I have written in the past about how so many silent features have been lost from cinema’s early years, either being lost in accidental fires – nitrate film is ridiculously flammable, sometimes explosively so – or simply not perceived to … Continue reading REVIEW: Apart from You (1933)
The Intrigue, a 1916 silent feature directed by Frank Lloyd, has its problems but it also offers a chance to see a very early example of the espionage thriller. 106 years from release, however, and it is definitely of greater … Continue reading REVIEW: The Intrigue (1916)
Let’s have a look at silent cinema again; in this case at the role of women in silent cinema. If you glance at the earliest motion picture shorts and features, a lot of men immediately come up: Charlie Chaplin, Buster … Continue reading REVIEW: The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916)
In the end, it is all about the penguins – but we can get to that in due course. Raggio di Sole – released in the UK as Sunbeam – is a 1912 Italian short film. It is a silent film of course, … Continue reading REVIEW: Raggio di Sole (1912)
An ambitious war hero (Gunnar Tolnæs) leads a mission to the red planet in Danish filmmaker Holger-Madsen’s ambitious silent feature A Trip to Mars (1918). A Trip to Mars was released just 16 years after George Méliès’ iconic A Trip to … Continue reading REVIEW: A Trip to Mars (1918)
Like most, I can do the arithmetic and see that Charlie Chaplin’s extended short Sunnyside is 102 years old. Despite this it just feels wrong. I grew up in the last quarter of the 20th century, and cinema was still heralded at that century’s … Continue reading REVIEW: Sunnyside (1919)
Time passes and we get old. Usually we only notice with specific triggers. A few weeks ago I watched a silent film, as I am occasionally wont to do. They are an underrated style of film that most audiences simply … Continue reading REVIEW: The Kid (1921)
In my experience of talking to film reviewers, there seems a general consensus that terrible works are far and away the easiest to review, followed by great films, and that the hardest ones to write about are the mediocre ones … Continue reading REVIEW: The General (1926)
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