-fhFQYfHyI1C6wXITjLOFXKVl56S7C7h4BXffgX3EMaPGU6V-w4U_puoReHqg_SUq2wU2-dq1DrCRES1RLqYJLnk3WFX6xMnF09SN3F3sJwO=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-align: left;">Despite
having an extremely simple plot, this film is still entertaining with
gags easy to understand and as a historical witness of the lifestyle
of such long time ago, especially clothing, urbanization and
different pace of family life. It is a film to sit down and watching,
without questioning any absurdity that the audiences might seem on
screen and we all frequently need a film to make us forget about
day-to-day problems and just laugh. Recommended cute little film.</span></p>
silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-64756050342666988902022-02-16T18:40:00.001-03:002022-02-16T18:47:37.472-03:00Mabel's New Hero (USA, 1913)<p style="text-align: justify;">Keystone Studios (which was opened in September 1912) is remembered by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Ford Sterling and many of it's great comedians but also of Bathing Beauties, which was a group of beautiful women in bathing suits and carefree antics, always so lively and happy, who joined the action with the comedians in order to arise more interest in the audiences.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In this one-reeler film (which means it is circa 11 minutes long), Arbuckle visit Mabel at home and bring her some flowers while two other women listened to that behind a door. Mabel is not very flattered by the attention of Arbuckle and take him by the ear and kick him out of her house. Mabel enter the room where the other two women were and catch them both spying on her. Arbuckle returned to the house, opened the door and entered the room where the three women were. He bring flowers again and seemed very determined to win Mabel’s affection. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSYJRjYOrdyUSPWE9QE62Ubujwy0PQwhWRA4w7FAif5Gyj7Pd_wCGDtxdpvUpCI2goPz1H2kDOwB2UGH0MW20gL_0qHohhfqTYdcTX4dLUJZ58agPronY70TmGsxKkT7udgKCBq2-Pyw0GmLFXuXaHriymeD7Vh8lCkdMsG2eqCEOfNGvcTnlielem=s640" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSYJRjYOrdyUSPWE9QE62Ubujwy0PQwhWRA4w7FAif5Gyj7Pd_wCGDtxdpvUpCI2goPz1H2kDOwB2UGH0MW20gL_0qHohhfqTYdcTX4dLUJZ58agPronY70TmGsxKkT7udgKCBq2-Pyw0GmLFXuXaHriymeD7Vh8lCkdMsG2eqCEOfNGvcTnlielem=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Then we see on the street a fellow called called “Handsome Harry”, a “Divil” among the women, according to an intertitle. He seem to be a mix of a Don Juan and an unpleasant womanizer and has the typical villain look.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The bedroom is shown again, the two women leave and Mabel and Arbuckle are alone. Mabel is furious and slap Arbuckle but fortunately they reconcile a short time later. Meanwhile, the other two women meet “Handsome Harry” on the street, apparently by chance. They go swimming and “Handsome Harry” follow them. Mabel and Arbuckle go to the same place and also bump into “Handsome Harry”, who start watching Mabel from a distance. Both Arbuckle and Mabel exchange clothes to put on swimming suits. When Arbuckle leave his dressing room to meet Mabel he realize what “Handsome Harry” was doing, tell to Mabel about what was going on and both men start fighting. The other two women also returned from their dressing rooms and “Handsome Harry” followed them.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQvpvO8ymPJuqshbvgDIi4B70ieOYOJgSNcHmo_y0pkmPmQBt6v5onKW2eXa90NY4CF7agyMQfNyyjNBr-9aiC0-4oW4ZdEocywDwn0jGdq-IKnii2pqdEStABaUBKoZ02wO5t61YmKD5AKrY-zdH0WdXshA2R6GIjPRgCsE4P71gCWtJJsnR0Kp6N=s640" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQvpvO8ymPJuqshbvgDIi4B70ieOYOJgSNcHmo_y0pkmPmQBt6v5onKW2eXa90NY4CF7agyMQfNyyjNBr-9aiC0-4oW4ZdEocywDwn0jGdq-IKnii2pqdEStABaUBKoZ02wO5t61YmKD5AKrY-zdH0WdXshA2R6GIjPRgCsE4P71gCWtJJsnR0Kp6N=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">On the beach “Handsome Harry” make advances on the two women, who promptly beat him up. While it happen there is another confusion, as another man made advances on Mabel and Arbuckle beat him up to defend her. When Mabel is a bit away from Arbuckle, “Handsome Harry” approach her and bully her and Mabel also beat him up. Arbuckle run to Mabel and is involved in another fight to defend her. Mabel run away and find the other two women and a policeman on the beach. The policeman try to prevent both man from fighting but end up being hit instead.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjA_vRbmyu9UzhrKGQKBs_99mpRC5kRuw3WbsXgY7wtNgAtqS9GZFdqmLa5wfbibnEZAURuvmg1HRuq78u3ELDDfOIiAdtl-RMIOX0_QCLoWnUAWpeXmBCzJyW1KjaCpaWQw2OJdTVkToYM_qXKxxtJgd4FeeUjUQB6wsL9_wP8Ll8JhZ2oUrkU4ONk=s640" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjA_vRbmyu9UzhrKGQKBs_99mpRC5kRuw3WbsXgY7wtNgAtqS9GZFdqmLa5wfbibnEZAURuvmg1HRuq78u3ELDDfOIiAdtl-RMIOX0_QCLoWnUAWpeXmBCzJyW1KjaCpaWQw2OJdTVkToYM_qXKxxtJgd4FeeUjUQB6wsL9_wP8Ll8JhZ2oUrkU4ONk=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Afterwards, for any crazy reason, Mabel is in a balloon (Yes, it makes no sense why) and “Handsome Harry” untie the rope of the balloon, making it fly away too early and Mabel is terrorized. Arbuckle get to find a telephone and call the police. The Keystone Cops, with their usual degree of incompetence, quickly arrive in the scene while Mabel struggle inside the balloon. Arbuckle and the policemen get to bring the balloon a bit down so Mabel could slide through the rope in safety and she meet everyone upon her return to the soil. The film finish with Mabel and Arbuckle embracing after all the mess.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This is one of the very simply short films made in the first years of Keystone Studios. The plot remain easy to be understood by audiences and entertaining. The frantic, lively and good acting of actors is captivating regardless of era and the sample of 1910s swimming suits provide a unique historical witnesses of an era that has been gone long ago. Both Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand had short-lived careers and were caught in real life in controversies beyond their control but it is easy to understand why both actors were so popular in their own era. They were really good comedians.</p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-51500901955329787752022-01-28T16:49:00.004-03:002022-01-28T16:49:51.221-03:00A Thief Catcher (USA, 1914)<p style="text-align: justify;"> In the first years of Keystone Studios (founded in 1912 in California, USA) we could see a plenty of one reelers and it did not take long until the studio forged its own identity with the Keystone Cops, the Bathing Beauties, Fatty Arbuckle, the sweet and bold Mabel Normand and even a very young Charlie Chaplin and his little tramp. Actually, many comedians who would become famous later started working at Keystone studios to the point of the following sentence being made: “Start with Sennett, get rich somewhere else”.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Ford Sterling was very popular among audiences of the era, usually in the roles of mustached villains and ready to make the lives of other characters hell on Earth. Many of his films are lost nowadays but luckily The Thief Catcher was founded in 2010. Today it's not remembered due to Sterling but because Charlie Chaplin played a bit role as a villain.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The film has a very simple plot and it is quite easy to be understood by audiences of any era. It started with the incompetent Keystone cops, who could barely take care of themselves let alone facing criminals. Those characters were an opportunity for making films laughing at authority figures and were very successful among working classes of the first decades of the XX century. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaavUvhi88c09OQHiQfSXZzBWN6IodKm7UTvU3DkCTY6lLrHzbSjHQD3hSX1JE7SwfTBRghDGJyCLsUg2mKGdB4O4f41lZfavIVAmIyKJHic5SjAvr8glu1u9b9JUv6JpgYWfnTIxvlPBmbCAkhrGX3Z3k4lXEA5Jwd67q_bl_5sFxPIdmyeyYKYol=s909" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="909" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaavUvhi88c09OQHiQfSXZzBWN6IodKm7UTvU3DkCTY6lLrHzbSjHQD3hSX1JE7SwfTBRghDGJyCLsUg2mKGdB4O4f41lZfavIVAmIyKJHic5SjAvr8glu1u9b9JUv6JpgYWfnTIxvlPBmbCAkhrGX3Z3k4lXEA5Jwd67q_bl_5sFxPIdmyeyYKYol=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Keystone cops were told about some crooks and a certain “suspicious John“ (played by Ford sterling himself) is shown holding a dog. The crooks started to beat each other and one of them is thrown downhill. John saw it and the remaining crooks ran after him. John, followed by his faithful dog, decided to hide himself in a household where a woman was hanging clothes. Someone was trapped on the clothes being hanged and was caught by the crooks, but unfortunately the person was the woman who was hanging the clothes, not John. The woman promptly kicked the guys out of her house while John was hidden with his dog nearby.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXTrP0Ur8SUOxXxmqv5wQbh4CNCFFv5ngibDUGydoOHGu5kilVxrtveu6uQP2RyHQf1sV6pT2XmqT2T67PopLJXC93v_xS4ptH0p1KKbnrL3KjJLxGOJ_vg60p2RsJVtrFMe4g6hFBlTOEj4AQoKqpz7v-lwx_E2T0zMWTOtB947BEyCtFn7POTRTI=s910" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="910" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXTrP0Ur8SUOxXxmqv5wQbh4CNCFFv5ngibDUGydoOHGu5kilVxrtveu6uQP2RyHQf1sV6pT2XmqT2T67PopLJXC93v_xS4ptH0p1KKbnrL3KjJLxGOJ_vg60p2RsJVtrFMe4g6hFBlTOEj4AQoKqpz7v-lwx_E2T0zMWTOtB947BEyCtFn7POTRTI=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">However, peace would not last for too long because somebody threw water on John and the crooks were still looking after him and they had guns. After leaving his hideout, John took refuge in an abandoned wooden house, with the crooks always on a short distance from him. The crooks ended up finding John. While one of crooks was trying to kill John, the other one was waiting outside the house, but then it came the Keystone Cops. John’s dog was also outside and dig a hole below the fence and found John, who wrote a note and left it on the dog’s leash. Thinking that nothing particularly bad was going on, the cops left the house.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgT77CIU2gx1uKAesKNw4PaWahu3XcAzh7mcfMvbX3ht_pFSnAdxgzaYh0PbBYL5Gz9x_FpsGlOYf9smlU-08PNhaJG7rSR_JLZet61bz9MAJxCeeJgu2S43m-ImhmX1IQaXoiLSUx3-8kQSPeC-hPS-LZ-coA50dYTtvSHCcE10L-Wks4X17XjxjJt=s902" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="902" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgT77CIU2gx1uKAesKNw4PaWahu3XcAzh7mcfMvbX3ht_pFSnAdxgzaYh0PbBYL5Gz9x_FpsGlOYf9smlU-08PNhaJG7rSR_JLZet61bz9MAJxCeeJgu2S43m-ImhmX1IQaXoiLSUx3-8kQSPeC-hPS-LZ-coA50dYTtvSHCcE10L-Wks4X17XjxjJt=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The cops returned to the police station and the chase between John and the crooks still went on. But the dog went to the police station and the cops noticed the note with the dog and read it. After realizing there was someone in danger in the house, they returned with the dog leading their way. This gave room with a typical car chase involving the Keystone cops while John was kneeling down in the house, begging for his life.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, the cops returned and it was the turn of the crooks to start hiding themselves and John, in an attempt to defend himself, beat up the cops by mistake and then the film end with him and one of the cops fainting in the most exaggerated way.</p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-63436466380074409902021-09-11T00:24:00.001-03:002021-09-11T00:24:24.748-03:00Mabel and Fatty's Married Life (USA, 1915)<p style="text-align: left;"></p><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Comedians
Mabel Normand and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle are paired again, this
time as a married couple and the plot of this film deals with another
commonplace in silent films (both comedies and dramas): A wife
-within the typical damsel in distress stereotype – has to face a
burglar all by herself while her husband is away to work. Sometimes
the danger was genuine, but it could also be a false alarm.</span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In
the beginning of the film it is shown the intertitle “She reads
exciting books” and Mabel was sitting on a park bench while she was
reading books and Roscoe was her company. They were likely discussing
the book and then Roscoe spotted an organ grinder and a short time
later the monkey ended up jumping on Mabel, who was really scared.
Roscoe got the monkey, threw it away and the organ grinder was
furious when he saw it. Both Roscoe and the organ grinder started to
fight and Roscoe beat up the guy. Feeling deeply insulted and
humiliated by this defeat, the organ grinder takes “an oath of
vengeance”, as one of intertitles stated. Roscoe did not feel
intimidated and beat up the organ grinder even more.</span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wE6DhBk8gsc/YTwg326RcII/AAAAAAAAST4/0VfI3hwFQnQpw4ndE-qc8TXJaRKYftpcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s264/One%2B-%2BMabel%2Band%2BFatty%2527s%2BMarried%2BLife%2B1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="264" height="205" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wE6DhBk8gsc/YTwg326RcII/AAAAAAAAST4/0VfI3hwFQnQpw4ndE-qc8TXJaRKYftpcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/One%2B-%2BMabel%2Band%2BFatty%2527s%2BMarried%2BLife%2B1915.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The
couple left the park shortly afterwards, but it was only the
beginning of problems. Roscoe left Mabel at home and then went out,
but he soon realized that he had forgotten his papers at home and
returned home to get them. Roscoe was followed by his driver, who
Roscoe asked to wait for him in the livingroom. Meanwhile, Mabel was
apparently a little bit uneasy for being alone at home and started
reading the newspaper in order to distract herself. She read a
headline saying that there were bands of thieves operating in the
residence district and needless to say that it only made Mabel more
nervous.</span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Roscoe
opened the drawers, looking for his papers, Mabel heard the noise and
took a revolver to defend herself as she thought the house was being
burglarized. Roscoe ended up being shot on the butt and locked
himself in the closet in sheer horror. Mabel kept on shooting and the
driver entered the house to check what was going on, but he was also
scared with Mabel’s shootings. After a while, Roscoe left the
closet and Mabel fainted in his arms. When she woke up, Roscoe asked
Mabel to calm down. They said good bye, Roscoe left home and met the
driver (who at this point was hiding himself in the car after all
that mess inside the house).</span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5PFHeXB3mFM/YTwhD3GKXKI/AAAAAAAAST8/nwGycXR2H1wreKB3uwO7PJiBvA7zTMLQQCLcBGAsYHQ/s261/Two%2B-%2BMabel%2Band%2BFatty%2527s%2BMarried%2BLife%2B1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="261" height="204" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5PFHeXB3mFM/YTwhD3GKXKI/AAAAAAAAST8/nwGycXR2H1wreKB3uwO7PJiBvA7zTMLQQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Two%2B-%2BMabel%2Band%2BFatty%2527s%2BMarried%2BLife%2B1915.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Roscoe
finally left to work and Mabel was not completely calm yet.
Meanwhile, the organ grinder and another man arrived to Roscoe’s
house and they wanted revenge due to the previous incident in the
park. Mabel saw them through the window and engaged in sewing to
relax, which did not work. She made a brief phone call and a woman
picked up the telephone. Some minutes later, Mabel went to the door
and bumped into the organ grinder, who was trying to force his
entrance into the house. He eventually got it and Mabel threw all
sorts of things on the organ grinder to defend herself but it was not
enough to keep the organ grinder at bay. Mabel ran away and locked
herself in the bedroom. </span></span>
</p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The
woman Mabel had previously called ended up calling the police and the
incompetent Keystone Cops were employed to solve the problem. When
the policemen arrived, it looked like the neighbors saw that Mabel
was in trouble and there were many people gathered on the porch,
which created a huge confusion. The policemen went upstairs while the
organ grinder was by the bedroom’s door, trying to enter. Mabel
opened the door and guided one of the policemen to the window, as she
thought that the burglar was there. In the middle of all this chaos
Roscoe and the driver arrived back home. It turned out that the noise
that came from the window was made by the monkey, who the organ
grinder brought with him. Roscoe thought that all the chaos had
happened because Mabel called the police without any reason and got
angry with her at first, but after a while he managed to laugh at the
situation.</span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iJIveGqwEJ0/YTwhP-yL5UI/AAAAAAAASUE/aH4_3ChmxtoNDK-KkY0r-DP5xyBKCmedwCLcBGAsYHQ/s265/Three%2B-Mabel%2Band%2BFatty%2527s%2BMarried%2BLife%2B1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="265" height="204" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iJIveGqwEJ0/YTwhP-yL5UI/AAAAAAAASUE/aH4_3ChmxtoNDK-KkY0r-DP5xyBKCmedwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Three%2B-Mabel%2Band%2BFatty%2527s%2BMarried%2BLife%2B1915.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Roscoe
“Fatty” Arbuckle and Mabel Normand were very popular on their era
and we can see why. Even though this plot was not new not even in the
1910s, the tenderness of the couple, the innocent confusion and
witness of a lifestyle that has been already over for a long time
remains of interest to modern-day audiences. Without mentioning the
physical gags and the stunts, which are challenging in any era. It is
not likely that actors would do their own stunts virtually all the
time nowadays like actors did in most slapstick comedies.</span></span></p></div>
<p style="text-align: left;"></p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-56311807988041768912021-09-08T12:17:00.000-03:002021-09-08T12:17:41.046-03:00Mabel, Fatty and the Law (USA, 1915)<p></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Again we can see the successful
pairing of Mabel Normand and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. They made
films together in the 1910s that were very popular among audiences
and this is one of them. The theme portrayed in this short film is a
classic in slapstick comedies: misunderstanding.
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">We
cannot stop love, can we? Fatty and Mabel are a married couple and
both of them are bored in their marriage. In the beginning of the
film we can see Fatty playing the piano at home livingroom while
innocently flirting with the housemaid. Mabel saw it, got furious and
expelled the maid out of the livingroom immediately. Fatty kissed
Mabel to apologize, but she slapped and physically assaulted Fatty as
she was really angry with his flirty behavior. After some minutes
Mabel calmed down, regreted her impulsive atitude and apologized with
Fatty. Then, she dressed up to go outside with Fatty.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="465" height="244" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LzQmVRKdh_s/YTjSOy0ieQI/AAAAAAAASTA/CpFPpAneXeYsSO-ReEloCu3NrXsqHZnJgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/One%2B-%2BMabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523155-%2BMabel%252C%2BFatty%2Band%2Bthe%2BLaw%2B%25281915%252C%2BFatty%2BArbuckle%2529%2B038.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Meanwhile,
in another house it is shown a husband (played by actor Harry
Gribbon) who was also flirting with the housemaid and his wife
(played by actress Minta Durfee, who was real-life wife of Roscoe
“Fatty” Arbuckle at that time) saw it and got as furious with her
husband as Mabel did in the previous scene. After an argument, it is
shown that this couple had also gone out.</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Fatty
and Mabel sit down on the bench in a park and there was a sign
besides the bench saying “No spooning allowed”. This can be an
alert to the audience that it will not take long until a
misunderstanding happen. Then the other couple arrive in the park and
sits down on a similar bench, with a similar spooning sign. The
husband starts smoking a cigar and there was lots of smoke, his wife
stood up angrily and approached the bench where Fatty and Mabel were
sitting down. After a while, she left and Fatty followed this other
woman and started flirting with her.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PWvvNFYmLig/YTjSoS9DZDI/AAAAAAAASTI/uRrusMwTCpIk64_xaYLENHWNc4U3yca0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s466/Two%2B-%2BMabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523155-%2BMabel%252C%2BFatty%2Band%2Bthe%2BLaw%2B%25281915%252C%2BFatty%2BArbuckle%2529%2B113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="466" height="244" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PWvvNFYmLig/YTjSoS9DZDI/AAAAAAAASTI/uRrusMwTCpIk64_xaYLENHWNc4U3yca0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Two%2B-%2BMabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523155-%2BMabel%252C%2BFatty%2Band%2Bthe%2BLaw%2B%25281915%252C%2BFatty%2BArbuckle%2529%2B113.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;">At
the same time, the other husband was alone on the bench and started
at Mabel (who was also alone) while she was reading a newspaper and
got immediately interested on her. Weirdly, he tried to catch
Mabel’s attention by throwing some pieces of food towards her.
After one of those pieces hit Mabel’s face he started flirting with
her and she was enjoying the attention she was getting from that
total stranger without realizing that Fatty was actually flirting
with the wife of that unknown man.</div></span></span><p></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Finally,
the stranger sat on the bench besides Mabel, but he was caught in the
act by a hiding policeman, who saw everything while he was sitting on
the branch of a tree. Keep in mind that spooning was prohibited and
who was called to restore order? The mega incompetent Keystone Cops,
who chased Mabel and the other man out of the blue. They both ended
up parting their ways after being chased.</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">However,
it was not the end of the problems because that same policeman who
was sitting on the branch of a tree saw Fatty flirting with the other
woman and the Keystone Cops were called again but this time they got
to arrest both Fatty and the woman and both of them ended up being
taken to the police station. They would either pay thirty dollars of
fine or would be jailed for thirty days. Everyone started to argue
but Fatty and the woman could not avoid being thrown in jail.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FtHwn8sGoGI/YTjTPf5AuLI/AAAAAAAASTQ/hkCV_1NdX2kliJY5oZQ5W3yPCc3hIGoZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s467/Three%2B-%2BMabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523155-%2BMabel%252C%2BFatty%2Band%2Bthe%2BLaw%2B%25281915%252C%2BFatty%2BArbuckle%2529%2B275.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="467" height="244" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FtHwn8sGoGI/YTjTPf5AuLI/AAAAAAAASTQ/hkCV_1NdX2kliJY5oZQ5W3yPCc3hIGoZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Three%2B-%2BMabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523155-%2BMabel%252C%2BFatty%2Band%2Bthe%2BLaw%2B%25281915%252C%2BFatty%2BArbuckle%2529%2B275.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Both
Fatty and the woman called home to ask their respective spouses to
take them out of jail and both calls were answered by their maids.
The spouses went to the police station, Mabel arrived first and
started to argue with the other woman. Then the husband of the other
woman arrived a short time later and Mabel realized he was the man
who was flirting with her at the park earlier that day. Both couples
had finally reunited and continued arguing on the sidewalk of the
police station after they were released. A policeman showed up
outside in order to stop with the confusion and this is how it ended
what was supposed to be a relaxing walk on the park on a sunny day.</div></span></span><p></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Although
this film is no different than the average films of the era and is
far from revolutionary, it remains an interesting film to simply
watch, relaxing without taking things too seriously or analyzing
every detail. It is also a nice historical witness of parks back to
the 1910s and how people had fun out of home. The gags easy to be
understood and the aura of innocence in the so-called marriage life
remain appealing to this day.</span></span></p><p></p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-81782517169029570452021-08-31T10:12:00.000-03:002021-08-31T10:12:29.241-03:00When Love Took Wings (USA,1915)<p></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">I</span><span lang="en-US">n
real life actress Mabel Normand was really ahead of her time. She was
not only a beauty, but also a pioneer in many fields. She drove cars,
airplanes, had her own financial independence and even directed her
own films in her own studio for a while in the 1910s </span><span lang="en-US">in
the Keystone Studios (which was subsequently renamed as “Mack
Sennett comedies” as of 1917). </span><span lang="en-US">As of
circa 1915 she was paired with another star of the studio, Roscoe
“Fatty” Arbuckle and they made romantically-oriented comedies,
some of them praised by cinema critics to this day.</span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">A</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">s
usual, Mabel’s character was admired by the guys and had more than
one suitor, </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">to the displeasure of her
father. One of suitors was Fatty, </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">who was
not approved by Mabel’s father either. One day it showed up another
suitor, a neighbor (played by actor Al St. John) who was finally
accepted by Mabel’s father. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">Unfortunately,
Mabel did not like him and, to make things worse, Fatty was visiting
Mabel at the time and felt insulted when he realized there would be
another competitor for Mabel’s affections and then it started an
argument between Fatty and Mabel’s father and things soon got
</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">physically</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">
violent. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">Meanwhile, Mabel herself literally
kicked the neighbor suitor out </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">of the
living room.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Brr_m7yAbAc/YS4pj9RbpvI/AAAAAAAASSk/ZlD1Dv8eNSEaLgHMKxfmxCc0Yy3hAUoKQCLcBGAsYHQ/s266/One%2B-%2BWhen%2BLove%2BTook%2BWings%2B1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="266" height="249" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Brr_m7yAbAc/YS4pj9RbpvI/AAAAAAAASSk/ZlD1Dv8eNSEaLgHMKxfmxCc0Yy3hAUoKQCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h249/One%2B-%2BWhen%2BLove%2BTook%2BWings%2B1915.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">A</span><span lang="en-US">s
if things were not messy enough, it resurfaced another Mabel’</span><span lang="en-US">s</span><span lang="en-US">
</span><span lang="en-US">s</span><span lang="en-US">uitor (the one
who was firstly seen visiting her in the beginning of the film).
</span><span lang="en-US">Mabel’s father tried to force her to
accept the affections of her neighbor, but she refused vehemently.
</span><span lang="en-US">Fatty watched it and decided to take
matters into own hands by removing Mabel from home </span><span lang="en-US">and
her other suitor tried to do the same thing </span><span lang="en-US">while
Fatty left a note to her father,</span><span lang="en-US"> </span><span lang="en-US">but
fortunately Mabel got to run away. </span><span lang="en-US">Fatty
realized what was going on </span><span lang="en-US">upon his return
outdoors but it was just the beginning of the chaos because Mabel’s
father had just called the police.</span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">W</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">ho
rescued them? The reckless, incompetent Keystone cops, of course.
</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">While the cops were on their way, Fatty and
the other suitor were fighting, </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">to Mabel’s
horror –</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;"> even though it would not take
long until she started laughing at the situation. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">Fatty
and Mabel soon reunited and it was when they saw an empty airplane,
</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">which was a relatively new invention at the
time</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">As Mabel’s
father and one of her suitors were approaching, their only option was
leaving in the airplane. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">Although everybody
else tried to reach them both by car and bicycle, they could not keep
up with the plane for obvious reasons. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">Even
the Keystone cops arrived late.</span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-InklaeVkg1Q/YS4pwJI3-HI/AAAAAAAASSo/U7hIO6872uoGTGmxx__rg9RJtYifB40kwCLcBGAsYHQ/s269/Two%2B-%2BWhen%2BLove%2BTook%2BWings%2B1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="269" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-InklaeVkg1Q/YS4pwJI3-HI/AAAAAAAASSo/U7hIO6872uoGTGmxx__rg9RJtYifB40kwCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h245/Two%2B-%2BWhen%2BLove%2BTook%2BWings%2B1915.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">Fatty
and Mabel were having fun while Fatty made some maneuvers with their
airplane, </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">which gave to the audiences a
very interesting chase with multiple vehicles. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">When
Fatty and Mabel finally landed they went to a house where there was a
clergyman and Mabel had inadvertently lost her wig, which deeply
shocked Fatty and made him have second thoughts about the upcoming
marriage. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">After lots of confusion, Fatty
and all other suitors run away and gave up Mabel for good.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NtdkN2TejXM/YS4p58-hP9I/AAAAAAAASSw/q2wgGo0uM3Q9mhqdxBI9TMrgVpXTQkVUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s269/Three%2B-%2BWhen%2BLove%2BTook%2BWings%2B1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="269" height="244" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NtdkN2TejXM/YS4p58-hP9I/AAAAAAAASSw/q2wgGo0uM3Q9mhqdxBI9TMrgVpXTQkVUQCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h244/Three%2B-%2BWhen%2BLove%2BTook%2BWings%2B1915.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">All
</span><span lang="en-US">in all, this is a typical 1910s slapstick
comedy short, with broad gestures, exaggerated physical gags and
simple plots. </span><span lang="en-US">Those comedies were very
popular in their own era and their charm remain due to their easy
understanding, </span><span lang="en-US">ingenuous physical scenes
and good acting. Behind the apparently simplicity there is lots of
talent and bravery. </span><span lang="en-US">In case you are
interested to watch other Fatty and Mabel films of this type, it is
recommended -among others - He Did and He Didn't (USA, 1916), Fatty
and Mabel Adrift </span><span lang="en-US">(USA, 1916), Fatty and
Mabel at the San Diego Exposition (</span><span lang="en-US">USA,</span><span lang="en-US">1915),
Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day </span><span lang="en-US">(USA, 1915).</span></span></p><p></p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-85170100171150424612021-08-26T07:45:00.000-03:002021-08-26T07:45:14.383-03:00Love (USA, 1919)<p style="text-align: justify;">Oh, love! That beautiful feeling even though sometimes it is not possible to make things come true. We can see once more the real-life uncle and nephew actors Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Al St. John with more mature humor compared with the films they made some years before in the Keystone Studios. They still engaged in physical comedies but with more elaborate plots and more realistic building up of characters.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Arbuckle is a good-natured, naive farm boy, deeply in love with Winifred, the daughter of a man he rescued when he fell into a well. Unfortunately, a rich neighbor offered the farmer large piece of land if he agreed to marry Winifred to his son (played by Al St. John) and her father promptly agree with the proposal and the girl ended up trapped in an arranged marriage with a man she did not like. To make matters worse, it was Arbuckle who Winifred really loved.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IO3AZ86NaSg/YSdvzmc7lsI/AAAAAAAASRs/KAA8myM96N0RGHhwNld25MFHwV260fL6ACLcBGAsYHQ/s620/One%2B-%2BLove%2B%25281919%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="620" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IO3AZ86NaSg/YSdvzmc7lsI/AAAAAAAASRs/KAA8myM96N0RGHhwNld25MFHwV260fL6ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/One%2B-%2BLove%2B%25281919%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Realizing that no one else but themselves cared about their feelings, Arbuckle and Winifred decided to elope. It was all fun and games until Winifred had her neck stuck in a window while she was trying to leave her house and this situation gave room to some hilarious gags. Nevertheless, all this mess had only made Winifred’s father realizing she was running away and the girl was brought back home, to her despair.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H0tGmqai5Do/YSdv7On1W7I/AAAAAAAASRw/9x8iCyBtuKIz0RV-zkKSkYLkgC95TWytwCLcBGAsYHQ/s622/Two%2B-%2BLove%2B%25281919%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="622" height="244" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H0tGmqai5Do/YSdv7On1W7I/AAAAAAAASRw/9x8iCyBtuKIz0RV-zkKSkYLkgC95TWytwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Two%2B-%2BLove%2B%25281919%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">After a while (and with a little help of Arbuckle, who added soap to the food that Winifred’s family was about to eat), her father decided to hire a new cook and it was Arbuckle himself – dressed in drag -who showed up in an attempt to get the job. It was not unusual Arbuckle to dress up as a woman in his films, usually as a disguise and a prompt for causing even more confusion in the plot. Anyway, although Arbuckle had problems to provide reliable references, he was hired as the new cook (the family thinking he was a woman).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q87ozuyIqxE/YSdwCdWS8sI/AAAAAAAASR0/jfAnlYXqwB4jQXkVDnS0i4UzfitZOiNkQCLcBGAsYHQ/s623/Three%2B-%2BLove%2B%25281919%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="623" height="243" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q87ozuyIqxE/YSdwCdWS8sI/AAAAAAAASR0/jfAnlYXqwB4jQXkVDnS0i4UzfitZOiNkQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Three%2B-%2BLove%2B%25281919%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">On the day of the wedding there was a rehearsal, as it was the first time the clergyman was marrying anyone. The cook – who was actually Arbuckle -volunteered herself to play the groom’s role. The clergyman spoke the official words, Arbuckle put the ring on Winifred’s finger. When the real wedding was about to occur, Arbuckle announced in front of all guests that Winifred was already married to him during the rehearsal and at the same time he disclosed his real identity. This gave lots of happiness to Winifred and a great shock to her family.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This film was presumed lost for a long time until two prints of it were found and then it was made a compilation that enabled its recovery and restoration. Due to this initiative, modern-day audiences can watch this story in its entirety. Back to 1919, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle had already accomplished his professional maturity and the peak of his popularity, having even started his successful partnership with Buster Keaton (who did not participate in this film, though). The Arbuckle-Keaton duo was briefly paused when Keaton was in the army during World War 1 and he was replaced by Italian-born Monty Banks (who played the role of Farmhand in this film).</p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-15096613859185774732021-08-24T00:15:00.000-03:002021-08-24T00:15:27.987-03:00The Waiters' Ball (USA, 1916)<p>Something that brings lots of chaos in silent films is two gentlemen
competing for the affection of the same sweetheart. This is what
happened between the characters of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle (The
Cook) and Al St. John (The Waiter). Al St. John was Roscoe’s nephew
in real life and both of them made many silent films together and
were skilled in physical gags. Needless to say that such gags were
plentiful in this film, Arbuckle remade with St. John and Buster
Keaton by the name The Cook (USA,1918).</p>
<p align="justify">The Cook is seen carrying out his tasks in the
kitchen by cleaning the floor and cooking -both at the same time. At
the same time, the waiter is trying to carry some plates without
breaking them and he was not exactly successful. When it came to both
workmen, clumsiness ruled. Something they also had in common was that
they liked the same woman – the cashier of the restaurant where
they worked.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YGfWXVWZCVM/YSRjp5ZBNYI/AAAAAAAASQ4/JmxIWxkj4zgPJoebXDAnjiMvZ2Pxr2MlQCLcBGAsYHQ/s946/One%2B-%2BThe%2BWaiters%2BBall%257E1916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="946" height="236" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YGfWXVWZCVM/YSRjp5ZBNYI/AAAAAAAASQ4/JmxIWxkj4zgPJoebXDAnjiMvZ2Pxr2MlQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/One%2B-%2BThe%2BWaiters%2BBall%257E1916.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">In the next scene the cashier shows an ad to the
waiter about the upcoming waiter’s ball. However, there was a
problem because the attendees were supposed to wear formal party
clothes. The waiter and the cashier started arguing while the cook
was trying to sweep the floor without causing any confusion, which
did not work. The cook feel on the dining room over the leg on cast
of a client and it ended up leaving the poor gentleman in pain.</span></p>
<p align="justify">The waiter showed up in the dining room to sweep
the floor into the kitchen much to the annoyance of the cook. They
fought and after a while they started working again. The waiter told
the clients’ requests to the cook, who brought to the waiter the
dishes he was supposed to serve to the clients. This situation
brought other physical gags which involved even animals and
uncooperative foods and lots of chaos in the restaurant.</p>
<p align="justify">After a while it finally came the time of the
ball. The cook had a tuxedo, but the waiter did not have proper
clothes to attend it. But the waiter did not accept his defeat so
easily and he stole the cook’s tuxedo. On the other hand, the cook
did not let it preventing him from going to the party and he attended
in women’s clothes.
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WsgszRyhJ9g/YSRj4lcElxI/AAAAAAAASQ8/pIImqzwulB0j9gXA26QesDtjPvkaTCxpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s949/Two%2B-%2BThe%2BWaiters%2BBall%257E1916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="949" height="236" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WsgszRyhJ9g/YSRj4lcElxI/AAAAAAAASQ8/pIImqzwulB0j9gXA26QesDtjPvkaTCxpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Two%2B-%2BThe%2BWaiters%2BBall%257E1916.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">The party was lively and everybody was having fun,
at least until the cook caught the waiter wearing his tuxedo. Then,
they both fought in the ballroom, which disrupted the fun of the
guests. The female dishwasher of the restaurant, after realized that
her clothes were stolen, ended up going to the party and when she
caught the cook wearing her clothes there was another fight and the
party was in deep chaos.</span></p><p align="justify"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EZcIc1m-yAA/YSRkCWSTUbI/AAAAAAAASRE/7r91GAQtQxEikWf7d9RtLrhWyMVCjTI-ACLcBGAsYHQ/s946/Three%2B-%2BThe%2BWaiters%2BBall%257E1916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="705" data-original-width="946" height="238" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EZcIc1m-yAA/YSRkCWSTUbI/AAAAAAAASRE/7r91GAQtQxEikWf7d9RtLrhWyMVCjTI-ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Three%2B-%2BThe%2BWaiters%2BBall%257E1916.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="text-align: left;"><p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">A policeman happened to be nearby and he arrested
both the cook and the waiter who by this time had already lost half
of the clothes they were wearing and had to cover themselves with a
barrel whole the party’s guests laughed at their fate.</span></p></span><p></p>
<p align="justify">If slapstick comedies with frantic pace, “fast
and furious” rhythm, overtly physical humor are your piece of cake,
you will surely love this silent film. The gags are simple and it
makes them extremely easy to be understood by audiences of all eras.
Therefore, this film stood quite well the test of time. It is also a
golden opportunity to see some high-profile silent actors in action
displaying their skills and it is not difficult to understand why
they were so popular with the audiences back to the silent era.</p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-50804759496590857152021-08-22T21:27:00.000-03:002021-08-22T21:27:44.862-03:00His Wife's Mistakes (USA,1916)<p>An important part of silent comedies was misunderstandings and all
the confusion it caused among the characters, which included mistaken
conclusions against the good morals of a couple. This is exactly what
happened in this film.</p>
<p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">The film started in what looked like a department
store, both the place and people look sophisticated. Al St. John was
smoking besides a well-dressed elderly man who is smoking a pipe,
they both worked together in the same office. At that moment, a woman
arrived.</span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o5ryupapBk4/YSLqdG0b5zI/AAAAAAAASQg/9Cn0jfI1DzIvMyKI6RT9osoX2phnGhuvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s934/One.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="934" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o5ryupapBk4/YSLqdG0b5zI/AAAAAAAASQg/9Cn0jfI1DzIvMyKI6RT9osoX2phnGhuvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/One.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle crossed the street,
entered a place, had difficulties with a revolving door. Roscoe got
to solve his problems with the door, a crook arrived at the store and
stole the handbag of a lady. The thief bumped into the revolving door
and fell and as Fatty was still nearby, the crowd thought he had
caught the thief. The lady gave some money to Fatty out of gratitude.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">Right afterwards Fatty applied for a job as a
janitor. As one of intertitles said, a broker, Mr. I. Steele, has a
client who “will arrive about noon with certified check for $
10.000 to close a deal” and the option expires at three o’clock.
The broker left the office and requested a note to be delivered for
his wife, letting her know about the upcoming business deal.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yw1x6UabaII/YSLquF_SG3I/AAAAAAAASQo/CzdoAU7sepcTtrXq3ifMgRu7Xd9namgqQCLcBGAsYHQ/s896/Two.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="896" height="251" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yw1x6UabaII/YSLquF_SG3I/AAAAAAAASQo/CzdoAU7sepcTtrXq3ifMgRu7Xd9namgqQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Two.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">Meanwhile, Fatty was carrying out his duties in
the most clumsy way possible, even causing accidents involving other
passerby people and flirting with beautiful women around him. This
scene was an opportunity for a plenty of people falling on their
butts in full splendor.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">While Fatty was causing all that mess downstairs,
a woman caught the elevator and entered the broker’s office. It was
his wife. She was greeted by her husbands’ co-workers, received the
note and read that he wanted her to entertain his client until he
arrived. The husband also wrote in the note that his client was a
rather eccentric man.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">Fatty was asked by a couple to watch their beauty
parlor until they arrived back. However, some seconds later a woman
came and asked Fatty to keep his eyes on the candy shop. A short time
after the woman left, it arrived a client to the barber and, for any
weird reason, Fatty did the job on the poor man’s beard. To add
insult to injury, Fatty left the gentleman alone in the barber while
he was servicing a female client in the candy shop. Eventually, the
barber’s client was “sore, but satisfied” despite the complete
inability of Fatty to work as a barber.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">Subsequently, Fatty caught the elevator and
entered the broker’s office. Fatty noticed there was another guy in
the elevator, but kept going. The broker’s wife had mistaken Fatty
as her husband’s client and invited him to have lunch with her at
the oriental café. Fatty gladly accepted the proposal, unaware of
the chaos that would happen soon. The café was lavishly decorated
and unfortunately Fatty lacked enough social skills to attend this
type of sophisticated place.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">The broker finally returned to his office and was
told by Al St. John that his wife “went out with the janitor”.
The broker was furious and immediately took a revolver that he kept
in his drawer. He was determined to take revenge and while his wife
and the janitor were having fun in the café watching a rather over
the top show, the husband arrived to wash his honor with blood. He
tried to shoot Fatty, but the janitor got to run away in fear.</span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lMvpe8vfqAk/YSLq53dAMdI/AAAAAAAASQs/nup6OQPgE-4KjddXLe4Ay6-dKBB70moFgCLcBGAsYHQ/s935/Three.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="935" height="243" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lMvpe8vfqAk/YSLq53dAMdI/AAAAAAAASQs/nup6OQPgE-4KjddXLe4Ay6-dKBB70moFgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Three.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">In the middle of all this chaos, the real client
arrived at the office and was received by the broker’s co-workers.
The real client claimed that the papers must be signed by three
o’clock otherwise the deal would expire. And he could not wait much
longer because it was actually almost three’ o’clock.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">It looked like the employees got to tell the
broker about the misunderstanding and the documents were signed on
time. Yes “it looked like” because it seems there are some scenes
missing in the end and the last scene the audiences see is Al St.
John and his colleagues running on the street and then the film
abruptly ended. It is not clear if the end of this film is lost or if
it is just some printings that don’t show the entire film, though.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="text-align: left;">In addition to being a funny comedy to this day,
this film also has interesting historical value because it enables
modern-day audiences to catch a glimpse of 1910s buildings, offices,
elevators, typewriters, etc. and compare with how those items look
like nowadays. It is like traveling in a time machine and a genuine
one-of-a-kind experience.</span></p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-70891596953183149822021-08-19T08:10:00.003-03:002021-08-19T08:13:06.624-03:00A Strong Revenge (USA,1913)<div style="text-align: justify;">This is one of one reelers (short films that lasted around 11 minutes) made in
the beginning of Keystone studios (which had been opened on the previous year in
California) with simple plots and straightforward gags, including overtly fake
facial hair, exaggerated gestures, actors falling on their butts and even weird
dancing (the latter being pretty much the case in this film). Mabel, so sweet
and cute, had two suitors, who fought each other in order to have her affection.
Mabel invited one of them (Schnitz, the grocer, a character played by Mack
Sennett himself, who was the founder and director of Keystone Studios in real
life) to her party. The problem is that Mabel also invited her other suitor
(Meyer, the cobbler, a character played by Ford Sterling, one of the most
popular comedians of the studio in its first years). Of course it would trigger
the rivalry between both men even more.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U55aipacO_s/YR47dY4ZADI/AAAAAAAASQY/QYSf1iTorkk3LLxARDF61yIWR7jkaKkUACLcBGAsYHQ/s480/One%2B-%2BMabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%252388-%2BA%2BStrong%2BRevenge%2B%25281913%2529%2B006.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U55aipacO_s/YR47dY4ZADI/AAAAAAAASQY/QYSf1iTorkk3LLxARDF61yIWR7jkaKkUACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/One%2B-%2BMabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%252388-%2BA%2BStrong%2BRevenge%2B%25281913%2529%2B006.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A short time later we could see that Meyer bought some fresh cheese. The reason
of it was not disclosed at first, but the audience would know it really soon.
Unfortunately it turned out that the cheese did not really smell well (actually,
it stink). Some time passed, both men got ready for the party and “dressed for
the occasion” as one of the intertitles says. Meyer arrived at the party and
gave some flowers to Mabel. People were dancing happily and Mabel and Meyer
joined them in the ballroom. Then Schnitz arrived and he brought flowers to
Mabel too. He gave them to her and started dancing with Mabel, pushing Meyer
away from them. Meyer did not take this insult easily and would take a revenge
in the first opportunity. Actually, “Schnitz scents trouble” as both men
confronted each other, Mabel got upset and the environment of the party, which
was happy until then, became tense.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gYs3QI4lccc/YR46VSbvhRI/AAAAAAAASQI/fKYWK8Y16U0xnny26VoQEvjuV72esQx2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s480/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%252388-%2BA%2BStrong%2BRevenge%2B%25281913%2529%2B044.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gYs3QI4lccc/YR46VSbvhRI/AAAAAAAASQI/fKYWK8Y16U0xnny26VoQEvjuV72esQx2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%252388-%2BA%2BStrong%2BRevenge%2B%25281913%2529%2B044.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reason of the sudden change of vibe is that Schnitz started to stink all of
a sudden, scaring off even the other guests. He tried to puff perfume on himself
to disguise the problem but it seems the situation worsened because virtually
everyone left the party altogether. Schnitz was insulted, tried to dance with
Mabel again (to her despair) even though they were both literally alone in the
ballroom now. An argument was started and Schnitz left the party in anger,
carrying with him the flowers he gave to Mabel. Then Meyer was delighted because
he could have Mabel all to himself and his rival was defeated. However, when
Schnitz returned home he found out that the cheese on his shoe and he would not
accept to be deceived his way and decided to fight back. He returned to the
party, talked to a boy, who asked Meyer to go outside. While both of them
talked, Schnitz discreetly put the cheese on Meyer’s pocket.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9h_Zj4JAP9Q/YR465BVjxfI/AAAAAAAASQQ/CR37-F7CACUnxdvzdtUlv2A_v1bQcQFGACLcBGAsYHQ/s480/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%252388-%2BA%2BStrong%2BRevenge%2B%25281913%2529%2B073.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9h_Zj4JAP9Q/YR465BVjxfI/AAAAAAAASQQ/CR37-F7CACUnxdvzdtUlv2A_v1bQcQFGACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%252388-%2BA%2BStrong%2BRevenge%2B%25281913%2529%2B073.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The party continued, the guests were dancing in the same ballroom, having fun
while Schnitz was watching from a window the result of his plan to embarrass
Meyer in front of everyone and the guests run away from the ballroom as soon as
Meyer returned to the house. Mabel got angry, gave back to Meyer the ring he had
previously given her while Schnitz laughed in joy. After a while, Meyer found
out the cheese in his pocket. Meanwhile, Schnitz entered the party while the
disgusted guests were packing the living room as no one wanted to return to that
stinking ballroom. When Meyer saw Schnitz he threw the cheese on him and another
argument took place, but it did not last long because both Mayer and Mabel
fainted due to the strong smell while Schnitz watched it in shock. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although the
plot might seem too simplistic for nowadays’ audiences, those short films stood
well the test of time as they have gags that can be easily understood to this
day, which might explain the success of those slapstick comedies in their own
era. The charm of a film that simply entertains and relaxes is something hard to
resist, regardless of era.</div>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-40266231709276267272021-03-21T10:10:00.001-03:002021-08-31T11:56:43.966-03:00Hiroshima, Mon Amour (France - Japan, 1959)<p></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Directed by Alain Resnais and
written by Marguerite Duras (the famous French novelist), this film
is considered groundbreaking for many reasons and it is still studied
in cinema universities around the world for its language, narration,
lyricism. It is one of the most acclaimed films of the French new
wave and for a good reason. Innovative, strong and emotional at the
same time, complex and simple, silent and subtle, this film runs
smoothly and gives a plenty of sensations to the audience.</span></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: left;">How to talk about a tragedy
without being too graphic? We are aware of the atomic bombs detonated
in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively on August 6</span><sup style="text-align: left;">th</sup><span style="text-align: left;">
and 9</span><sup style="text-align: left;">th</sup><span style="text-align: left;"> , 1945 and the horrifying loss of lives and
suffering that they caused. How to keep the memory of facts alive in
a touching, respectful way? It was an even more relevant question
back to the production time of this film considering that those
matters were shown on screen only 14 years after the tragedy.</span></span></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; text-align: left;">Alain Resnais intended to make
this film as a documentary at first but after a while he decided to
add some fictional elements to it. It started with an embraced couple
covered with nuclear dust. The woman is a French actress who went to
Hiroshima to make a film about peace. The man was a Japanese
architect. They both had an adventure that lasted a little more than
24 hours. She is in the last day of her work and then will
immediately return to France. He would like her to stay a little
longer. They are foreigners and also married to other people and are
well-aware that their romance cannot possibly last. They are not
named.</span></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rzr-K_aacqs/YFdEaSIEKOI/AAAAAAAASIc/e89UWOldBuse5Lb5wG-OL_NyE5JvEIx4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s259/abra%25C3%25A7ado%2Bna%2Bcama.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rzr-K_aacqs/YFdEaSIEKOI/AAAAAAAASIc/e89UWOldBuse5Lb5wG-OL_NyE5JvEIx4ACLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h240/abra%25C3%25A7ado%2Bna%2Bcama.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; text-align: left;">They started to talk. She said
she had seen a lot from Hiroshima and he disagreed saying that she
had seen nothing. This is the opposition between being on the place
where the facts actually happened versus being away from the facts
but having heard of them later on. She claimed that she had seen it
all because she visited the city, she was in a hospital, in the
museum. He still disagreed although he was not actually in Hiroshima
when the bombs exploded because he was in the army. But he had family
there and he was born in Hiroshima. Here we see a dichotomy that will
last throughout the film, which is forget x remember.</span></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; text-align: left;">A fragmented narration, being led
by the memory of the characters. She told him about her first love, a
German soldier who she met in her home city of Nevers while it was
occupied by the Nazi army. When the war was about to end and both
were planning to elope, he ended up being killed. Her family and
neighbors found out about her relationship and she was deeply
ostracized by her family and community, to the point that her family
disowning her and her father had to close his pharmacy because of the
shame. After some time of intense suffering she left her home city
and went to Paris and she arrived in Paris on the day of the
Hiroshima bombing. It is interesting that the day of bombing meant a
new beginning both in her life and in the life of her Japanese lover.</span></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lBKgG5HzbJw/YFdEroi4AqI/AAAAAAAASIo/7sk3ASnTY6ocK5bgRf5v3_BvsP3IzPloACLcBGAsYHQ/s480/young.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lBKgG5HzbJw/YFdEroi4AqI/AAAAAAAASIo/7sk3ASnTY6ocK5bgRf5v3_BvsP3IzPloACLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h240/young.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;">The actress had this big trauma
about the death of her love when she was younger, she continued to
live, but those experiences remained inside her and they resurfaced
when she was in Hiroshima, as physical and historical distance do not
prevent people from having their memories with them. Even when we are
no longer consciously aware of the past, it is still there in our
subconscious mind, only waiting for an opportunity to return in full
force.</div></span><p></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; text-align: left;">The film was very competent in
portraying the eroticism of the couple in a touching and non graphic
way, at the same time showing the intensity of the feelings and
attraction they had for each other. It is very interesting to see
that although their love affair was extremely brief, we can see both
people looking tenderly to each other, treating each other in the
most caring way, trying to enjoy every minute of a beautiful story.
This almost poetic atmosphere was enabled by the excellent acting by
both Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada. At the time of the production of
his film Okada could not speak French and he learned his lines
phonetically. The result was excellent and he spoke French very well
with only a slight accent that gave his character an extra layer of
charm. The audiences can easily empathize with her, but he was also
so human so intense that we like him in the same extent.</span></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tQPilbnXRxA/YFdEM_69y_I/AAAAAAAASIY/PLjFqGLBHrQUhHu4wd6Ly5UkBcMPfAHSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s257/chuveiro.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="257" height="244" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tQPilbnXRxA/YFdEM_69y_I/AAAAAAAASIY/PLjFqGLBHrQUhHu4wd6Ly5UkBcMPfAHSwCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h244/chuveiro.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;">We must also bear in mind that at
the time it was still not very common to see an inter racial couple
on screen, but there is no room to think about it because what we
actually see is two human beings dealing with their feelings,
memories, love.</div></span><p></p>
<p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; text-align: left;">On the other hand, the sequence
where the French actress talked about her past in Nevers and the
traumatic loss of her first love can be tiresome for nowadays’
audiences. Emmanuelle Riva engaged in a very long monologue while her
lover carefully listened and even role played her old boyfriend in
what looked like a therapy session at times. This scene could have
been more balanced if they both have talked about their memories
instead of only one person talking and the other one mostly
listening. The film also often try to go really deep into the
actress’ psychological character and at times she seems to act
unreasonably or over stressed. The scenery is also noteworthy. We
can often see the French woman walking in empty places, streets that
were almost deserted, which highlight the emptiness she felt deep
into her soul.</span></p><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D7y-ruO0wqo/YFdFJHSYq6I/AAAAAAAASIw/2sQEDtKXDt0lWjyMo1WQF5KNOcKFxQEWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s262/Empty%2Bspace.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="262" height="235" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D7y-ruO0wqo/YFdFJHSYq6I/AAAAAAAASIw/2sQEDtKXDt0lWjyMo1WQF5KNOcKFxQEWgCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h235/Empty%2Bspace.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><p align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;">The end is really powerful when
she tells him that she will forget about him, that she had actually
already forgotten about him. Then she said to him that Hiroshima was
his name in what looks like an attempt of her to have him on her mind
as just a nameless man, just somebody she had casually met in
Hiroshima without too much importance. Surprisingly, he agreed with
her and said that it was actually his name and he told her that her
name was Nevers, Nevers in France. This is how the film told the
audiences that no matter where we go, what we do, how long it takes
and we are all shaped by our past experiences, roots, culture. We may
try to forget, we can deceive ourselves but in the end those
experiences shaped our personality to such an extent that we would
have been completely different people without them.</div></span><p></p><p></p><p></p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-59064336021161818022020-10-14T09:24:00.001-03:002020-10-14T09:24:47.119-03:00Won in a Cupboard (USA,1914)<p style="text-align: justify;">This film has a historical importance because, to this date, it is the earliest-surviving film directed by Mabel Normand. She was 21 years old at the time and was at the height of her beauty and vitality. Previously thought to be a lost film, it was discovered in 2010 in New Zealand.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The 1910s comedies by Keystone studios show us that it is possible to be funny with simple resources. They were mainly one or two reelers with very simple plots and the gags were the center of all action. In addition to frantic chases, quick pace, fake facial hair and occasional broad gestures, an important component in those comedies was misunderstanding. And this is exactly what we will see in this film.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A woman is sweeping the floor outside a house and a man with a big sheriff badge approaches her. Then, there’s an intertitle saying: “Dreaming of her ideal” and we see Mabel sitting down outdoors. Two men are shown, one of them approaches Mabel. She does not care very much and leave and walk towards a river and the other man laugh at the man who was rejected. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is shown once more the woman who was sweeping the floor and the sheriff. The woman enter the house leaving the man outside speaking a lot. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WBTEWH7EBUE/X4bsKTnOBOI/AAAAAAAASBM/c_swySarDlg8fqVWKM-oWKEGYjbuyHkjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523129-%2BWon%2Bin%2Ba%2BCupboard%2B%25281914%2529%2B03.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WBTEWH7EBUE/X4bsKTnOBOI/AAAAAAAASBM/c_swySarDlg8fqVWKM-oWKEGYjbuyHkjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523129-%2BWon%2Bin%2Ba%2BCupboard%2B%25281914%2529%2B03.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">The two men are shown again. The other man try her lucky in approaching Mabel while the rejected man look at it from a distance. This other man end up being rejected by Mabel just like the previous one. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The sheriff return to the police department, the other policemen are idle and the sheriff complain about it. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now Mabel is in a sort of forest and both men are still all around her. There is an intertitle: “Her ideal” and we see another man and it is shown to the audiences that they really liked each other, to the disgust of the two men who were interested in Mabel previously in the film. At this point of the film, there is a split screen with both love interests walking towards each other, which create a very beautiful and innocent event. Mabel’s love interest give a fruit to her and she accept it with joy.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uRTdm4TBeh8/X4bspFfHNiI/AAAAAAAASBU/9g871vsOIqY1UmDuH6ktS8TS6WkINXWggCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523129-%2BWon%2Bin%2Ba%2BCupboard%2B%25281914%2529%2B14.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uRTdm4TBeh8/X4bspFfHNiI/AAAAAAAASBU/9g871vsOIqY1UmDuH6ktS8TS6WkINXWggCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523129-%2BWon%2Bin%2Ba%2BCupboard%2B%25281914%2529%2B14.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">On the following scene it is shown the sheriff once more visiting the woman who was out of her house and the audiences can see that there is mutual romantic interest between them.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Both of Mabel’s previous suitors approach the couple, but Mabel refuse to speak to them. The men started to bully Mabel’s love interest and she get angry. A fight take place and everyone start throwing things at each other. The sheriff appear by chance in the middle of the chaos and was hit by accident too. The sheriff beat up Mabel’s suitor and took her away.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is shown the intertitle: “Mother’s pet”. Mabel’s love interest return home, which is the same house where the woman sweeping the floor live and it become clear that he is her son and a kind of coward person. It is also clear that Mabel is the sheriff’s daughter. Both Mabel and her suitor were admonished by their parents at homed due to the fighting they were involved.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But Mabel’s love interest did not give up and he showed up at her house. Mabel talked to him by the window and meet him outside. Meanwhile, the sheriff was visiting his love interest and at this point it become clear to the audiences that the parents of Mabel and her suitor were having an affair. The boy’s mother enter a cupboard within her house, the sheriff enter the house and does not see her.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Mabel and her suitor meet a tramp while they are walking outdoors. Right afterwards, the couple was passing nearby the boy’s house and he invite Mabel to go inside. The problem is that the sheriff was already within the house and in order to avoid being seen by the couple, the sheriff decided to hide inside a cupboard, the same place where the woman (his sweetheart, the owner of the house and the boy’s mother) was also hiding. Both people realize that their children were outside and got nervous in fear of a scandal if their children found out about their affair. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U4gqEJgCi9E/X4btIrFTRPI/AAAAAAAASBc/d5S-X2aDw2MphB6rfiqrZjuex-G1cskBACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523129-%2BWon%2Bin%2Ba%2BCupboard%2B%25281914%2529%2B30.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U4gqEJgCi9E/X4btIrFTRPI/AAAAAAAASBc/d5S-X2aDw2MphB6rfiqrZjuex-G1cskBACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523129-%2BWon%2Bin%2Ba%2BCupboard%2B%25281914%2529%2B30.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Mabel and her sweetheart enter the boy’s home and Mabel see that there is somebody inside the cupboard and she think that the tramp they have met on the street a short time ago was the one who was hiding in the cupboard. The boy go outside and cry for help and meanwhile Mabel barricade the cupboard’s door. Many people in the neighborhood go to the house to help them get rid of the so-called tramp and Mabel also called the police department. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Chaos ensue as many people go to the boy’s house at the same time, including the policemen and the neighbors carrying rifles. The cupboard is removed from the house and people try to open it in whatever way they can. Of course that after all effort the cupboard’s door was eventually open and everyone knew who was inside. It turned out that the scandal and gossip could not be avoided.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2GoO7LpklQM/X4btU67Q-6I/AAAAAAAASBg/q-Rf8IKBpPY4HRVqGVRCdTRt7vQe1tf4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523129-%2BWon%2Bin%2Ba%2BCupboard%2B%25281914%2529%2B43.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2GoO7LpklQM/X4btU67Q-6I/AAAAAAAASBg/q-Rf8IKBpPY4HRVqGVRCdTRt7vQe1tf4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Mabel%2BNormand%2BFilm%2B%2523129-%2BWon%2Bin%2Ba%2BCupboard%2B%25281914%2529%2B43.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Won in a Cupboard was categorized as a nonsense number by Moving Picture World in 1914 and I have to say this is an average comedy of the era, but it remain worth seeing. It is a nice example of Mabel’s directorial style. She had her own production unit in Keystone studios at the time and it would last for around one year and, during this time, she directed all films of that unit. This film is also a precious witness of a country life that has been gone a long time ago. It’s a joy that the film was recovered after so many years. </p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-68643462408092748802020-10-12T16:32:00.007-03:002020-10-12T18:00:31.150-03:00Pordenone Silent Film Festival - 2020 - On line version<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In such weird year, when the world has stopped due to a pandemic and the humankind has had to assess how to deal with isolation and to do as many activities as home as possible, we have for the first time the on line version of Pordenone Silent Film Festival, which is considered the most important festival devoted to silent films and that has existed for almost 40 years. It started being held in September 1982 when a small group of friends organized a three-day festival in response to the 1976 Friuli earthquake that had devastated much of Northern Italy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The festival was a pioneering event in the beginning and it has been pioneering now, with the initiative of holding the counterpart of a large cinema festival on line due to a pandemic that impacted the entire world and, for a while, it was particularly harsh with the Northern of Italy itself. As it is the case with all pioneering initiatives, nobody was certain about the results of an on line festival of silent films with attendees of all parts of the world. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But it truly worked. With the usual careful selection of films mixing rarities and known films from a plenty of countries, Pordenone did not really fail in providing immersion for the audiences. In addition to the films, there were also lectures about the films themselves and silent film music. Pordenone Masterclasses is when the musicians of the festival talk to the audience about their work, which is a rare opportunity to increase the understanding of the films themselves. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y-9JPqj36mU/X4SuDvNoVHI/AAAAAAAASAY/6WVy0HpGNY0TpJC6UpFjyk7gzqmmFpoEwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20201011_123356.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1533" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y-9JPqj36mU/X4SuDvNoVHI/AAAAAAAASAY/6WVy0HpGNY0TpJC6UpFjyk7gzqmmFpoEwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/20201011_123356.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Another pleasant surprise was that together with the introductions of the films the audiences could see the work of film archives in some countries and it was fascinating to have an introduction on how films were restored, to see their facilities, the employees working, the reels on the shelves. It’s a dream for every fan of history of cinema. It is an interesting bridge between past and present and context is also important to the understanding of silent films, especially for the new generations.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">They also have an event called Collegium, which according to the festival’s website is: “to attract new, young generations to the discovery of silent cinema and to infiltrate these newcomers into the very special community that has evolved around the Giornate during its three decades. It is designed to take advantage of the unique conditions of the Giornate – a highly concentrated one-week event; the possibility to see an extensive collection of rare archival films; the presence in one place and at one time of many (perhaps most) of the world’s best qualified experts in film history – scholars, historians, archivists, collectors, critics, academics, and just plain enthusiasts”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">On the technical side, the films were shown through an Italian platform that worked really well. The films could have their intertitles translated into both Italian and English and were available for 24 hours to be watched. After this time, the films were no longer available. An interesting detail is that there was an interface in each film that reproduced the chairs of a real-life cinema that showed how many people were watching the films at the same time as you. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s921AoK1pxQ/X4SwO8W_xPI/AAAAAAAASBA/GkBQ2zZTqAo8kgUndz5o-uXjgyZi47pVQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20201011_101605.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s921AoK1pxQ/X4SwO8W_xPI/AAAAAAAASBA/GkBQ2zZTqAo8kgUndz5o-uXjgyZi47pVQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/20201011_101605.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Other interesting details is that the audiences could take a peek on the beauty of Pordenone city in the introduction of the films. Artistic Director Jay Weissberg made all introductions and was straightforward and informative. It was an interesting way to have some contact with the Italian cities and their culture.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Of course that nothing replaces the real-life experience of attending the screening of a film with live accompaniment, the get together with fellow silent film fans, the networking but the production made sure that audiences had an as close to real life experience as possible. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-65xJTZtj8Ew/X4SvHxOiUpI/AAAAAAAASAw/X38sMYyzF2Yw-0zGNWl7J7pwGaNIxhLNQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20201008_215821.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-65xJTZtj8Ew/X4SvHxOiUpI/AAAAAAAASAw/X38sMYyzF2Yw-0zGNWl7J7pwGaNIxhLNQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/20201008_215821.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">For example, right in the first day there were nine travelogues produced between 1911 and 1939 shown under the name “The Urge to Travel”, which demonstrated that despite being a festival related to the history of the cinema, Pordenone Silent Film festival is also in touch with the current events. This bridge between past and present is very important to contextualize silent films to new audiences and show them that the understanding of silent films helps to figure out the world as it is nowadays. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The experience that those travelogues provided was truly awesome. Some of them were filmed in such a way as if we were walking down the street with the people who were being filmed and it gave a very interesting feeling of travelling in a time machine. That was really touching because the audiences witnessed an era that has been gone for a long time. And it was only the first round of films of the first day. Afterwards, there were rare films from countries like China, Greece and even lesser known films of the United States, together with classics.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IDqHiM21Awc/X4Su6u4O_7I/AAAAAAAASAs/nIpFW_RZPRkxzcDMqoCR--qPua0IavKeQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20201011_100115.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1649" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IDqHiM21Awc/X4Su6u4O_7I/AAAAAAAASAs/nIpFW_RZPRkxzcDMqoCR--qPua0IavKeQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/20201011_100115.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">All in all, Pordenone Silent Film Festival, got to keep up with its high standards and not only provided films, but also experiences to the audiences. They could experience travels in time machines, they could listen to scholars talking, watch the films. Variety was also thought of and the films were really interesting and the music was awesome. The festival is a very worthwhile experience even for those who are not hardcore fans of silent films especially because, after an entire week being in touch with those films, it is likely that you will end up becoming a fan too. </div></div>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-33639140118354978812020-09-13T14:05:00.006-03:002020-09-13T16:01:45.175-03:00Blood and Sand (USA, 1922)<p style="text-align: justify;">This film was based on the 1909 Spanish novel Sangre y arena (Blood and Sand) by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and the play version of the book by Thomas Cushing. It was produced by Paramount Pictures. Rudolph Valentino was already a heartthrob and very popular among the audiences after the hits of The Sheik and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in 1921. The latter film was also an adaptation of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s book. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Rudolph Valentino played the role of Juan Gallardo, a bullfighter born in a poor family in a village located in Seville, Spain. He was a relaxed and charismatic lad who enjoyed a life of adventure. His mother was a widow who worried about the safety of Juan due to the fact he played at bullfighting. Juan Gallardo was considered a good-for-nothing son due to his failure to work at his father’s trade and his family strongly disapproved of his lifestyle.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--03qSVRPGD8/X15RQrWVq0I/AAAAAAAAR9U/Ox3owZ_TayA0sV7Zd53JkdzYGs0rghcbACLcBGAsYHQ/s636/BLOOD%2BAND%2BSAND%2B%25281922%2529%2B--%2BRudolph%2BValentino%252C%2BNita%2BNaldi%252C%2BLila%2BLee%2B028.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="636" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--03qSVRPGD8/X15RQrWVq0I/AAAAAAAAR9U/Ox3owZ_TayA0sV7Zd53JkdzYGs0rghcbACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/BLOOD%2BAND%2BSAND%2B%25281922%2529%2B--%2BRudolph%2BValentino%252C%2BNita%2BNaldi%252C%2BLila%2BLee%2B028.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">After two years, Juan Gallardo became the idol of the entire Spain, being known even in Madrid. He had many fans who gathered themselves only to see him. It was also clear that he was already a quite wealthy man at this point. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Then his luck changed and, as it was said in one of the intertitles: “The news of the “Little Shoemaker’s” prowess spread through Seville, attracting the wealthy patrons of the national sport”. His bravery in the arena became a sensation among the local population, which catapulted him into fame. Even Juan’s brother in law, who could not stand him and did not believe his capabilities, started to act in a friendly way towards Juan after he became famous. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, success can sometimes spoil people and bring them temptations that are hard to resist. Juan became the idol of the Seville cafés and ended up living a bohemian life around many women and drinking heavily. That was the beginning of Juan Gallardo losing his focus in life.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">At his point, Gallardo had already married the beautiful and virtuous Carmen, “the playmate of his childhood”. Then the sensuous and wealthy Doña Sol (played by actress Nita Naldi) enters Gallardo’s life. She was the niece of the Marquis of Moraima, “breeder of the finest bulls in Spain” and widow of an ambassador and quite popular among kings and diplomats of Europe for her beauty. At first Gallardo tried to resist to Doña Sol’s interest in him, but they ended up having an affair, which would jeopardize Gallardo both socially and professionally while Carmen knew about the affair through the newspapers. And she suffered as the virtuous woman she was. In silence, always devoted, without complaints. At the same timed Gallardo’s friends have noticed that he changed and seemed out of focus and worried.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iqcoMg1Ud-4/X15Q4_CifpI/AAAAAAAAR9I/Qbk8fh2xEgII2sAFmieK_j0RV807lSSCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s636/BLOOD%2BAND%2BSAND%2B%25281922%2529%2B--%2BRudolph%2BValentino%252C%2BNita%2BNaldi%252C%2BLila%2BLee%2B253.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="636" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iqcoMg1Ud-4/X15Q4_CifpI/AAAAAAAAR9I/Qbk8fh2xEgII2sAFmieK_j0RV807lSSCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/BLOOD%2BAND%2BSAND%2B%25281922%2529%2B--%2BRudolph%2BValentino%252C%2BNita%2BNaldi%252C%2BLila%2BLee%2B253.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Once more we see in a silent film a woman being portrayed as a “vamp”, the woman who represented temptation and could ruin lives of honest men with her seducing powers. This includes the famous mention to sadomasochism, which was rather daring for the era and Doña Sol being called “serpent from hell” in one of intertitles when Gallardo was divided between the love-hate feelings and he could no longer have control over his own emotions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Knowing that Gallardo was trying to drift away from her, Doña Sol followed him to his home village. She was not being used to be rejected and she brought many problems to Gallardo by imposing her presence and tension reached the point when Doña Sol told about her affair with Gallardo to his wife and mother, which had apparently destroyed his marriage. It was the beginning of the end of Gallardo’s peace even within his own household.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Gallardo got more and more depressed and it reflected on his performance in the arena. He was no longer as careful with his well being as before and he became “the gossip of Spain”. A good bullfighter needed to be concentrated all the time due to the danger of his profession and this was definitely a bad sign. One day Gallardo received a letter from Carmen asking him to give up the arena, but it was his profession, he had no savings and if he quit bullfighting at that point he would certainly return to poverty. Carmen sensed that Gallardo was in danger and it would turn out to be a prophecy. This only showed that the connection between Gallardo and Carmen was so pure, so deep that they could communicate with each other even without words. Something so different from his connection with Doña Sol, which have never been beyond physical attraction deprived of further feelings.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another bullfighting, Doña Sol was in the audience, Gallardo was distressed and quiet, there was tension in the air. Other bullfighters and even audience members noticed that Gallardo was more reckless than ever. And right in the middle of the audience the village’s bandit was shot, he mentioned Gallardo and passed away immediately. At the same time, Gallardo had a feeling of terror, did not know what to do and lost confidence. He was hit by a bull, fell down and was removed from the arena. Doña Sol did not even notice what was going on amid her own selfishness and superficiality. She was directly told that Gallardo was dying but did not care and did not even care to leave the audience and see Gallardo or comfort his relatives. On the other hand, Carmen was by his side all the time until the end with the devotion that only a virtuous woman could have for her husband. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kkJgeRth5I4/X15QIlHT0kI/AAAAAAAAR9A/Kp7k5zMlzE84vp7vmMfrxoShKehpXHsUwCLcBGAsYHQ/s636/BLOOD%2BAND%2BSAND%2B%25281922%2529%2B--%2BRudolph%2BValentino%252C%2BNita%2BNaldi%252C%2BLila%2BLee%2B497.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="636" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kkJgeRth5I4/X15QIlHT0kI/AAAAAAAAR9A/Kp7k5zMlzE84vp7vmMfrxoShKehpXHsUwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/BLOOD%2BAND%2BSAND%2B%25281922%2529%2B--%2BRudolph%2BValentino%252C%2BNita%2BNaldi%252C%2BLila%2BLee%2B497.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">A priest was called. In Gallardo’s last moments, he ask for Carmen’s forgiveness and they reconciled. Gallardo passed away in a very sad circumstance but at least in peace with his sweet wife Carmen, the only woman he has truly ever loved.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The plot has the expected melodrama with occasional overacting (especially by Valentino and Nita Naldi in their most torrid scenes) and some stereotyped representations of other peoples. However, it remains interesting in the sense that it was critical of bullfighting and the rise and downfall of the main character (Gallardo, played by Valentino) gives him a degree of humanity that does not really age easily. We still can see so often that a poor man’s way up to climb the social ladder is choosing a profession where he will face death and this can have some sad consequences sometimes.</p>silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-10300063045758373012020-05-07T15:43:00.001-03:002020-09-13T16:04:49.926-03:00The Conquering Power (USA, 1921)<div style="text-align: justify;">
This film was made a short time after huge Rudolph Valentino’s hit, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (USA, 1921) and it was the second and last collaboration of Valentino and Rex Ingram, the latter would subsequently direct Ramon Novarro’s films. The Conquering Power (USA, 1921) was based on the novel Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac. The plot is about the conquering power of love, and all barriers it is capable to overcome, plus the maturity of a man from boyhood to adulthood due to adversities of life. It is also portrayed how the effects of greed can be harmful to a person.</div>
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Valentino plays the role of Charles Grandet, a French playboy who lived a careless life and all worldly pleasures to the full, as it can be seen by his lavish birthday party in the beginning of the film, which was interrupted by the earlier return of Victor Grandet, his father, from a trip. Upon his return, Victor had a serious conversation with Charles about his brother, Père Grandet, who he had not seen for around twenty five years and recommended Charles to be on friendly terms with him. Victor seemed to be rather distressed and it is hinted that he had serious financial problems.</div>
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Victor had committed suicide a short time afterwards and after his death, Charles ended up living with his uncle. Père Grandet, despite of being rich himself, he was a miserly, who treated both the poorer people from his province and his own family with an iron fist. At the house of his uncle Charles met and fell in love with his cousin, Eugenie Grandet. Eugenie was a virtuous, beautiful and sweet girl, quite in demand by the suitors of her village. </div>
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Charles brought to his uncle’s house a letter by Victor, who claimed that he had lost his fortune due to stock market speculation and he hoped that Père would be a father for his son. The tone if this letter suggested that Victor would die soon, which actually happened and this tragic event left Charles penniless. </div>
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While love flourished between both cousins, Père received a letter stating that Victor’s debts had been reduced and it meant that Charles has not lost all his money, after all. To avoid that Charles recovered his money and that his love for Eugenie took root, Père decided to send Charles away for the Martinique. However, before Charles’ departure, Père made him sign a document renouncing to all his inheritance, something that Charles found strange as his father had left no estate. Despite that suspicious signal, Charles did not realize that Père could have been behind any scam to take advantage of him.</div>
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While Charles was away he wrote to Eugenie regularly, telling her about his life in Martinique, that he was prospering there, etc. Nevertheless, his letters never came to her because Père was hiding everything and it made Eugenie think that Charles had forgotten about her. On the other hand, Père had written Charles claiming that he had arranged a marriage for Eugenie and therefore it would be advisable he did not keep any further correspondence with her. The claim was a lie and there was no marriage, but Charles could not possibly know. But both Charles and Eugenie never forgot each other.</div>
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One day Père asked Eugenie to see her gold because he wanted to invest it, but she could not give it to him because Eugenie had lent it to Charles previously, so he could have some money to restart his life. When Père realized Eugenie had given her gold to Charles, he locked her in her bedroom and it was when the worst ordeal of Eugenie began. However, the news of Eugenie’s imprisonment in her room became the topic of the village and the villagers have also noticed how maddened Père was. </div>
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Some scenes later it is revealed to the audience that Eugenie was not actually Père’s daughter and that Eugenie actually had the right of demanding a division of his fortune if only she knew the truth. </div>
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Speaking of the truth, Eugenie eventually found out Charles’ letters to her hidden in her own house, none of them had ever been given to her. She also found the letter that stated that Victor’s debts were reduced and that Charles was not penniless, after all. The same letter that had never been disclosed to Charles, who left to Martinica thinking his father had not left any estate. </div>
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Père found out that Eugenie found the letters. She runs away and he gets locked in his cellar, totally maddened by his own greed and evilness. This is one of the most famous scenes of the film, beautifully played and acted by actor Ralph Lewis (who played the role of Père in a convincing and skillful way) and the favorite scene of many people. Right afterwards Père passed away, leaving Eugenie a very rich woman and it was suggested to her to look for a husband. She announces her engagement, but shortly after is reunited with Charles.</div>
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My personal favorite part of the film is the end, when after some years Charles returned from France, now a very rich man and they both met each other again in the same place where they used to gather together in the past, this time older and with different appearances. However, the love and joy in seeing each other was still the same. Their facial expressions of happiness were something very touching to see, as they show that love was the real conquering power, even beyond the action of gold and time. Charles did not come to the village before thinking that Eugenie was married, but she was actually still single and it was when they were finally reunited.<br />
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silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-30969691689750912512020-05-07T00:14:00.001-03:002020-09-13T16:05:03.507-03:00Cobra (USA,1925)<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have always personally believed that, despite occasional typecasting and overacting in some films, Italian actor Rudolph Valentino’s acting skills did shine bright in his more romantically-oriented films. Unfortunately his acting ended up overshadowed by his heartthrob reputation and the tragic consequences of his death, with only 31 years old in 1926. </div>
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Valentino plays the impoverished Italian nobleman, Count Rodrigo Torriani, a philanderer who was often in the company of beautiful women. In the beginning of the film he befriended an American tourist (Jack Dorning) and, as he had shown a deep understanding of antiquities during their talks, Dorning invited Torriani to work with him in New York, as an antiques export. The proposal was gladly accepted. </div>
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A short time after arriving in New York, Torriani realized that he would not really get rid of his weakness for beautiful women. He fell genuinely and purely in love with Dorning's secretary Mary Drake, but she did not return his interest, which was an irony because it was the first time Torriani has ever loved a woman. </div>
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On the other hand, he has also met Elise, a gold digger, who was looking for a rich husband. Elise was immediately interested in Torriani, thinking he was rich, but Torriani had no interest in her whatsoeverf. When Torriani told her that all the money actually belonged to Dorning, she directed her attention to him even though she had never forgotten Torriani. Having realized that Dorning was interested in Elise, Torriani encouraged him to have a relationship with her, which quickly happened. </div>
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Dorning fell madly in love for Elise and they soon got married. However, after around one year of marriage -although Dorning was still in love and happy – it became clear that Elise was being unfaithful to her husband. To make things worse, Elise started to make advancements to Torriani again, to the point of forcing herself to him in his office. Torriani, in consideration for his friend, resisted her seduction as much as he could but, when she invited him to go to a hotel with her, he ended up accepting her proposal. But, as soon as they arrived at the hotel, Torriani felt guilty of betraying his friend and left the hotel immediately before anything more intimate happened between them both. </div>
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It turned out to be a wise decision because the hotel caught fire that same night, killing both Elise and one of her other lovers (who she called to stay with her in the hotel after Torriani left). The bodies of both people were so severely burned that it was not possible to identify them. After having learned of his wife’s disappearance, Dorning was heartbroken. For a while he could not know where his wife was or if she would ever return. He fell into depression and Torriani took care of him, unable to return what happened at that night at the hotel. He did not dare to make his friend suffer by knowing which kind of woman Elise was.</div>
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After a while, while browsing through Elise’s papers, Dorning found letters of some of her lovers to her and he also found out that she was in the habit of frequenting that hotel that caught fire and she was probably one of people who passed away. He also found out a letter of Torriani to Elise, refusing her love. Dorning was proud of his friends loyalty, but it was the moment when Torriani confessed everything that happened that night between him and Elise and that it was him who had taken Elise to the hotel the night she died and that he felt too guilty to remain in the United States and that he would return to Italy. Dorning answered saying it was better if they both forgot what happened and that Torriani could return to Italy to rest, but he asked his friend to return after a while and keep on working with him. </div>
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Torriani indeed returned and it seemed that everything would run smoothly, but it was not what happened. Mary Drake seemed to be finally interested in Torriani, but he was still feeling too guilty about Elise’s death and could not immediately return her interest due to his grief. After a while, he heard that both Mary Drake and Dorning were dating and that Dorning was very happy with her. He talked to Dorning and he confirmed to Torriani to be deeply in love with Mary Drake. </div>
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After having heard of it, Torriani decided to renounce to the only woman he has ever truly loved. He lied to her claiming he was still the same womanizer of always and, feeling guilty and determined not to be on the way of his friend’s happiness for a second time, Torriani left the United States and returned to Italy, this time definitively. </div>
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One year later Valentino passed tragically away and his funeral has caused an unprecedented commotion. His successful career lasted only around five years (from 1921 to 1926). His fate in talkies is only a matter of speculation, as all his films were made during the silent era. Nevertheless, I do believe that if he got to totally avoid typecasting in ethnically-stereotyped films and devoted himself to romantic dramas, it would have solidified his career and make him being more seriously taken by some critics. But unfortunately there was no time for it.</div>
silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-81050714585911284542020-05-06T10:34:00.001-03:002020-09-13T16:05:21.747-03:00Foolish Wives (USA,1922)<div style="text-align: justify;">
Director Eric von Stroheim, despite making long and extravagant films – often having as scenery lands far away – he could also provide fluid, light-hearted plots with touches of humor. He was a competent director, who particularly excelled in fairy tale -like plots with touches of comedy, as in this film.</div>
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Stroheim could often have problems with the studios due to overbudgeting and excessively long films and it was not different here. The original printing lasted around eight hours and it was cut by the studio to a more conventional format and it shrank even more throughout the years. Despite having made a name for himself as a skilled director, his multiple clashes with studios made him as of early 1930ies end up being an actor in other people’s films. He did have some noteworthy roles, such as, for instance in Sunset Boulevard (USA, 1950) though. </div>
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In a mansion by the sea in Monte Carlo (according to the first intertitle: “The Villa Amorosa – secluded yet within easy reach of Monte Carlo -leased for the season by three members of the Russian aristocracy”) it lives a man who socially identifies himself as His Excellency Captain Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin -but who is merely a poor scoundrel who seduced and manipulated women in order to obtain financial advantages from them – (a role played by Stroheim himself) is a member of former Russian nobility who is in the habit of seducing rich women in order to obtain financial advantages. He has the assistance of his two “cousins”; "Princess" Vera Petchnikoff and "Her Highness" Olga Petchnikof (both of them partners in crime and possibly his lovers too).</div>
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The three of them have an lavish and idle lifestyle, which even included caviar as breakfast, as it can be seen in a scene in the beginning of the film. Stroheim has reportedly requested the studio to purchase real caviar for the sake of realism on camera. Indeed, the breakfast scene – with a table full of sophisticated food in a huge mansion and with a maid to serve them -gives the audiences a good idea of the level of luxury of the “family”. </div>
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Then the group receive the visit of Cesare Ventucci, who supply the group with counterfeit bills which would be passed in the Cassino. Ventucci has a daughter with special necessities called Marietta who he raised by himself after his wife passed away and it becomes clear to the audience that Count Karamzin was developing an interest for the girl.</div>
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Being a compulsive womanizer, the count also made advances (and even marriage promises) to Maruschka, the maid. This part of the film ends up irreversibly impacting the film later on.</div>
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One day the count heard about the arrival on board of the U.S. Cruiser “Salem” of the Commissioner Plenipotentiary of the United States and his wife, called Helen Hughes. She was a naïve woman, younger than her husband (she was 21 years old, while he was 41 years old). Although Mr. Hughes realized that the count was flirting with his wife and was never away for too long, the count got to easily enchant her with his charm and extroverted personality. Furthermore, the friendship with those distinguished foreigners would give the group more social legitimacy and nobody would suspect that they never belonged to the Russian nobility after all. </div>
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And this association with the fake nobility members would end up involving Mr. Hughes in some rather embarrassing situations. For instance: </div>
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A. The Count was in the habit of going out with Helen Hughes together with his “cousins”. One day, they went to the countryside and the Count walked alone with Mrs. Hughes while one of his cousins was on the table waiting for their return. However, it suddenly started to rain torrentially and the Count and Mrs. Hughes ended up being stranded in a more isolated place, just the two of them, leaving the “cousin” behind. </div>
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This “cousin” called Mr. Hughes and told him that his wife was safe with them at the Hotel des Reves and, due to the heavy rain, she would not be able to return home that night. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hughes was fainted in a scary-looking house being taken care of by the Count and an older woman. The count told Mrs. Hughes that her foot needed rest and that the rain prevented them from returning home that night. </div>
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B. Once the Count told Mrs. Hughes that he urgently needed money, as he had a life or death matter to solve and asked her to meet him in a building at night. Maruschka, seeing that the Count was did not really care about her and that his marriage promise was not true, ended up setting the building on fire. Both the Count and Mrs. Hughes are trapped and the firefighters were called. The Count jumped in order to save himself, leaving Mrs. Hughes behind. She eventually got to jump too and was looked after by her husband, who saw the Count’s letter asking money for his wife and realized she was being the victim of a scam. </div>
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The Count ended up being rejected by the local high society due to the ensuing scandal and he subsequently tried to seduce Marietta, but her father sees it and ends up murdering the Count and throwing his body on the sewage. His “cousins” were arrested afterwards and the Hughes couple continued with their marriage without further problems.</div>
silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-76098926762922320902020-03-08T10:04:00.006-03:002020-09-25T23:33:51.688-03:00Sherlock Jr. (USA,1924)<div style="text-align: justify;">
Buster Keaton is famous for his masterpieces The General (USA, 1926) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (USA, 1928), but this cute little gem is within the same level of aforementioned films and one of most elaborate Keaton works in terms of special effects.<br />
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With a highly relatable plot of a boy in a humble existence who wished to have a more successful life, naturalistic acting with touches of romanticism (mixed with a plenty of physical gags, typical of Keaton’s work) this charming little comedy has stood well the test of time and could delight modern-day audiences without difficulty. After all, cinema always has the power of transforming lives and make people’s dreams come true.</div>
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Buster Keaton works as a projectionist who studies to be a detective too. He operates the projector in a small town movie theater and also does the cleaning. His working routine is shown in the beginning of the film, which provides a good glimpse of what 1920s movie theaters looked like. As the said in one of initial intertitles of the film “ (…) While employed as a moving picture operator in a small town theater he was also studying to be a detective”. Keaton did not always manage to multitask his profession and his studies, but he had good intentions and did the best he could.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5PSXYeLl6KQ/X2NVAI0E-QI/AAAAAAAAR9o/X5FjVJBk1v4OowMVhuYI5-_jMHHJ9ljgACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Sherlock%2BJunior%2B-%2BBuster%2BKeaton%2B-%2B1924.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="249" data-original-width="320" height="249" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5PSXYeLl6KQ/X2NVAI0E-QI/AAAAAAAAR9o/X5FjVJBk1v4OowMVhuYI5-_jMHHJ9ljgACLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h249/Sherlock%2BJunior%2B-%2BBuster%2BKeaton%2B-%2B1924.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Keaton is also in love with a pretty girl, but he has an evil rival for her affections. None of them is particularly wealthy and could not afford giving her expensive gifts, for instance. One day both suitors visit the girl in her house and suddenly her father had his pocket watch stolen. Keaton volunteers to find out who had stolen it, but he isn’t particularly skilled as a detective yet and, to make things worse, his rival gets to put the pawn ticket of the watch in his pocket. Keaton ended up being accused of the crime and is kicked out of the house of his sweetheart. </div>
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Buster Keaton was well-known for making his own stunts, many of them quite hair-raising and risky, and he did not care if it was dangerous or not. He seldom got hurt, but this time he had hurt himself very badly - and without even knowing it. While making this film, Keaton suffered at least two accidents, one of those became very spoken about by Buster Keaton scholars. In a scene Keaton followed closely the other suitor right after being kicked out of his sweetheart’s house until both of them embark a train and -for offscreen reasons -this scene became famous. It is in this scene where the most serious accident occurred. While on top of the train he was struck by the flow of water from a water tower. The force of the water was far greater than he had anticipated, which caused him to fall off the rope straight on the train track. He got to finish this scene, which was a chase, then interrupted the filming briefly and was back to work some days later. Around eleven years later, during a routine checkup, Keaton was told by a doctor that he had broken his neck in the past based on a x ray which showed a callus had had grown over the fracture on his neck. The second accident was during a bicycle chase scene displayed close to the end of the film, which was less serious than the first accident mentioned above.</div>
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<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tCLJEAS9KVE/X2NWd_YR7tI/AAAAAAAAR98/mJC2Bk1SNfghdlH1PCgzSiVSI4QNCZnDACLcBGAsYHQ/s960/Sherlock%2BJr%2B-%2B1924%2B-%2BHD%2BMovie%2B%2528Buster%2BKeaton%2529%2B177.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tCLJEAS9KVE/X2NWd_YR7tI/AAAAAAAAR98/mJC2Bk1SNfghdlH1PCgzSiVSI4QNCZnDACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Sherlock%2BJr%2B-%2B1924%2B-%2BHD%2BMovie%2B%2528Buster%2BKeaton%2529%2B177.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">What makes Sherlock Junior a special film is that it is a film within a film with many incredible gags and techniques. The whole show begins when Keaton fall asleep as a projectionist while showing a film in the movie theater. This film within the film is called “Hearts and Pearls”. Inside his dream, as a projectionist, Keaton tries to enter the “Hearts and Pearls” film that was being shown on screen, but he was kicked off by one of the actors. Subsequently, Keaton manages to enter the screen and becomes part of the film “Hearts and Pearls” and in this film inside the film the famous detective Sherlock Jr. (Keaton himself) is called to solve a crime. The pearls had been stolen in the house of a wealthy family and the real criminals prepared a trap for Sherlock Jr. -who was called “the crime-crushing criminologist” according to one of intertitles -but the trap did not work out and the detective left the house free from any harm and solved the crime right afterwards.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hYTIEZLUNiY/X2NVqWQ9xwI/AAAAAAAAR9w/3YeMrpx4E9oCj_xZ26MNX8o96OVuckYgwCLcBGAsYHQ/s960/Sherlock%2BJr%2B-%2B1924%2B-%2BHD%2BMovie%2B%2528Buster%2BKeaton%2529%2B336.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hYTIEZLUNiY/X2NVqWQ9xwI/AAAAAAAAR9w/3YeMrpx4E9oCj_xZ26MNX8o96OVuckYgwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Sherlock%2BJr%2B-%2B1924%2B-%2BHD%2BMovie%2B%2528Buster%2BKeaton%2529%2B336.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, the girl went to the pawn brokers carrying her father’s watch and asked the salesman to describe the man who had pawned that watch. He had described her other suitor and at that moment the suitor was coincidently passing by the store and the salesman had confirmed it was that guy who had pawned the watch.</div>
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When Keaton awakened and found out that his Sherlock Junior adventure had been just a dream, the girl was in his workplace to tell him that her father had committed a serious mistake and that he found out Keaton was innocent and did not steal the watch. Then, the film “Hearts and Pearls” was still being shown on screen and while talking to the girl he realized that his life had finally got similar to the plot of the film and this time he was not dreaming. It was true, his dreams had started to come true.</div>
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The plot is easy to understand and very human. After all, many people have already dreamed with social recognition and success while performing their ordinary duties. The romanticism between Keaton and the girl is similar to 1920s Harold Lloyd’s comedies and by this time the narrative style was well-established in Hollywood, not too different from the narratives from modern-day films.</div>
silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-28829467952236688282018-07-27T11:40:00.001-03:002018-07-28T00:39:26.418-03:00The Merry Widow (USA, 1925)<div style="text-align: justify;">
Director Eric von Stroheim has a larger than life reputation to this day, due to his multiple clashes with studios about budget and artistic freedom and even his tense relationships with some actors in the set. But this film, being one of his biggest successes, both financially and among audiences, proved that Stroheim could also excel in more mainstream films with well-established actors.<br />
This film is an entertaining musical, starring the heartthrob John Gilbert (at the height of his fame and delivering a fine, passionate performance) and Mae Murray (an actress with good comedy and dancing skills, who was formerly in the Ziegfeld Follies).<br />
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This film had a careful production by MGM, which was already one of most prestigious studios of the era. The scenery is grandiose and the pace is quite relaxed, almost a fairy tale. Erick von Stroheim took time to introduce the characters. There is clever use of visuals and images, as Stroheim was almost literary when it came to attention to details of the plot.<br />
John Gilbert played Prince Danilo Petrovich, a womanizer. His cousin, Crown Prince Mirko is also a womanizer and they both often competed for affections of the same women, although Mirko lacked the charm and elegance of Danilo and deep inside he was envious of it. Mae Murray was Sally O'Hara, a dancer (a role that fit perfectly the dancing qualifications she had in real life). Both Danilo and Mirko got attracted to Sally, as well as wealthy Baron Sadoja (the Baron turned out to be a feet fetishist and that gave room to some quite funny scenes). Sally chose Danilo as her sweetheart and they both fell in love with each other and Danilo wanted to marry Sally.<br />
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However, king Nikita forbade Danilo to marry her because she was a plebeian and a dancer and a prince was supposed to have the duty of marrying a proper woman to his dignity due to loyalty to his kingdom. Therefore, Danilo ended up leaving Sally at the altar because he could not bear the pressure of his family.<br />
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After such disappointment, Sally accepted marrying older Baron Sadoja, who had conveniently passed away at the wedding night. Sally inherited Sadoja's estate as well as the title of Baroness.<br />
One year later, both Danilo and Sally meet in Paris. They both started dancing in the ballroom and talked about the past. The point is that Crown Prince Mirko was also in Paris and it became clear to Sally that Mirko showed interest in her only because of her money and she suspected that Danilo's affection for her was not sincere either.<br />
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Danilo challenged Mirko for a duel, even though Sally begged him to give up this idea. It seemed Danilo had died in the duel, but he only got wounded. Meanwhile, King Nikita passed away and Mirko inherited the throne, but it would not last because he was assassinated right afterwards. The second in the succession line was Danilo, who became king and was finally free to marry Sally, which he did without hesitation. </div>
silentbeautieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14153248317186121085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6439518659376185063.post-73818194777205922022018-07-24T11:20:00.003-03:002018-07-24T11:20:36.480-03:00Mary Pickford (1892 - 1979) - Vida e Obra<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nascida Gladys Smith em 08 de abril de 1892 no Canadá, ela tinha dois irmãos mais novos, Lotti e Jack. Seu pai morreu quando Mary tinha cerca de 05 anos de idade, deixando sua mãe, Charlotte, sozinha com três filhos para criar. </div>
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A mãe tentou várias profissões para sustentar os filhos, até montar uma pensão em sua casa. Certo dia, Charlotte alugou um dos quartos para um senhor que se identificou como ator e ele disse que sua companhia de teatro estava precisando de crianças para atuar em suas peças. Ao ver que o ambiente da companhia de teatro era bom, Charlotte aceitou que seus filhos trabalhassem como atores. Afinal de contas, o dinheiro era altamente necessário. </div>
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Nessa época, a família era tão pobre que Charlotte chegou a cogitar dar Mary para que uma família abastada a criasse. Porém, quando Mary descobriu, ela chorou muito e isso fez com que Charlotte desistisse.</div>
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Na virada do século XIX para o XX, Mary entra para a carreira teatral, a qual foi bem sucedida. Isso fez com que ela estreasse na Broadway por meio da companhia de David Belasco aos 15 anos de idade. Essa era uma das companhias de teatro mais famosas dos Estados Unidos na época. </div>
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Mas, mesmo na Broadway e fazendo parte de um grupo tão famoso, o trabalho era sazonal. Em 1909, após Mary ficar meses sem trabalho, Charlotte mandou Mary buscar trabalho em estúdios de cinema. Nessa época, o teatro ainda era considerado socialmente mal visto, mas a reputação do cinema era ainda pior. Nos Estados Unidos do começo do século XX, os cinemas (também chamados Nickelodeons) eram uma diversão extremamente barata e frequentados em sua maioria por pessoas extremamente pobres e imigrantes. Mary, sendo uma atriz da Broadway, também considerava o cinema abaixo da sua dignidade de atriz, mas ela não podia contrariar as ordens da mãe. </div>
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Assim, nesse mesmo ano de 1909, Mary conseguiu emprego nos estúdios Biograph, de Nova York, que era dirigido pelo famoso diretor D.W. Griffith. Mary fez sucesso com seus filmes em pouco tempo. Ela foi uma das primeiras atrizes do cinema americano a adotar um estilo mais naturalista de atuar, em oposição a linguagem teatral de gestos mais exagerados. Devido a divergências artísticas e criativas, ela frequentemente discutia com Griffith, apesar de ter feito muito sucesso em seus filmes. </div>
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Foi também nos estúdios Biograph onde ela conheceu seu primeiro marido, o ator irlandês Owen Moore. Charlotte não aprovou esse casamento. O casal não teve filhos e o casamento fracassou devido ao alcoolismo de Moore e ao fato de Mary ser uma atriz muito mais bem sucedida do que ele. </div>
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Depois de alguns anos, Mary se transferiu para o Famous Players, studio, de propriedade de Adolph Zukor. E nesse período, Mary fez um sucesso estrondoso e em meados da década de 1910, ela passou a ter sua própria unidade de produção dentro do estúdio, onde ela trabalhava com total liberdade artística e compartilhando os lucros dos filmes com o estúdio principal. O controle criativo desses filmes era compartilhado entre Mary e o próprio Zukor. </div>
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Parte do sucesso de Mary se devia ao fato de que ela era a personificação da mulher ideal. Virtuosa, honesta, corajosa para lutar pelos seus ideais. Era a filha que todos os pais queriam ter e como todas as mulheres gostariam de ser. Mary trouxe respeitabilidade para o cinema. Ela nunca era vista fumando ou bebendo em público e fazia muitas campanhas publicitárias</div>
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Ainda na década de 1910, Mary conheceu o ator Douglas Fairbanks (que já tinha uma carreira bem estabelecida na Broadway) justamente quando seu casamento estava na pior fase. O problema é que tanto Mary quanto Douglas eram casados com outras pessoas e um divórcio poderia acabar com a carreira de ambos. Afinal de contas, atores dependiam de sua popularidade junto ao público. </div>
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Durante a Primeira Guerra Mundial, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin e outras personalidades populares na época, viajaram pelos Estados Unidos vendendo bônus de guerra e seus discursos atraíam multidões, conforme pode ser confirmado por filmagens desses eventos que sobrevivem até hoje. Essa era também uma desculpa perfeita para que Mary e Douglas pudessem estar juntos em público. </div>
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No começo de 1919, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin e D.W. Griffith fundaram a United Artists, uma companhia de distribuição de filmes a fim de lutar contra uma fusão dos grandes estúdios, destinada a baixar os salários dos atores e de todo o pessoal envolvido na produção cinematográfica Hollywoodiana. Esse era um negócio de alto risco, pois apesar de todos os quatro serem artistas com muito talento para os negócios, nenhum deles nunca havia administrado uma empresa de grande porte antes. Mas tudo deu certo. </div>
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Em 1920 Mary e Douglas se divorciaram de seus antigos cônjuges e se casaram. A reação do público foi surpreendente porque, ao invés de o casamento deles ter causado um escândalo, isso na verdade aumentou a popularidade de ambos. Ainda sobrevivem as filmagens da lua de mel de Mary e Douglas na Europa, onde eles arrastaram multidões de fãs estrangeiros, a ponto de isso ter até atrapalhado a privacidade da viagem deles. </div>
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Ambos permaneceram casados até 1936. A mansão do casal, apelidada de “Pickfair”, se tornou lendária por suas festas, frequentadas até por políticos e membros da realeza. </div>
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Douglas Fairbanks atingiu o estrelato com seus filmes de capa e espada na década de 1920. Mas o começo da era do cinema falado representou o fim da popularidade dos dois atores, que se aposentaram do cinema no começo da década de 1930. Essa época foi ainda mais difícil para Mary, por conta do falecimento de sua mãe e dois irmãos mais novos em um espaço de poucos anos. O divórcio de Faibanks, por conta de uma traição dele, também foi um golpe duro. </div>
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Mary continuou muito rica ao longo de toda a vida e se casou com seu terceiro e último marido (o ator Charles "Buddy" Rogers) em 1937. Além de ter criado sua sobrinha (filha de Lottie, a única família de sangue que lhe restou) ela sempre manteve uma ótima relação com o filho de Douglas Fairbanks, que mais tarde viria a se tornar ator sob o nome de Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Mais tarde, Mary também adotou mais duas crianças. </div>
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Após sua aposentadoria do cinema, Mary levou uma vida discreta e longe dos holofotes. Sempre se mostrou educada e humilde em suas entrevistas, apoiando instituições de caridade e fazendo doações. Mary faleceu em 1979, aos 87 anos de idade. </div>
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