Reading Room

Nana 1926, directed by Jean Renoir | Film review (opens timeout.com in a new tab)

Review of Renoir's most expensive production and artistic achievement.

TimeOut

On Nana

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

Festival resource on Hitchcock's directorial debut and early thematic concerns.

On The Pleasure Garden

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

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

City Lights (1931) (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion release with comprehensive essay on this greatest achievement of Chaplin's career.

Criterion Collection

On City Lights

A Farewell to Arms: a greater film than Hemingway knew — BFI (opens bfi.org.uk in a new tab)

Critical essay examining Frank Borzage's 1932 adaptation and how it differs from Hemingway's vision.

On A Farewell to Arms

Ozu's Space Adventures: Editing in PASSING FANCY (opens criterionchannel.com in a new tab)

Essay examining Ozu's distinctive editing and compositional techniques in this family comedy.

The Criterion Channel

On Passing Fancy

Apocalypse Later Film Reviews: The Rounders (1914) (opens apocalypselaterfilm.com in a new tab)

Critical review of the sole Chaplin-Arbuckle teaming praised as one of the best Keystone comedies.

Apocalypse Later Film Reviews

On The Rounders

The Immigrant Is Chaplin's Most Famous Short for a Reason (opens trettleman.medium.com in a new tab)

Essay analyzing the film's social criticism of immigration and American Dream mythology through Chaplin's persona.

Medium

On The Immigrant

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

Twenty Minutes of Love (1914) (opens mubi.com in a new tab)

Film database entry with critical context on Chaplin's first directorial effort and creative control negotiations.

MUBI

On Twenty Minutes of Love

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

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 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

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

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

The Astronomer's Dream (opens grokipedia.com in a new tab)

Comprehensive entry on Méliès' film examining dream sequences and proto-surrealist visual techniques.

Grokipedia

On The Astronomer's Dream