Peter Pan 1924 // USA // Herbert Brenon Letterboxd (LINK) What a blast! I certainly didn’t expect so much fun from this dated fantasy silent film, but once the human-sized dog Nana popped up, I knew I’m in for a treat. I guess most of us are quite familiar with the story of The Boy… Continue reading Peter Pan (Herbert Brenon, 1924)
Earth 1930 // Soviet Union // Alexander Dovzhenko Letterboxd (LINK) Alexander Dovzhenko‘s masterpiece comes across as a celebration of the cycle of life, growth, and death, as well as a visual poem on nature and agriculture in Ukraine, but it’s also no less a propaganda on collectivization and liquidation of the kulaks as a… Continue reading Earth (Alexander Dovzhenko, 1930)
City Girl 1930 // USA // F. W. Murnau Letterboxd (LINK) CITY GIRL is the last out of the three films F. W. Murnau made in America for Fox Film, following the phenomenal, highly regarded silent film SUNRISE (1927), and the now lost film 4 DEVILS (1928). CITY GIRL was made at the wrong time since… Continue reading City Girl (F. W. Murnau, 1930)
Man with a Movie Camera 1929 // Soviet Union // Dziga Vertov Letterboxd (LINK) In Dziga Vertov‘s Kino-Eye manifesto, he wrote “I am the Kino-Eye. I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, show you the world only as I can see it. Now and forever I free myself from human immobility. I am in constant… Continue reading Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
#964 The Kid Brother 1927 // USA // Ted Wilde Criterion Collection (LINK) Letterboxd (LINK) Unequivocally dated yet innately charming, Harold Lloyd‘s ironic round-glasses boyish persona climbed to his peak, literally and figuratively, in SAFETY LAST! (1923), and could never reached the same height afterwards in my opinion. The building-climbing sequence still looks terrific and terrifying which… Continue reading #964 The Kid Brother (Ted Wilde, 1927)
Nosferatu 1922 // Germany // F. W. Murnau A slender figure, in the form of a shadow, is steadily going up a stair towards a room, once it arrives at the top, the shadow of its claws eerily stretching out, in an unnatural way, to the door frame. The scene alternates between this imminent shadow and… Continue reading Nosferatu (1922)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920 // Germany // Robert Wiene “The era of German Expressionist cinema began with Caligari,” asserted by film critic David Robinson in his book on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. That’s an understatement in my opinion since Caligari could easily be the origination of art house cinema and the unmistakably horror… Continue reading The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Intolerance 1916 // USA // D.W. Griffith Sometimes it’s so hard to judge a film without judging the morality of its director, especially when his name has often been associated with relentless racism and glorification of Ku Klux Klan in one of the most controversial film ever made, namely The Birth of a Nation (1915). A century… Continue reading Intolerance (1916)
#615 The Gold Rush 1925 // USA // Charles Chaplin Criterion Collection (LINK) Watching Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush with hundreds of audience in the theater is one of my greatest cinematic experience ever. But what intrigues me the most is the fact that I could hardly remember which version of The Gold Rush I have watched… Continue reading #615 The Gold Rush (1925)
#885 The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog 1927 // UK // Alfred Hitchcock Criterion Collection (LINK) The Lodger has been a fun and enthralling film to watch but not so much an exploratory film to be reviewed of since almost every scene has been thoroughly analysed by the critics in view of the recurring Hitchcockian elements… Continue reading #885 The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
The Films in My Life (OnCriterion) 