Reading Room

Letters in Silent Films with Julien Van Anholt (opens youtube.com in a new tab)

This talk took place on April 7, 2025, as part of Type@Cooper's Lubalin Lecture Series. The series archive is made possible by the generous support of TypeCulture. Until the advent of talking pictures in the early 1930s, cinema had been referred to as silent. To compensate for the absence of sound, films were punctuated by numerous ‘intertitles’ or ‘cards’ containing a fixed text, interspersed among the sequences of moving images. These intertitles transcribed the dialogue or provided written information deemed necessary for the action to unfold or for a narrative situation to be properly understood.

By Julien Van AnholtThe Cooper Union7 Apr 2025

Sunrise (1927) - Outtakes with Commentary (opens youtube.com in a new tab)

Outtakes from F.W. Murnau's 1927 classic, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. This comes with commentary from John Bailey.

By John Bailey26 Aug 2021

On Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

F W Murnau in Germany and Hollywood (opens youtube.com in a new tab)

Lancaster Silent Movies & Classic Film Club24 Feb 2020

On Nosferatu, Faust and 2 more

Observations on Film Art: Sound in Fritz Lang’s M (opens youtube.com in a new tab)

Criterion Collection25 Sept 2017

On Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang's Use of Sound in 'M' and 'The Testament of Dr Mabuse' (opens youtube.com in a new tab)

By Michael WoodLondon Review of Books (LRB)5 Apr 2017

On The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

American Artifacts Preview: Early Motion Pictures - Library of Congress "Paper Prints" (opens youtube.com in a new tab)

C-SPAN video on LoC paper prints and early cinema preservation.

By C-SPANC-SPAN / Library of Congress

The Wonderful World of Early Colour | BFI National Archive (opens youtube.com in a new tab)

YouTube video from the BFI channel on early colour in silent cinema.

By BFIBFI

The restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s silent films (opens bfi.org.uk in a new tab)

Video feature on restoring Hitchcock’s silent films (The Pleasure Garden through Blackmail).

BFI

Alice in Wonderland (1903) (opens youtube.com in a new tab)

Early cinema short preserved and shared by the BFI National Archive on YouTube.

BFI National Archive

Looking For Lulu - Documentary on Louise Brooks (opens youtube.com in a new tab)

1998 documentary about the life of Louise Brooks, created by Hugh Munro Neely. Narrated by Shirley MacLaine and featuring numerous interviews with friends and relatives of the legendary star, it also contains excerpts from many of her films including her first on-screen appearance.

By Hugh Munro Neely

On Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl

Movies Silently Review (opens moviessilently.com in a new tab)

On That Certain Thing

The 1930s chiller White Zombie is an experimental-horror masterpiece - Chicago Reader (opens chicagoreader.com in a new tab)

Review by Kyle Westphal

On White Zombie

Danish Silent Film: His Innocent Dupe (opens stumfilm.dk in a new tab)

On His Innocent Dupe

Danish Silent Film: A Daughter of Brahma (opens stumfilm.dk in a new tab)

On A Daughter of Brahma

Review from Pre-Code.com (opens pre-code.com in a new tab)

On Half Shot at Sunrise

Movies Silently Review (opens moviessilently.com in a new tab)

On Ashes of Vengeance

Ideology and Reality: Society and Vsevolod Pudovkin’s Mother (1926) - Senses of Cinema (opens sensesofcinema.com in a new tab)

Cara Marisa Deleon explores the tension between the film’s progressive ideals and its deeply patriarchal treatment of its female characters

On Mother

Hark! How Harold’s Angels Sing (opens davidbordwell.net in a new tab)

David Bordwell - Observations on Film Arr

On Girl Shy

Bob Dylan on Twitter (opens x.com in a new tab)

Bob knows what’s up

On The Unknown

New York Times Review (1927) (opens nytimes.com in a new tab)

By Mordaunt Hall. Sept. 24, 1927

On Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (opens moma.org in a new tab)

Notes from Charles Silver, Curator, Department of Film, Museum of Modern Art

On Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

NFPF Screening Room (opens filmpreservation.org in a new tab)

This film is also availalble to view, with additional information, at the National Film Preservation Foundation's Screening Rom

On The Toll of the Sea

NFPF Screening Room (opens filmpreservation.org in a new tab)

This film is also available through the National Film Preservation Foundation

On The Bargain

NFPF Screening Room (opens filmpreservation.org in a new tab)

You can view this film and learn more via the Screening Room of the National Film Preservation Foundation

On The Big Show