Reading Room

Morocco (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion release with essay on Sternberg's direction of Dietrich in her triumphant American debut.

Criterion Collection

On Morocco

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

Bird of Paradise (1932): King Vidor's Exotic Adventure, Starring Dolores del Río and Joel McCrea (opens emanuellevy.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of Vidor's exploration of forbidden desires around race and sexuality in pre-Code Hawaii.

Emanuel Levy

On Bird of Paradise

Flesh and the Devil - San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival resource on Garbo and Gilbert's chemistry and film legacy.

On Flesh and the Devil

The Regeneration (1915) Film Synopsis and Discussion (opens obscurehollywood.net in a new tab)

Analysis of Walsh's adaptation of Owen Frawley Kildare autobiography establishing the gangster film genre.

Obscure Hollywood

On The Regeneration

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

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

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 FILM PATROL: The NFR Project #35: William S. Hart, cowboy hero (opens filmpatrol.com in a new tab)

Essay on Hart's contribution to Western authenticity and National Film Registry preservation significance.

The Film Patrol

On The Bargain

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

One A.M. (7 August 1916) (opens chaplinfilmbyfilm.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Detailed examination of Chaplin's unique drunken solo performance and interaction with inanimate objects.

Chaplin: Film by Film

On One A.M.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The First Horror Film, Georges Méliès' The Haunted Castle (1896) (opens openculture.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Méliès' pioneering horror film and its technical innovations in stop-motion effects.

Open Culture

On Le manoir du diable

Fun Facts And Murky Legends About 'The Arrival Of The Train At La Ciotat Station' (1896) (opens silentology.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Critical examination of legends surrounding the film and analysis of its composition and reception.

Silent-ology

On The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

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