Silent

  • Ivan Pravov & Olga Preobrazhenskaya – Kashtanka (1926)

    1921-1930DramaIvan PravovOlga PreobrazhenskayaSilentSoviet silent cinemaUSSR

    Quote:
    Mariann Lewinsky (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020): “Kashtanka by Olga Preobrazhenskaya, print 1995, a film of winter, of night and snow, of children and animals, a film about loss, a masterpiece”, read my viewing notes from 2012. My Prague colleagues had it screened for me because they knew I was interested in colour in silent cinema, and they knew a tinted Soviet silent film to be a rare item. I had never heard the name of the director. My encounter with her work was enhanced by the shock of discovering that a major director who had reached international audiences with Baby ryazanskie and Tikhiy Don (The Quiet Don) around 1930 could disappear without a trace from official film history. In 2013, Il Cinema Ritrovato dedicated a retrospective to her.” Mariann Lewinsky (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020)Read More »

  • Achille Consalvi – Champagne Caprice (1919)

    1911-1920Achille ConsalviFantasyItalySilent

    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 »

  • Ernst Lubitsch – Schuhpalast Pinkus AKA Pinkus’ Shoe Palace (1916)

    1911-1920ComedyErnst LubitschGermanySilent

    Sally Pinkus is an German-Jewish boy who takes a job as a shoe store clerk after being expelled from school for goofing around. Soon fired for trying to court the owner’s daughter, Pinkus lands another job in a more ‘upmarket’ shoe salon, only to be fired again, before charming a rich benefactress to fund his ultimate dream: Pinkus’ Shoe Palace.Read More »

  • Pavel Kolomoytsev – Chyornaya kozha AKA Black Skin (1930) (HD)

    1921-1930DramaPavel KolomoytsevSilentSoviet silent cinemaUkraine

    Quote:
    Three American workers are dismissed from the Ford plant during the Depression, and come to the Soviet Union. Not wanting to live with a man of “inferior race” one (Sam) kicks the other (Tom) out of the dorm. The Soviet workers are outraged by the American’s ugly act, declare a boycott of Sam and convince him to abandon racial prejudices and make peace with Tom.Read More »

  • Semyon Timoshenko – Napoleon-gaz (1925)

    1921-1930Sci-FiSemyon TimoshenkoSilentSoviet silent cinemaUSSR

    Synopsis:A squadron of American warplanes, armed with gas developed by Corsican chemist Gannimer (dubbed “Napoleon Gas”) flies to Leningrad. American workers inform soviet comrades about the impending catastrophe. But the air attack on the city has already begun, and the assault troops of the enemy capture one suburb of the city after the other. The Red Army is organizing the defense and reflects the attack of the enemy with gas-armed drones

    … All these events turn out to be a dream of a girl from Komsomol, who came to the farm to agitate for Aviahim.Read More »

  • Leo Mittler – Jenseits der Straße – Eine Tragödie des Alltags aka Harbor Drift (1929)

    1921-1930DramaGermanyLeo MittlerSilentWeimar Republic cinema

    Quote:The film itself is a small wonder to behold. It’s cut in a blazing speed, but at the same time manages to integrate social realities in a documentary style, to mix satire, humor and some artistic lighting, in short it’s one of the glorious late silent era masterpieces and all the more scandalous that it’s completely out of circulation. The story itself is very simple, a lady loses a pearl necklace on the street, an old beggar picks it up, observed by a prostitute who tries to outwit him, while a third younger man out of a job who comes to the beggar’s shack complicates the situation.Read More »

  • Amo Bek-Nazaryan – Dom na vulkane AKA House on the Volcano (1929)

    1921-1930Amo Bek-NazaryanDramaSilentUSSR

    Quote:
    To celebrate the centenary of Armenian film, we present a new restoration of this neglected silent classic by Hamo Bek-Nazaryan, the founding father of the nation’s cinema. A co-production of the Armenian and Azerbaijani national studios, this historical melodrama recounts the brutal suppression of an oil workers’ strike in pre-revolutionary Baku. Bek-Nazaryan’s mastery of the silent screen is on full display here, from the striking use of close-ups and densely-plotted narrative intrigue to the show-stopping devastation of the finale. Presented with a new score by Juliet MerchantRead More »

  • Various – Forbidden Movies from the Brothels of Paris (2004)

    2001-2010EroticaFranceSilentVarious

    Description
    This anthology of eroticism from the 1920’s features a collection of vignettes that were shown in the projection rooms of famous Parisian bordellos such as the Chabanais, the Panier Fleuri, the Sphinx and the Temple of Venus.

    If you’re familiar with Cult Epics’ Vintage Erotica series, you get an idea of what it’s all about. However, contrary to what we could see in the middle of the century—see anno 1950—where the films were making a slight effort at developing exposition, here the settings are as basic as possible, usually limited to a bed where one to three protagonists are experimenting with various positions and toys. This is as pornographic as smut can be and the faded black and white look gives it a creepier look, at the exception of one segment where the contrast is so high it becomes almost—unintentionally—artistic.Read More »

  • Various – Vintage Erotica Anno 1920 (2006)

    2001-2010EroticaFranceMax van NordenQueer Cinema(s)Silent

    Cult Epics presents all nineteen shorts contained in this collection in their original aspect ratios. The shorts where originally filmed on 8mm, 9.5mm and 16mm film stock. The quality of each short varies with nicks, scratches, fading and various other print damage cropping up through out. The quality of these shorts is about on par with most silent films from this era that have been released on DVD. What I find most amazing of all is that these shorts have even survived through the years as these films range from seventy five to eighty five years old so print damage is expected. These shorts are without any spoken dialog. Each one is accompanied by music which sounds clean and free of any major sound defects. The French titles cards for these silent shorts have not been translated so no subtitles have been included for this release. Read More »

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