Reading Room

A History of Screenwriting – The Cabbage Fairy (La Fée aux Choux) (opens rosannewelch.com in a new tab)

Scholarly analysis of the film's significance as the first narrative film and its pioneering screenwriting.

On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

On The Cabbage-Patch Fairy

The psychological horror of Dreyer's Vampyr — BFI Sight & Sound (opens bfi.org.uk in a new tab)

Essay on Dreyer's dreamlike approach to horror and psychological terror in his first sound film.

On Vampyr

Watch the Film That Invented Cinema: Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory in Lyon (1895) (opens openculture.com in a new tab)

Educational analysis of the film's historical importance as a foundational work of cinema history.

Open Culture

On Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

Radical Object: The Blue Angel (1930) (opens historyworkshop.org.uk in a new tab)

Essay examining the film's transgressive elements and cultural significance during Nazi era.

History Workshop

On The Blue Angel

The Blue Angel (1930) | The Definitives (opens deepfocusreview.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of Sternberg's direction and Dietrich's iconic performance as Lola Lola.

Deep Focus Review

On The Blue Angel

Willing Seduction: The Blue Angel, Marlene Dietrich, and Mass Culture (opens berghahnbooks.com in a new tab)

Book-length study of the film's relationship to mass culture and Dietrich's star image.

Berghahn Books

On The Blue Angel

The Dawn Patrol (1930) - Movie Review (opens alternateending.com in a new tab)

Review of this important war film that interprets and stretches the boundaries of aviation cinema.

Alternate Ending

On The Dawn Patrol

MoMA | Howard Hawks's The Dawn Patrol — Museum of Modern Art (opens moma.org in a new tab)

Analysis of Hawks' direction of World War I aviation drama and Academy Award-winning story.

On The Dawn Patrol

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

To the stars and beyond: movies dream of outer space, 1898-1910 — Silent Please (opens silentsplease.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Scholarly essay placing the film within the context of early science fiction cinema.

On The Astronomer's Dream

The Enchanted Drawing: Blackton's Early Animation (opens themarginalian.org in a new tab)

Analysis of J. Stuart Blackton's pioneering proto-animation techniques and their influence on cinema.

The Marginalian

On The Enchanted Drawing

A Trip to the Moon | Spectacular Attractions — Spectacular Attractions (opens drnorth.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Scholarly essay examining the film's theatrical traditions and special effects innovations.

On A Trip to the Moon

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

My Best Girl (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival guide to Pickford's department store romance.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

On My Best Girl

The Aquatic Allure of The Kingdom of Fairies (opens trettleman.medium.com in a new tab)

Scholarly essay examining the film's visual composition and theatrical influences on cinema.

Medium

On The Kingdom of the Fairies

Hell's Angels (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion release featuring essay on Hughes' epic war film and revolutionary aviation sequences.

Criterion Collection

On Hell's Angels

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival guide to Cooper and Schoedsack's jungle documentary-drama.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

On Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness

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

Mother (1926) - Writers Without Money (opens writerswithoutmoney.com in a new tab)

Critical perspective on Soviet cinema's approach to revolutionary narrative.

Writers Without Money

On Mother

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

Shanghai Express (1932) (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion's analysis of this visually poetic Sternberg-Dietrich collaboration.

Criterion Collection

On Shanghai Express

Film essay for Morocco — Library of Congress National Film Preservation Board (opens loc.gov in a new tab)

Official preservation essay on this milestone film in Dietrich and Sternberg's collaboration.

On Morocco

Judge Priest (opens seeingthingssecondhand.com in a new tab)

Essay on Ford's Will Rogers comedy and its complex legacy of humor alongside racial insensitivity.

Seeing Things Secondhand

On Judge Priest

MoMA | Josef von Sternberg's Morocco — Museum of Modern Art (opens moma.org in a new tab)

Essay on Sternberg's visualizations of obsessive desire and cinematic exoticism.

On Morocco