Reading Room

The Disappearance of the Working Class from the Cinematic Screen — Widok. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture (opens pismowidok.org in a new tab)

Scholarly article examining the representation of working-class labor in early cinema and its historical significance.

On Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

A Silent Giant: 1923's The Hunchback of Notre Dame — American Cinematographer (opens theasc.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Lon Chaney's legendary makeup artistry and pantomime performance as Quasimodo.

On The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Rounders (7 September 1914) (opens chaplinfilmbyfilm.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Chaplin and Arbuckle's drunken duo comedy examining visual gags and physical performance.

Chaplin: Film by Film

On The Rounders

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

Even Incomplete, the First Alice in Wonderland Film Charms (opens trettleman.medium.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of Hepworth's adaptation and its innovative special effects for fantasy cinema.

Medium

On Alice in Wonderland

The Avenging Conscience (1914) | and you call yourself a scientist!? — Film Criticism Blog (opens andyoucallyourselfascientist.com in a new tab)

Deep analysis of Griffith's horror masterpiece featuring innovative use of cutaways and Poe's literary influence on cinema.

On The Avenging Conscience

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

Critical analysis of Lang's masterpiece and its prescient warnings about mass justice.

Deep Focus Review

On M

Caught in a Cabaret (27 April 1914) (opens chaplinfilmbyfilm.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Critical essay on Chaplin's early comic performance and character development.

Chaplin: Film by Film

On Caught in a Cabaret

WEEK 11: Murder! (1930) (opens weeklyhitch.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Hitchcock's innovative use of voice-over and sound design in this early talkie.

Weekly Hitch

On Murder!

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

Now and Forever 1934 review-how to weaponize cuteness (opens cornerstorecinema.net in a new tab)

Essay on how the film uses Shirley Temple's innocence as counterpoint to adult corruption and crime.

Corner Store Cinema

On Now and Forever

Obscure Films: The Avenging Conscience (1914) (opens silentology.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Critical examination of Griffith's adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe with analysis of early cinematic psychology and horror techniques.

Silent-ology

On The Avenging Conscience

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 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