Reading Room

Thoughts On: 'The Four Troublesome Heads' (1898) (opens silentology.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of Méliès' pioneering use of multiple exposure and substitution splicing techniques.

Silent-ology

On The Four Troublesome Heads

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

Thoughts On: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (opens silentology.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Mary Pickford's performance in this literary adaptation examining collaboration with director Marshall Neilan.

Silent-ology

On Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

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

La fée aux choux | film by Guy-Blachê (opens britannica.com in a new tab)

Encyclopedia entry on Alice Guy-Blachê's pioneering narrative film, the first fiction film ever made.

Britannica

On The Cabbage-Patch Fairy

BFI Screenonline: As Seen Through A Telescope (1900) (opens screenonline.org.uk in a new tab)

Critical analysis of George Albert Smith's innovative use of point-of-view cinematography and film grammar.

BFI Screenonline

On As Seen Through a Telescope

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

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

People on Sunday (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion release with essay on this Weimar-era film by young filmmakers including Siodmak and Ulmer.

Criterion Collection

On People on Sunday

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

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

Festival documentation of Capra and Langdon's comedic masterpiece.

On The Strong Man

Love and Death in Hollywood: Desertion and Redemption in Film Adaptations of A Farewell to Arms — Literature Film Quarterly (opens lfq.salisbury.edu in a new tab)

Academic essay analyzing themes of desertion and redemption across film adaptations of Hemingway's novel.

On A Farewell to Arms

WEEK 10: Juno And The Paycock (1930) (opens weeklyhitch.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Hitchcock's second talkie and its theatrical staginess in cinematic adaptation.

Weekly Hitch

On Juno and the Paycock

The Art of Lotte Reiniger: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (opens thelastdrivein.com in a new tab)

Critical appreciation of Reiniger's artistic vision and technical mastery.

The Last Drive In

On The Adventures of Prince Achmed

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