Essays, interviews, archives, and video resources on early cinema — curated reading on films, directors, and movements across the silent and early sound eras.
942 resources
A beginner’s path through the sublime silent cinema of F.W. Murnau
Ben Nicholson
21 DEC 2016
SFSFF editor · San Francisco Silent Film Festival
15 MAY 2015
SFSFF editor · San Francisco Silent Film Festival
15 MAY 2013
Robert Byrne · San Francisco Silent Film Festival
08 JAN 2008
Shari Kizirian · San Francisco Silent Film Festival
08 JAN 2007
Stacey Wisnia and Stephen Salmons · San Francisco Silent Film Festival
08 JAN 2006
1998 documentary about the life of Louise Brooks, created by Hugh Munro Neely. Narrated by Shirley MacLaine and featuring numerous interviews with friends and relatives of the legendary star, it also contains excerpts from many of her films including her first on-screen appearance.
Hugh Munro Neely
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Review by Kyle Westphal
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Mabel Normand scored a smash hit with this feature-length comedy about a mining camp brat who goes to live in the big city. Chaos ensues but you knew that already.
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Jack Miller argues that Dovzhenko’s Earth represents a radically non-narrative alternative to Eisenstein’s dialectical montage, treating its agrarian subjects and the natural world as monumental, painterly presences rather than characters in a story.
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Cara Marisa Deleon explores the tension between the film’s progressive ideals and its deeply patriarchal treatment of its female characters
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Essay on Seiter's pre-Code examination of small-town morality and rumors about women's sexuality.
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Festival documentation of Kinugasa's pioneering avant-garde masterpiece.
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Analysis of Hitchcock's second talkie and its theatrical staginess in cinematic adaptation.
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Criterion release with essay on Sternberg's direction of Dietrich in her triumphant American debut.
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Festival analysis of Dupont's revolutionary mobile camera techniques.
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Festival documentation of Keaton's personal favorite and commercially successful comedy.
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Festival resource on Vidor's romantic tragedy and Gish's acclaimed performance.
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Overview of this Three Stooges courtroom comedy short known for anarchic slapstick.
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