Silent

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One of the earliest surviving silent comedies by master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, A Straightforward Boy is a rambunctious, adorable kidnapping caper now screening in a new restoration that restores to it eight long-lost and recently rediscovered minutes. The short features one of the all-time great child actors, Tomio Aoki, at age six and in his first starring role as the titular boy all too happy to be abducted – so long as his petty-crook captors (Tatsuo Saitô and Takeshi Sakamoto) are willing to endure his company. Aoki’s extraordinary career would go on to include over 300 films, from Ozu’s 1932 I Was Born, But… to Seijun Suzuki’s 2001 Pistol Opera.Read More »

A stirring tale of romance and deception staged on an epic scale by director Frank Lloyd, The Sea Hawk (1924) captures the majesty and vigor of silent cinema at its most spectacular. Based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini, the author of Scaramouche and Captain Blood, the film is a swashbuckling epic of the highest order, spanning several years and continents as it tells the story of Oliver Tressilian, a British nobleman falsely accused of murder, and dramatizes his valiant efforts to restore honor to his name.Read More »

The story of a frozen girl who tries to sell matches during Christmas and dreams about a toy store. The film is based on the 1845 short story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen.Read More »

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A 20-minute documentary of Jewish settlement in the Yevpatoria district of the Crimea. Exhibiting a certain amount of Jewish irony, Jews on the Land opens with scenes of a war-devastated shtetl (all that is left of the central market is a single pathetic fish stall), than shows an elderly Jew wandering about an even more desolate wilderness. Soon, however, sod-brick settlements rise and, as irrigation ditch criss-cross the once –barren plain, the now- productivised Jews are equally transformed: a new-born baby is named Forget-You-Sorrow. Tractor drivers and Young Pioneers’ are given particular pride of place and the film-makers emphasise that, among other livestock, these new Jewish peasants are raising pigs.
“Inside the film factory” by Richard Taylor, Ian ChristieRead More »

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Lionel and Julian both love Camilla, but she marries Lionel. After half a year, she falls ill and dies. Julian visits her in the tomb, and kissing her hand seems to bring her back to life. Back at the palace, Lionel is nowhere to be found. His heartbreak has prompted him to become a hermit. When Julian sees how Camilla is suffering from Lionel’s absence, he decides to look for him. During a golden feast in honour of Camilla’s return, Lionel comes home. After a touching reunion, the generous Julian once again remains alone.Read More »

An actress becomes the king’s mistress and persuades him to convert the palace to a servicemen’s home.Read More »

A fantastically atmospheric but rarely seen missing link in the development of Tod Browning’s artistry, set amid his favored milieu of shadowy sideshows and clever criminals, The Mystic provides a striking showcase for silent-era diva Aileen Pringle, who sports a series of memorably outré looks (courtesy of art deco designer Erté) as Zara, a phony psychic in a Hungarian carnival who, under the guidance of a Svengali-like con man (Conway Tearle), crashes—and proceeds to swindle—American high society. Browning’s fascination with the weird is on full display in the eerie séance sequences, while his subversive moral ambiguity extends surprising sympathy to even the most seemingly irredeemable of antiheroes.Read More »

PLOT DESCRIPTION
French filmmaker Jean Renoir would later remark that he directed the sensual dance fantasy Charleston because he’d “just discovered American jazz.” He also had some stock footage left over from his previous silent success Nana, and decided it would be provident to fashion a new film from these leavings. Even without the benefit of sound, one can hear the jazzy rhythms of Charleston through the exuberant gyrations of an African-American dancer whom Renoir and his star, actress Catherine Hessling, had discovered for this picture. Originally titled Sur un air de Charleston, the film was also released as Charleston Parade in English-speaking countries. In some areas of the US and Europe, the film was greeted with protests from censorship boards who simply couldn’t appreciate the aesthetic value in Catherine Hessling’s near-nude dance numbers.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

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