1911-1920

  • Léonce Perret – Le mystère des roches de Kador (1913)

    Léonce Perret1911-1920DramaFranceSilent
    Le mystère des roches de Kador (1913)
    Le mystère des roches de Kador (1913)

    Synopsis: Fernand de Kéranic wants to eliminate his cousin and ward in order to receive her inheritance.Read More »

  • Stellan Rye & Paul Wegener – Der Student von Prag AKA The Student of Prague (1913)

    Stellan Rye1911-1920FantasyGermanyPaul WegenerSilent
    Der Student von Prag (1913)
    Der Student von Prag (1913)

    Synopsis
    A poor student rescues a beautiful countess and soon becomes obsessed with her. A sorcerer makes a deal with the young man to give him fabulous wealth and anything he wants, if he will sign his name to a contract. The student hurriedly signs the contract, but doesn’t know what he’s in for…Read More »

  • Mauritz Stiller – Herr Arnes pengar aka Sir Arne’s Treasure (1919)

    Mauritz Stiller1911-1920Scandinavian Silent CinemaSilentSweden
    Herr Arnes pengar (1919)
    Herr Arnes pengar (1919)

    In 16th century Sweden, the lives of three Scottish mercenaries and a vicar’s family intersect after a crime forever alters a small coastal town. As the three try to escape, they find themselves trapped when all ships are frozen in ice.Read More »

  • Nino Oxilia – Papa (1915)

    1911-1920ItalyNino OxiliaShort FilmSilent

    Papà is a more comedic film where Giorgetta (Menichelli) is caught between a father and son, and more broadly, two ways of life: the Count di Larzac, Parisian man of leisure, and his rustic son Giovanni, who has been living in the same rural village as Giorgetta. This film is an adaptation of a 1911 three-act stage comedy by Robert de Flers and Gaston Arman de Caillavet, also called Papa.Read More »

  • Abel Gance – J’accuse! AKA I Accuse! (1919)

    1911-1920Abel GanceFranceSilentWarWorld War One

    Edith, a young French woman, is in love with a poet but is forced by her father into a marriage with a much older man. Edith is captured by the Germans and endures multiple rapes that result in her becoming pregnant. Edith’s husband initially thinks that the poet is the father of her child, and the story ends in tragedy with both men seeing action in the trenches.Read More »

  • Rudi Bach – Pantoffelhelden (1912)

    1911-1920ComedyGermanyRudi BachSilent

    Quote:
    After reading a pamphlet urging everyone to go to war, Werner falls into disagreement with his future father-in-law. A number of friends dress up as soldiers and give the father-in-law a letter in which he is summoned by the army. At his border post he is captured by ‘the enemy’.Read More »

  • D.W. Griffith – Heart Beats of Long Ago (1911)

    Drama1911-1920D.W. GriffithSilentUSA

    Biograph Films advertisement, 1911 wrote:
    A Story of the Fourteenth Century — This story takes place at a time when there existed among the nobility of Europe feuds between the great houses, and in this case the daughter of one house has given her heart to the son of the master of the rival domain. He braves everything to see his sweetheart…Read More »

  • D.W. Griffith – The Birth of a Nation (1915)

    Drama1911-1920D.W. GriffithSilentUSA

    The Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman) is a 1915 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and based on the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon, Jr. Griffith also co-wrote the screenplay (with Frank E. Woods), and co-produced the film (with Harry Aitken). It was released on February 8, 1915. The film was originally presented in two parts, separated by an intermission.
    The film chronicles the relationship of two families in Civil War and Reconstruction-era America: the pro-Union northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy Southern Camerons over the course of several years. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is dramatized.Read More »

  • Achille Consalvi – Champagne Caprice (1919)

    Italy1911-1920Achille ConsalviFantasySilent

    Synopsis:
    Maude, engaged to a doctor, was adopted years earlier by the president of an anti-alcoholic league. She becomes infatuated with a Gypsy violinist, who, after kidnapping and restraining the girl’s fiancé takes her to his villa and, to try to make her give in to his coaxing, has some gypsies offer her champagne.

    Whilst incomplete and suffering from a certain amount of nitrate decomp – there are around four quite bad bouts of this, if memory serves – enough of the film survives to provide a coherent, if whimsical, narrative with pleasing performances and some charming special effects. There is much to recommend the film stylistically with a good mix of long, medium and close-up shots, some thoughtful shot compositions and several instances where characters exit shot toward the side of the camera, providing a candid feel.Read More »

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