1910s

Navy captain Avanti Planetaros is inspired by his astronomer-father to travel through outer space to reach other worlds. He becomes an aviator, and, along with the young scientist Dr. Krafft, the driving force behind the construction of a spaceship. Despite opposition from the mocking Professor Dubius, Planetaros gathers a crew of fearless men and takes off. During the long voyage, the crew becomes restless; a mutiny is narrowly avoided. Finally they reach Mars, and discover that the planet is inhabited by a people who have reached a higher stage of development, free of disease, sorrow, violence, covetousness, sexual urges, and the fear of death. Avanti falls in love with Marya, daughter of the Prince of Wisdom, the head of the Martians. Marya shares his feelings, and decides to return with him in order to bring the wisdom of the Martians to the backward Earthlings.Read More »

CinemaSerf, IMDB wrote:
Bruno Decarli (“Count Greven”) is quite good here, as the nobleman who likes to collect works of art. When in Java, he alights on a mystical totem and decides he has to have it – despite the objections of the local priest (Conrad Veidt) whom he swiftly despatches. That’s not the end of our holy man, however, as he haunts his killer with portents of impeding doom… Veidt looks superb as the spirit; his (heavily made up) facial features – always hugely effective – are lit with added poignancy and the direction from Robert Wiene builds a good degree of tension as the denouement, quite literally, looms.Read More »

A stranger comes to work at widow Halla’s farm. Halla and the stranger fall in love, but when he is revealed as Eyvind, an escaped thief forced into crime by his family’s starvation, they flee and become two of the many outlaws of Iceland’s mountains.Read More »

The Buddhist priest wants the Daughter of the Daimyo to become a priestess at the Forbidden Garden. The Daimyo thinks if he were in Europe that his daughter should decide on her own, but he is denounced and has to commit harakiri. She meets Olaf, a European officer, falls in love and marries him, but after a few months he has to return to Europe. She gives birth to a child and is waiting for him, while he marries in Europe. When he comes back to Japan four years later, he is accompanied by his European wife…Read More »

A desperate, haggard-looking man puts a message into a bottle, and is able to throw it into the sea just as he is shot by an arrow. Some time later, well-known sportsman Kay Hoog announces to a large audience that he has found the message, which tells of a lost civilization that possesses an immense treasure. Hoog immediately plans an expedition to find it. But Lio Sha, the head of a criminal organization known as the Spiders, plans her own expedition, and she is determined to get the treasure for herself.Read More »

A young woman must resist the charms of a handsome stranger and stay single if she wants to inherit a fortune.Read More »

Danish Film Institute wrote:
Medical student Walter Fahrich has only two goals in life – to become rich and famous. In a dream, he is approached by Mephisto, who offers him exactly those things for ten years…Read More »

Richard Cross, Letterboxd wrote:
Evil businessman Lorenzo (L. Rogers Lytton) doesn’t handle rejection by a waitress (Rosemary Theby) well, and makes it his life’s work to ruin both her and Miguel (Leo Delaney), the honest worker who comes to her rescue and becomes her husband. At 39 minutes, Mills of the Gods doesn’t quite qualify as a feature, but is a lot longer than most films from 1912, and fills its running time with enough incident – including arson, poisoning, kidnapping, insanity and eviction – to fill a couple of movies.Read More »

It tells about young painter Tchartkoff who bought a weird portrait represented an old man. The portrait appeared to be unfinished, but the power of the handling was striking. The eyes were the most remarkable picture of all: it seemed as though the full power of the artist’s brush had been lavished upon them. At home Tchartkoff moistened a sponge with water, passed it over the picture several times, washed off nearly all the accumulated and incrusted dust and dirt, hung it on the wall before him, wondering yet more at the remarkable workmanship. The whole face had gained new life, and the eyes gazed at him so that he shuddered; and, springing back, he exclaimed in a voice of surprise: “It looks with human eyes!” This was no copy from Nature; it was life, the strange life which might have lighted up the face of a dead man, risen from the grave… And there was only the beginning of horror that was coming to young painter.Read More »