Reading Room

Amazing Tales from the Archives 2006 (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

By Stacey Wisnia and Stephen SalmonsSan Francisco Silent Film Festival8 Jan 2006

Griffith, D.W. (opens sensesofcinema.com in a new tab)

Senses of Cinema Great Directors profile of D.W. Griffith, including his late silent and early sound career.

Senses of Cinema1 Jan 2006

More Sinned Against than Sinning: The Fabrications of "Pre-Code Cinema" (opens sensesofcinema.com in a new tab)

A critical history of the pre-Code Hollywood myth and the MPPDA Production Code.

Senses of Cinema1 Jan 2003

Restoring Hitchcock #2: reconstructing intertitles (opens bfi.org.uk in a new tab)

Archive feature on reconstructing intertitles for Hitchcock’s silent restorations.

BFI

A Long-Lost Film, Finally Found (opens lcm.loc.gov in a new tab)

LoC Magazine feature on rediscovering a lost Méliès film from 1897.

Library of Congress Magazine

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (SFFP restoration) (opens filmpreserve.org in a new tab)

Restoration overview for F.W. Murnau's Sunrise (1927), including Movietone, Czech, and Dutch versions plus trailer and outtakes work with the Library of Congress.

San Francisco Film Preserve

F.W. Murnau's Classic Sunrise Opens Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival (opens variety.com in a new tab)

Trade coverage of the San Francisco Film Preserve Sunrise restoration premiere at Il Cinema Ritrovato.

Variety

Restoring Erich von Stroheim’s Foolish Wives (opens bfi.org.uk in a new tab)

BFI London Film Festival interview on the restoration of Foolish Wives (1922), reconstructing sequencing, tinting, and intertitles.

BFI

Alice Guy Blaché: The Trailblazing Woman Filmmaker Who Understood the Future of Storytelling (opens moma.org in a new tab)

One of the most talented and prolific early film directors, long lost to history, returns to the screen.

MoMA Magazine

Buster by the Bay (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Three Keaton shorts open A Day of Silents at the Castro before a series runs through December in Berkeley.

Criterion Current

Movies Silently (opens moviessilently.com in a new tab)

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.

On Mickey

Cinema as Portraiture: Dovzhenko’s Earth – Establishing Shot (IU) (opens blogs.iu.edu in a new tab)

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.

On Earth

Vampyr at 90: how Carl Dreyer conjured a waking nightmare — BFI (opens bfi.org.uk in a new tab)

Retrospective essay celebrating Dreyer's creation of atmosphere through visual innovation and technique.

On Vampyr

OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934) (opens virtualvirago.blogspot.com in a new tab)

Essay on Bette Davis's groundbreaking performance and the film's dark portrayal of obsession.

Virtual Virago: Classic Films in Focus

On Of Human Bondage

The Unholy Three - San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival resource on Browning's unique approach to grotesque cinema.

On The Unholy Three

OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934) (opens oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of how the film navigated Hays Code restrictions while exploring human weakness.

Of or Involving Motion Pictures

On Of Human Bondage

Neglected film: OUR DAILY BREAD (1934) (opens oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Essay exploring Vidor's Depression-era collective farm drama and its social commentary.

Of or Involving Motion Pictures

On Our Daily Bread

The General - San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival resource on one of cinema's greatest comedies.

On The General

The Son of the Sheik - San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival resource on Valentino's final performance before his death.

On The Son of the Sheik

A Page of Madness - San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival documentation of Kinugasa's pioneering avant-garde masterpiece.

On A Page of Madness

HOT SATURDAY ( 1932 ) (opens cinemavensessaysfromthecouch.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Essay on Seiter's pre-Code examination of small-town morality and rumors about women's sexuality.

CineMaven's Essays from the Couch

On Hot Saturday

Riders of Destiny (1933), with John Wayne as a singing cowboy (opens publicdomainmovies.info in a new tab)

Essay on this early Wayne western musical and its influence on the singing cowboy genre.

Public Domain Movies

On Riders of Destiny

Blonde Venus (1932) (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion's overview of Sternberg and Dietrich's melodrama about a chanteuse's moral decline.

Criterion Collection

On Blonde Venus

The Pleasure Garden - San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival resource on Hitchcock's directorial debut and early thematic concerns.

On The Pleasure Garden