Country: Unites States
Film made by Dr. Frederick Cook to substantiate his claim as discoverer of the North Pole and document his treatment by opponents.
This 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.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The Truth About the North Pole - 1912
Country: Unites States
Film made by Dr. Frederick Cook to substantiate his claim as discoverer of the North Pole and document his treatment by opponents.
The Invaders - 1912
Country: United States
Language:
English (intertitles)
Writer: C.
Gardner Sullivan (scenario - uncredited)
Stars: Francis
Ford (Colonel James Bryson), Ethel Grandin (Colonel Bryson's Daughter) and Ann
Little (Sky Star)
Release Date: 29
November 1912 (USA)
Production Co:
Kay-Bee Pictures
Runtime: 41 min
(2004 National Film Preservation Foundation print)
Sound Mix:
Silent
Color: Black and
White
Plot Keywords:
Surveyor | Treaty | U.S. Army | Attack | Cheyenne Tribe | Stagecoach | Ambush | Engagement | Broken Pact
| Smoke Signal | Fire | Hostage | Death | Rescue | Railroad | Battle | Cavalry
| Native American Chief | Massacre | Telegraph | Military Officer | Telescope |
Land Rights | Native American | Romantic Rivalry | Marriage Proposal | Sioux
Tribe | Gunfire | American Indian | Father Daughter Relationship
Genres: Western
The U.S. Army
and the Indians sign a peace treaty. However, a group of surveyors trespass on
the Indians' land and violate the treaty. The army refuses to listen to the
Indians' complaints, and the surveyors are killed by the Indians. A vicious
Indian war ensues, culminating in an Indian attack on an army fort.
Trivia
One of the films
in the 3-disk boxed DVD set called "More Treasures from American Film
Archives (2004)", compiled by the National Film Preservation Foundation
from 5 American film archives. This film is preserved by the Library of
Congress (from the AFI/Blackhawk collection), has a running time of 41 minutes
and an added piano score.
Rapsodia Satanica - 1920
Country: Italy
Director: Nino
Oxilia
Writers: Alberto
Fassini (screenplay), Alberto Fassini (story), Fausto Maria Martini (poem)
Stars: Lyda
Borelli (Contessa Alba d'Oltrevita), Andrea Habay (Tristano) and Ugo Bazzini
(Mephisto)
Release Date:
1915 (Italy)
Also known
as: Rapsódia Satânica (Portugal),
Rapsodia satánica (Spain), Rhapsodie des Satans (Germany), Rhapsodie satanique
(France), Satan's Rhapsody (USA)
Production Co:
Società Italiana Cines
Runtime: 40
min | Germany: 45 min (restored)
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and
White | Color (hand-colored)
Plot Keywords:
Aging | Color Tint | Deal With The Devil
Genres: Short |
Drama | Fantasy | Mystery
Rapsodia
Satanica (1915) was the last film directed by Nino Oxilia and is undoubtedly
one of the finest achievements of the early Italian cinema. In it, Oxilia spins
a variation on the Faust myth, embodied here by the diva Lyda Borelli. Typical
of extravagant D'Annunzian aestheticism at its height, Rapsodia Satanica was
one of the summits of what was later called the "tail coat film."
Diametrically opposed to the "cinema of reality" practiced by Serena,
Martoglio and others, "tail coat films" set their melodramatic
stories in the salons and villas of the upper middle class and the aristocracy,
deploying narrative structures contrived to showcase their actors and
especially its actresses. This had the effect of accentuating their physical
presence and turning them into stars - probably the first stars in movie
history. The success of the "dive" contributed to the development of
motion picture grammar in its special use of the close-up.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Thais - 1916
Country: Italy
Director: Anton
Giulio Bragaglia
Writer: Riccardo
Cassano
Stars: Augusto
Bandini, Alberto Casanova and Thaïs Galitzky
Also known as:
Les possédées (France)
Production Co:
Novissima Film
Runtime: 35 min
(18 fps) (2001 restoration)
Sound Mix:
Silent
Color: Black and
White
Plot Keywords:
Futurism
Genres: Short
"Futurism"
was an avant-garde artistic movement, created in 1909 ( as you can see your
grandfathers were long haired and dangerous youngsters for a while ) that
demands a rejection of tradition and the past while exalting technical
innovations, especially the mechanical ones, present and future. This
avant-garde artistic movement ( literature and music genres) found great
acceptance in Italy where many artists developed the Futurism postulates.
Herr Anton
Giulio Bragaglia was a notable Italian Futurist who began experimenting with
photography and published an important manifesto as a theoretical basis for
Futurist photography, "Fotodinamismo Futurista". In addition to his
career as set designer Herr Bragaglia had a short but intense film career,
"Thais" being his debut as a Futurist director.
In any case
"Thais" is a film that combines in a strange way classicism and the (
Futurist ) modernism, a paradox since we know that the Futurists were people
who rejected tradition and the"Thais" story is a very conventional
one. It tells of a "femme fatale" who toys with and uses her admirers
for her capricious purposes with the expected tragic ending. Classicism can be
seen too in the beautiful images from evocative landscapes sequences as the
ferry at the river or Bianca's race to the abyss ( "Naturalism"
reminiscences?... ) or Herr Charles Baudelaire's poems (
"Impressionism" reminiscences? ) Only at the end of the film do we see
the "Futurist" influences in the highly stylized and geometrical
décors in which our heroine suffers her particular punishment, a sequence in
which Herr Bragaglia's talent as a set designer is put to good effect.
For those
reasons for this German Count "Thais" is a kind of interesting film
catalogue of many artistic movements ( curious artistic duality ) strangely
mixed, a display of the spirit of those innovative early years that grants the
film an artistic and remarkable balance as a whole.
And now, if
you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count
must retrieve his conservative Teutonic influences.
L'Odissea - 1911
Country: Italy
Language:
Italian
Directors:
Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, Adolfo Padovan
Writer: Homer
Stars: Giuseppe
de Liguoro, Ubaldo Maria Del Colle and Eugenia Tettoni Fior
Release Date:
February 1912 (USA)
Also known as:
De dwaalwegen van Odysseus (Netherlands - informal literal title); Die
Irrfahrten des Odysseus (Germany); Homer's Odyssey (USA); L'odissea di Omero
(Italy - alternative title); L'odyssée (Switzerland - French title); L'odyssée
d'Homère (France);
Odisea de Homero
(Spain); Odyssee (Austria); Odysseian harharetket (Finland)
Production Co:
Milano Film
Sound Mix:
Silent
Taglines:
Homer's Odissey appeals to every one. It's a story of love, death, passion and
destruction. The greatest epic poem the world has ever had. It has lived for
centuries, the film will too.
Color: Black and
White
Genres: Drama |
Adventure | Fantasy
One of hundreds
of movies produced by Milano films, L'Odissea is good enough to let us know why
Italy was one of the world's top film producers before WWI. At a time in which
most films ran for about 10-12 minutes, this half an hour film (part of it is
said to be missing, so its length could be even longer) is quite an
accomplishment.
The Oddysey is
told to every last detail: from the departure from Ithaca to the adventures
involving the cyclops Polyphemus, the sirens, the monster Scylla, the nymph
Calypso, Nausicaa and her father Alcinous, the return of Ulysses and his fight
against the suitors disguised as a beggar. The style is a little old-fashioned
(anything prior to The Birth of a Nation could be considered as such) but the
intertitles guide us very well throughout the entire movie (contrary to others
in which we can easily get lost, take L'assommoir (1909) as an example). The
special effects are good enough: Polyphemus is huge compared to Ulysses and his
crew, and Scylla is quite impressive for a 1910 monster.
Arizona Days - 1928
Country: USA
Language:
English
Director: J.P.
McGowan
Writers: Brysis
Coleman (story), Mack V. Wright (adaptation)
Stars: Bob
Custer, Peggy Montgomery and J.P. McGowan
Release Date: 1
August 1928 (USA)
Also known as:
Kakourgoi kata liston (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
Production Co:
El Dorado Productions
Sound Mix:
Silent
Color: Black and
White
Plot Keywords:
Undercover Agent | Rustling | Dude | Arizona | B Movie | Branding Iron | B Western |
Rancher | Held At Gunpoint | Anger | Poverty Row Film | Rustler | Gay Character
| Henchman | Father Daughter Relationship | Cattleman | Cattle | Cattle Drive | Chases On
Horseback | Chewing Tobacco | Spitting | Deceit | Cattleman Association | Sheriff |
Falling Off Horse | Gunfire | Sweating | State In Title | Bandana | Englishman
| Stock Footage |
Cigarette Smoking | Public Domain | Gang Member | Low Budget Film | Gang Leader |
Ranch
Genres: Action |
Western
To stop the
rustling of Hicks, Martin turns to the Cattlemen's Association. They send
undercover agent Drexel who sets a trap for the gang. But Drexel's partner Van
Wiley, posing as a dude, lets their identity become known putting them in
jeopardy.
A Bird's a Bird - 1915
Country: USA
Director: Edwin Frazee
Writer: Edwin Frazee
Stars: Chester Conklin (Mr. Walrus) , Minta
Durfee (Walrus' wife) and Hank Mann (A Foreigner), Al St. John (Pa), Slim
Summerville (Mr. Spegle)
Release Date: 8 February 1915 (USA)
Production Co: Keystone Film Company
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Genres: Short | Comedy
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