1910s

  • Giulio Antamoro – Pinocchio (1911)

    1911-1920FantasyGiulio AntamoroItaly

    Synopsis (thanks IMDb user jsanchez)
    The old carpenter Geppeto manufactures in his workshop a wooden puppet that will soon come alive. For an hour the doll will live a thousand and one adventures: he will be judged, hanged, swallowed by a whale, taken prisoner by the Indians, saved by Canadian soldiers and, even, returned home mounted on a cannonball that flies through the sky.Read More »

  • Louis Feuillade – Le trust, ou les batailles de l’argent (1911)

    1911-1920FranceLouis FeuilladeMysterySilent

    Quote:
    It is an outstanding film that sees Feuillade experimenting with this new cinematic genre that will lead to his classics, Fantomas, Les Vampires and Judex. The film is also notable for its introduction of the actor René Navarre, who plays detective Julien Kieffer and will go on to play Fantomas.

    Le trust, ou les batailles de l’argent has a most unusual plot. The film involves the detective Julien Kieffer helping the industrialist Jacob Berwick spy on his rival Darbois in order to steal Darbois’ discovery of a formula to manufacture artificial rubber. This is the earliest example of a film that is based around corporate espionage; surprisingly, the film transcends its plot and proves to be compelling viewing.Read More »

  • Louis Feuillade – La tare (1911)

    1911-1920DramaFranceLouis FeuilladeSilent

    LA TARE is about Anna, a woman who is rescued from a Parisian dance hall to work in a charitable hospital. Over the years, she rises to become the head of the institution, but when an old habitué of the dance hall recognizes her picture, he attempts to blackmail her. When she refuses, he publishes a letter in the paper and the good local people who make up the hospital’s board demand her resignation.Read More »

  • Louis Feuillade – Bout-de-Zan vole un éléphant (1913)

    France1911-1920ComedyLouis FeuilladeSilent

    A circus is in town so Bout-de-Zan (Rene Poyen) decides to sneak off and see the elephant while everyone else is sleeping. Once there he decides the best thing to do would be to steal it and the two then set off for many misadventures.Read More »

  • Emile Chautard & Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset – Le mystère de Notre-Dame de Paris (1912)

    1911-1920Emile ChautardShort FilmSilentVictorin-Hippolyte Jasset

    Drama in which the love between Claude and Germaine is tested when Claude is falsely accused and Germaine’s father doesn’t approve of their relationship.
    Germaine Darlot’s father forbids a marriage between her and Claude Duval. Claude wants to commit suicide because of this, but when he wants to jump into the river he drives away a robber who has just robbed a rich gentleman. He drags the rich gentleman to his house, who dies there. Claude and Germaine flee to the colonies, where Claude becomes the mining director. When another woman fancies Claude, Germaine becomes jealous, suspects him of adultery, and reports Claude. He is sentenced to twenty years in prison.Read More »

  • Max Mack – Die Tango-Königin (1913)

    1911-1920GermanyMax MackSilent

    Quote:
    Hanni, the shop girl, comes from a milieu like Zille, from which she is freed, so to speak, by Ferdinand, a wealthy elderly gentleman. The first date turns into a shopping spree, and after the new clothes come a new home. Since we write the year 1913 and at that time the cinema was still chaste, Max Mack saved us the details of the Techtelmechtel. To keep the story going, they both learn the new fashion dance: Tango, which Lieutenant Lulu has tried in vain. A tango competition makes the comedy a mix-up comedy: it wins – who wouldn’t have thought it – Hanni as the tango queen.
    (International Forum of Young Films 1984)Read More »

  • Maurice Tourneur – The Poor Little Rich Girl [+extra] (1917)

    1911-1920ComedyMaurice TourneurSilentThe Birth of CinemaUSA

    Quote:
    Gwen’s family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so she is lonely and unhappy. Her father is concerned only with making money, and her mother cares only about her social position. But one day a servant’s irresponsibility creates a crisis that causes everyone to rethink what is important to them.Read More »

  • Yevgeni Bauer – Posle smerti AKA After Death (1915)

    1911-1920DramaSilentThe Birth of CinemaUSSRYevgeni Bauer

    Posle Smerti [After Death]
    A titan of the early Russian cinema, Evgenii Bauer was born in Russia in 1865. His father was a renowned zither-player, while his sisters became actresses. Bauer graduated from the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Over the years, he was an amateur actor, a caricaturist for magazines, a newspaper satirist, a theatrical impresario, and an artistic photographer. He was especially recognized for designing sets for theatrical productions, a talent that eventually brought him into the cinema when he designed the sets for Drankov and Taldykin’s commemorative historical film, Trekhsotletie Tsarstvovaniya Doma Romanovykh (The Tercentenary of the Rule of the Romanov Dynasty), released in 1913. Encouraged by Drankov and Taldykin, Bauer, then 48 years of age, graduated to directing for their company. Read More »

  • William Wauer – Der Tunnel AKA The Tunnel (1915)

    1911-1920GermanySci-FiSilentWilliam Wauer

    David Bordwell wrote:

    In 1913, the popular novelist Bernhard Kellermann published Der Tunnel. It’s not quite science-fiction, more a prophetic fiction or realist fantasy in the vein of Things to Come. The book became a best-seller and the basis of a 1915 film directed by William Wauer.Read More »

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