Author: Fritzi Kramer
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Silent Cinema: An Evening With Buster Keaton
After the success of their Buster Keaton shorts set last year, Kino Lorber and Lobster Films have joined forces to release Keaton's features on DVD and Blu-ray. I was thrilled to receive copies of the films and am eager to share some of the goodies included in these releases.The films are packaged as two-disc sets with one feature on each disc. The General comes with Three Ages, Keaton's very first feature, and Steamboat Bill, Jr. comes with College
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Silent Cinema: Friendship and Family in Silent Film
Silent movies often feature sweeping romances but today we're looking at different kinds of love: friendships and the family dynamic. We'll look at a variety of families to see if this is true for silent films. Tolstoy wrote 'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.'FriendsHere is a selection of silent films that explore various types and aspects of friendship.Before he directed All Quiet on the Weste...
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Silent Cinema: A Celebration of Silent Baseball
The age of silent movies coincided with some of the most exciting years in the history of baseball. Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb set records when the movies were moving to the west coast and feature-length films were being established as the dominant form of cinematic entertainment.Naturally, it was only a matter of time before America's pastime met the silver screen. Then, as now, sports movies were popular entertainment divided roughly into two categories: the films that starred the pl...
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Silent Cinema: They Had Color Back Then
Too many people, black and white is synonymous with 'old' movies. Therefore, it comes as a surprise when they discover just how colorful the world of silent film was. Color was present in motion pictures from the very beginning. Thomas Edison's motion pictures were advertised as having hand-colored footage of dancers, their twirling dresses ideal for disguising imperfections in the applied dyes.Tinting and ToningBy far the most common method for adding...
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Silent Cinema: A Not-So Quiet Trip to the Beach
Beach movies may be intimately associated with bikinis and post-war nostalgia but the fact is motion pictures have been going on vacation to the ocean from the very beginning; surf, sand, swimsuits and an excuse for a bit of fun. Who can blame filmmakers for taking advantage of the setting?To get into the summer spirit, here are a selection of silent films that take full advantage of their beach setting, a combination of famous and obscure, comedies and dramas. Best of all, they a...
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Silent Cinema: Lost and Found Films of the Silent Era
An enormous percentage of all silent films have been lost. There are some silent films everyone is looking for (London After Midnight, for example) but most films have faded quietly away, unmourned.Let's cheer things up a bi by talking about silent films that were feared lost for decades but were rediscovered or reconstructed and are now available for all to enjoy!The Dramatic RescuesThis was a rediscovery that made headlines aroun...
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Silent Cinema: American Epics - Silent Film on a Large Scale
We are right in the middle of an age of epics with the biggest films involving superheroes, spaceships and worlds in the balance. There were other ages of epics, of course, most notably the biblical epics of the 1950s and 1960s, but the Hollywood silent movie epic is a special breed with real sets, real casts of thousands and, in some case, real danger. Yes, later films did sometimes have these elements but there is a lovely grit and opulence to the silent versions.Let's talk abou...
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Silent Cinema: Cheery Silent Films to Cure the Winter Doldrums
Winter is coming, which means hot beverages and baked goods, but it can also mean grey, dreary weather. What better way to cure the winter blues than by watching a cheerful movie? I've gathered a small selection of silent films guaranteed to make you feel all warm and gooey inside. Enjoy!That Certain Thing (1928)Director Frank Capra's distinct touch is all over this charming little romantic comedy about a would-be gold-digger (Viola Dana) and the rich ...
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Silent Cinema: Forgotten Silent Comedians
The silent era was truly a golden age of cinematic comedy. While the biggest names certainly are fun to watch, it is also pleasant delving a little deeper into the selection of silent funny people and experience comedy from performers who are not necessarily household names, even to classic movie fans.I'm going to share a few of the more obscure comedians of the silent era (and by 'obscure' I don't mean Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd) who deserve a little bit of attention. This list is ...
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Silent Cinema: Beyond Birth - American Films of 1915
2015 is, of course, the centennial year of the release of The Birth of a Nation, that controversial, pro-KKK blockbuster. Whatever their opinions of the film, one thing all classic movie fans agree on is Birth tends to dominate the conversation when discussing the motion picture industry of 1915. To give some historical context, let's look at some of the films that were released in that pivotal year.While the American film industry had been making feature films f...
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