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Arsenal (1929, Alexander Dovzhenko)
“Can we knock off the capitalists and officers in the street if we find any?” Features the most depressing opening 10 minutes of any movie ever. “There was a mother who had three sons. There was a war....
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He Who Gets Slapped (1924, Victor Sjöström)
Opening-day SHOCKtober screening this season is one I’ve been meaning to watch for years for being Shadowplay’s favorite film. Not my favorite, but I appreciated the enjoyably absurd premise, Chaney’s...
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The Phantom Carriage (1921, Victor Sjöström)
Just before midnight of the new year, a salvation army sister named Edith, “stricken with galloping consumption,” sends for David Holm. Meanwhile across town, Holm (played by the director) gets in a...
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Intolerance (1916, D.W. Griffith)
While watching The Story of Film, I’ve been marking down the names of movies Mark Cousins discusses which I haven’t seen. And since I love lists, I thought I’d pick one title per Story episode and...
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The Crowd (1928, King Vidor)
The story is a heavy-handed melodrama, but the filmmaking is light and fun with a surprisingly mobile camera. It goes down a slide at the fair! Shot by Henry Sharp (Ministry of Fear). Wow, this had a...
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Non-Japanuary shorts
Lost Buildings (2004, Chris Ware & Ira Glass) The story of architectural historian Tim Samuelson and his grade-school fascination with old buildings. Glass of This American Life did the sound and...
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The Artist (2011, Michel Hazanavicius)
Leisurely-paced, straightforward story of silent film star George Valentin and early talkie star Peppy Miller. He’s struck by her early on, helps her career get started, and they stay acquaintances,...
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Dr. Plonk (2007, Rolf de Heer)
A silent film in the style of 1907 and shot using a hand-crank camera, with lots (oh, lots) of start-stop disappearance effects, not at all like The Artist or the films of Guy Maddin – more of an...
View ArticleSilent Shorts at Emory
Hugo-inspired Melies shorts, followed by Melies-inspired silent shorts, followed by Sherlock Jr. Everything except A Trip to the Moon had live music by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton, and the films...
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Battling Butler (1926, Buster Keaton & Eddie Cline)
Based on a hit stage play. Rich, useless Alfred Butler goes on a ludicrously well-outfitted camping trip with his valet and meets a beautiful mountain girl. But he can’t marry her without impressing...
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Stereo (1969, David Cronenberg)
“As an aphrodisiast, Dr. Stringfellow proposes the use of synthetic aphrodisiac drugs to assist those who wish to attain a fully three-dimensional sexuality.” I rented this on VHS from Movies Worth...
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Chaplin Mutuals (1916-1917)
Half-hour movies of Chaplin causing havoc a hundred years ago. Guess I’d assumed they’d be better with more planned-out gags, like my favorite Keaton shorts, since Chaplin had creative control at...
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The Movies Begin, discs 1 & 2
Shorts! I have discs and discs of shorts and rarely watch them. I’m awfully excited about the new blu-ray of avant-garde shorts from Flicker Alley, but how can I justify buying it when I’ve got a...
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Lumière! chapters 1 & 2
Holy shit, the Lumière films have been remastered in HD and look incredible. I understand no spoken French, so played the music-only track on the blu-ray, though I’ll bet the narration is super...
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Emile Cohl: 1908 Shorts
Fantasmagorie (1908) The adventures of a prankster clown and his transforming world. One of the strangest animations ever, setting the stage for everything from Betty Boop to Don Hertzfeldt. Seen this...
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By Brakhage, Volume 2, Program 3
Quotes below are from Marilyn Brakhage’s program notes. The Process (1972) Flashing colors. Negative silhouettes of human figures (wearing hats). Increasingly recognizable scraps of home movies, but...
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Varieté (1925, E.A. Dupont)
Another great night with the Alloy Orchestra. Probably the number one advantage to living in Lincoln is that they come through every year with a different silent film – last year was Man with the Movie...
View ArticleThe Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Dreyer)
Already one of my favorite movies from having seen it on TCM a couple times in the 1990’s, but watching in a theater (from DVD, tho) with live music (stayed atmospheric for the most part, with even the...
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Le Révélateur (1968, Philippe Garrel)
I can’t tell exactly what it’s supposed to be, perhaps a symbolic arthouse parody/critique of nuclear family life? Sometimes it seems like psychodrama, sometimes comedy… sometimes we get effectively...
View ArticleThe Lost World (1925, Harry Hoyt)
Alloy Orchestra returned, with a double-feature this time! First up was this highly ridiculous adventure story, full of corny nonsense, but also featuring some fabulous stop-motion dinosaurs and a cool...
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