Reading Room

film essay for Foolish Wives — Library of Congress (opens loc.gov in a new tab)

Library of Congress essay on Stroheim's million-dollar Monte Carlo con artist drama and Gothic sensibility.

On Foolish Wives

100 Years Ago Today: Harold Lloyd's First Feature, The Original 'Grandma's Boy' (opens travsd.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Essay on Lloyd's pioneering feature-length comedy mixing slapstick with character development and heart.

Trav S.D. Blog

On Grandma's Boy

film essay for 'Nanook of the North' — Library of Congress (opens loc.gov in a new tab)

Library of Congress essay on Flaherty's pioneering documentary raising questions of ethics and representation.

On Nanook of the North

The Incredible Architecture of Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood (opens trettleman.medium.com in a new tab)

Essay on Dwan's most expensive silent film featuring Lloyd Wright's castle set and Fairbanks' athleticism.

Medium

On Robin Hood

A Gag Every Minute: Buster Keaton in The Blacksmith (1922) (opens thewonderfulworldofcinema.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Keaton's comedic techniques and endless string of gags around the blacksmith theme.

The Wonderful World of Cinema

On The Blacksmith

The Electric House (1922) - The Electric House (1920) — Turner Classic Movies (opens tcm.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of Keaton's automation comedy and examination of human error in design.

On The Electric House

The Three Must-Get-Theres (1922) (opens letterboxd.com in a new tab)

Max Linder's parody of The Three Musketeers with sight gags and anachronistic humor.

Letterboxd

On The Three Must-Get-Theres

A Woman of Paris: Whatever Became of Marie St. Clair? (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion essay on Chaplin's dramatic masterpiece exploring modern perspectives on female independence.

The Criterion Collection

On A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate

A Cinema History: Cœur fidèle (1923) The Faithful Heart (opens acinemahistory.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Jean Epstein's pursuit of photogénie and innovative camerawork in melodramatic setting.

A Cinema History

On Cœur fidèle

Abel Gance's La roue (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion essay on Gance's innovative rapid montage and literary influences from Victor Hugo and Émile Zola.

The Criterion Collection

On La Roue

Our Hospitality: Buster Keaton and gravity (opens rogerebert.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Keaton's physical comedy and dangerous stunts in this family feud melodrama.

Roger Ebert

On Our Hospitality

The Crux of Buster Keaton's Our Hospitality Is Ridiculous Tradition (opens trettleman.medium.com in a new tab)

Essay exploring themes of ingrained Southern hospitality tradition as social satire.

Medium

On Our Hospitality

The third genius of silent film (opens rogerebert.com in a new tab)

Great Movie essay examining Harold Lloyd's iconic clock sequence and visual metaphor for the American Dream.

Roger Ebert

On Safety Last!

Safety Last! - High-Flying Harold (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion essay on Lloyd's overlooked genius and his place alongside Chaplin and Keaton.

The Criterion Collection

On Safety Last!

The Covered Wagon (1923) Film Review (opens greatbooksguy.com in a new tab)

Analysis of the first epic Western and its influence on the genre's development through authentic pioneer wagons.

Great Books Guy

On The Covered Wagon

Mabel Normand's Star Image Culminated in The Extra Girl (opens trettleman.medium.com in a new tab)

Essay examining Normand's comedic talents and the film's place at the end of her career.

Medium

On The Extra Girl

The Pilgrim (1923) - Chaplin: Film by Film (opens chaplinfilmbyfilm.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Chaplin's gentle satire on small-town religion with classical theatrical roots.

Chaplin: Film by Film

On The Pilgrim

Foreplays #8: Germaine Dulac's The Smiling Madame Beudet (opens mubi.com in a new tab)

Essay on Dulac's feminist cinema exploring a wife's subjectivity through visual effects and symbolism.

MUBI Notebook

On The Smiling Madame Beudet

THE STREET (Karl Grune, 1923) (opens grunes.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of German Expressionist street film with hallucinatory visuals of Berlin and innovative lighting.

Dennis Grunes

On The Street

Out of the Vaults: The Ten Commandments, 1923 (opens film-foundation.org in a new tab)

Essay on Cecil B. DeMille's revolutionary biblical epic with innovative special effects.

The Film Foundation

On The Ten Commandments

Watch the First Russian Science Fiction Film, Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) (opens openculture.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Soviet revolutionary science fiction and its bold Martian design vocabulary.

Open Culture

On Aelita: Queen of Mars

Bombast: D.W. Griffith's America (opens filmcomment.com in a new tab)

Critical essay on Griffith's expensive historical epic about the American Revolution.

Film Comment

On America

Watch Entr'Acte: René Clair's Dadaist Masterpiece, Scored by Erik Satie (opens openculture.com in a new tab)

Essay on Clair's Dada cinema with camera tricks and avant-garde performances by Duchamp and Man Ray.

Open Culture

On Entr'acte

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

Great Movie essay on Stroheim's vision of capitalism inscribing chaos through human degradation.

Roger Ebert

On Greed