1930s

Synopsis
JEWELS is an early example of the visual fascination of dark Vienna. The film was released in 1930 as one of the last silent films under the powerful title SENSATION IM DIAMANTENCLUB. The screenplay was based on motifs from Hoffmann’s story ‘Das Fräulein von Scuderi’ (1819), which is considered the first crime story in German. Director Hans Brückner mixes some elements of the genre in his crime film, the palette ranges from classic ‘Whodunit’ to detective to elements of horror film, focuses on shadows, lighting effects, cross-fading according to German and drastic wrestling matches based on the American pattern. As a ‘modern’ script idea, the dissociative movement disorder, i.e. the psychological paralysis of a victim in shock, impresses a motif that will later prove to be indispensable for the horror repertoire. (Letterboxd)Read More »

A terminally ill woman and a debonair murderer facing execution meet and fall in love on a trans-Pacific crossing, each without knowing the other’s secret.Read More »

Avant-garde home movie, creators unkown, attributed to John C. Hecker.

Quote:
“This mysterious film documents a neatly appointed apartment and the spartan existence of its inhabitants. A woman moves through the rooms. She pours two glasses of wine, sits, reads a magazine, and combs her hair. All the while material possessions surround her, ominously dominating the environment.” (Bruce Posner)Read More »

Quote:
“Steiner is interested in film’s capacity to invigorate everyday sight, to alert viewers to the simple, magical visual pleasures available in nearly any circumstance. The film is divided into sequences that focus on specific kinds of imagery in and around ocean surf.” – Scott MacDonald

Marc Blitzstein’s original chamber music score was prepared by the composer under commission by Alma Wertheimer for the 1931 Coplan/Sessions’ ‘Film and Music’ program at the Broardhurst Theatre, NYC.Read More »

Quote:
Featuring Mary Binney Montgomery. “ORAMUNDE is an illustration in dance of the tale of Pelléas et Melisande, a story of two star-crossed lovers. The film confirms the belief that archetypal imagination is one of the mind’s primitive modes. Stripping the story to its core is a means of penetrating imagination.” – R. Bruce ElderRead More »

Quote:
“While obeying the biblical account concerning Lot and his family and the function of the two angels who investigate Sodom at the Lord’s behest, the Watson-Webber work uses all its creative accents to depict the sensual responses of the male homosexuals of Sodom to the physical beauty of the foremost angel. Naturally the angel repulses their advances and proceeds (not finding fifty chaste persons present) to condemn Sodom to the flames, but not before we have witnessed, at some length, the orgiastic pleasures of the all-male population.”- Parker TylerRead More »

Quote:
“This satire on religious pretension was collaboration between the Group Theater and the newly formed Nykino. Its creation of a self-reflexive illusion within an illusion distinguishes it not only from the commercial cinema but from various arenas of experimental and revolutionary film that had developed by 1934.” – Scott MacDonaldRead More »

Quote:
This, the first Enoken film, was made in 1934. Production was proposed to Pierre Brillante (PB), Enoken’s theatrical troupe based at the Shochikuza Theater in Asakusa, by Iwao Mori, a producer at P.C.L. (Photo Science Laboratory), a new film company that had just been established in 1932. P.C.L. was known for its modern style, as exemplified by its first film, “Hoyoyohi Jinsei” (1933). For Enoken, who was strongly influenced by Hollywood musicals and Broadway reviews, the prospect of making a P.C.L. film that would be released in a Western-style theater was a no-brainer. Therefore, he chose Kajiro Yamamoto, who had been active at Nikkatsu Kyoto, to direct the film. The reason for this was “because he understands musical scores.Read More »

College town life gets turned upside down after a button-down botany professor secretly weds a sizzling night-club singer.Read More »