Reading Room

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

Beginner's Guide to Alfred Hitchcock: Murder! (1930) (opens talkfilmsociety.com in a new tab)

Guide to Hitchcock's exploration of theatrical spaces and wrongful accusation themes.

Talk Film Society

On Murder!

The Impossible Voyage (opens scifist.net in a new tab)

Critical essay on the film's significance in science fiction cinema history.

Scifist

On The Impossible Voyage

BFI Screenonline: Rescued by Rover (1905) (opens screenonline.org.uk in a new tab)

British Film Institute analysis of the film's significance in early British cinema.

BFI Screenonline

On Rescued by Rover

The first fully animated film ever, the 1908 'Fantasmagorie' was made by Émile Cohl (opens thevintagenews.com in a new tab)

Historical article on Cohl's pioneering animation and its conceptual uniqueness.

The Vintage News

On Fantasmagorie

The height of visual extravagance (opens rogerebert.com in a new tab)

Ebert's great movies essay on Sternberg's surrealist approach to historical drama.

Roger Ebert

On The Scarlet Empress

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

AN INN IN TOKYO (Yasujiro Ozu, 1935) (opens grunes.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of Ozu's transitional film blending silent melodrama with postwar formalism.

Dennis Grunes

On An Inn in Tokyo

Minding the Gaps: 'The Devil Is a Woman' (1935) (opens thereveal.substack.com in a new tab)

Essay on Sternberg's final Dietrich collaboration and its extreme aestheticism and pessimism.

The Reveal

On The Devil Is a Woman

The New Gulliver (opens neweastcinema.pitt.edu in a new tab)

Essay on Ptushko's pioneering stop-motion animated feature with its Communist allegory.

New East Cinema Symposium

On The New Gulliver

Home Movies: By the Bluest of Seas (opens filmcomment.com in a new tab)

Essay on Barnet's joyful romance combining Soviet realism with musical theater elements.

Film Comment

On By the Bluest of Seas

DISORDER IN THE COURT (1936) -- ThreeStooges.net (opens threestooges.net in a new tab)

Overview of this Three Stooges courtroom comedy short known for anarchic slapstick.

ThreeStooges.net

On Disorder in the Court

My Man Godfrey: The Right Kind of People (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion essay on La Cava's screwball comedy and its Depression-era commentary on class.

Criterion Collection

On My Man Godfrey

The man who came to buttle (opens rogerebert.com in a new tab)

Ebert's great movies essay celebrating this quintessential 1930s screwball comedy.

Roger Ebert

On My Man Godfrey

Westfront 1918 (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion release with essay on Pabst's pacifist war film and its innovative sound design.

Criterion Collection

On Westfront 1918

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

City Lights movie review & film summary (opens rogerebert.com in a new tab)

Ebert's essay on Chaplin's masterpiece and its lyrical romanticism and defiance of sound cinema.

Roger Ebert Great Movies

On City Lights

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

Festival documentation of Keaton's personal favorite and commercially successful comedy.

On Battling Butler

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

City Lights (1931) | The Definitives (opens deepfocusreview.com in a new tab)

Critical essay on Chaplin's final silent film and its combination of comedy and profound emotion.

Deep Focus Review

On City Lights

Out of the Vaults: Abraham Lincoln, 1930 (opens film-foundation.org in a new tab)

Analysis of this early sound biography and its historical inaccuracies alongside its artistic merits.

Film Foundation

On Abraham Lincoln

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

Festival analysis of Dupont's revolutionary mobile camera techniques.

On Variety

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

Festival resource on Vidor's romantic tragedy and Gish's acclaimed performance.

On La Bohème