Essays, interviews, archives, and video resources on early cinema — curated reading on films, directors, and movements across the silent and early sound eras.
1998 documentary about the life of Louise Brooks, created by Hugh Munro Neely. Narrated by Shirley MacLaine and featuring numerous interviews with friends and relatives of the legendary star, it also contains excerpts from many of her films including her first on-screen appearance.
Review by Kyle Westphal
Mabel Normand scored a smash hit with this feature-length comedy about a mining camp brat who goes to live in the big city. Chaos ensues but you knew that already.
Jack Miller argues that Dovzhenko’s Earth represents a radically non-narrative alternative to Eisenstein’s dialectical montage, treating its agrarian subjects and the natural world as monumental, painterly presences rather than characters in a story.
Cara Marisa Deleon explores the tension between the film’s progressive ideals and its deeply patriarchal treatment of its female characters
Festival analysis of Dupont's revolutionary mobile camera techniques.
Criterion's analysis of this visually poetic Sternberg-Dietrich collaboration.
Festival resource on Browning's unique approach to grotesque cinema.
Retrospective essay celebrating Dreyer's creation of atmosphere through visual innovation and technique.
Criterion's overview of Ozu's acclaimed silent film about childhood and social hierarchy.
Critical analysis of Lang's masterpiece and its prescient warnings about mass justice.
Festival documentation of Kinugasa's pioneering avant-garde masterpiece.
Criterion release with comprehensive essay on this greatest achievement of Chaplin's career.
Essay on how the film uses Shirley Temple's innocence as counterpoint to adult corruption and crime.
Essay on Ford's Will Rogers comedy and its complex legacy of humor alongside racial insensitivity.