settima

SilentFilm

უჟმური [Ujmuri / Мрачная равнина / Cheerless] (Nutsa Gogoberidze, 1934)

Mar

3

Florida – 1845

უჟმური (1934)

A young woman, dress and arms covered in swamp water, raises a muddy shotgun. DP: Shalva Apaqidze.

A swamp or The Everglades on the date that Florida became the 27th state in 1845.

 

The swamp dwellers' trust in shaman Uzhmuri, the Queen of Frogs, prohibits the authorities from draining the wetlands in their fight against malaria.

Even: As You and I (Roger Barlow, Harry Hay + LeRoy Robbins, 1937)

Feb

27

Even: As You and I (1937)

A film editor struggling with a long strip of celluloid. DP: Hy Hirsh.

憂國 [Yūkoku / Patriotism or the Rite of Love and Death] (Yukio Mishima, 1966)

Feb

26

1936

憂國 (1966)

Reiko (Yoshiko Tsuruoka) walking through her lover's blood, her kimono drenched. DP: Kimio Watanabe.

Covers February 26–28, 1936.

”'I know how you feel,' Reiko says quietly. 'And I will follow you wherever you go.'”

– intertitles

The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle + Edward Sedgwick, 1925)

Jan

28

Gaslights

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

An enormous gaslit chandelier dangles over the Paris Opéra audience's heads. DPs: Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller & Charles Van Enger.

Gaslights for the first recorded public street lighting powered by gas, demonstrated in Pall Mall, London, on 28 January, 1807. The introduction of gaslight had a major influence on theatre and opera, including the new Paris Opera (1875), which was lit by no less than 960 gas jets. Thanks to the brilliant light, stage actors could tone down their mannerisms and stage makeup.

“Feast your eyes. Glut your soul on my accursed ugliness.”

– The Phantom

However, in the dark dungeons under the Opéra lives a pitiful creature, doomed to dwell in darkness. His makeup, provided by The Man of a Thousand Faces, Lon Chaney, was both grotesque and eerily real .

Egged On (Charles R. Bowers, Harold L. Muller + Ted Sears, 1926)

Jan

17

inventions

Egged On (1926)

Charley working his Rube Goldberger-esque egg-rubberizing contraption.

An invention for Benjamin Franklin's birthday. Inventor Charley (Charles R. Bowers) comes up with an ingenious method to make eggs break-proof for transport by rubberizing them.

“… as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”

– Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography

Bowers was an almost-forgotten silent era comedian, filmmaker, and animator. In more recent years, his groundbreaking stop-motion comedy has found a new, well-deserved, interest.

The Cameraman (Edward Sedgwick + Buster Keaton, 1928)

Jan

14

National Dress Up Your Pet Day

The Cameraman (1928)

Buster (Buster Keaton) with Josephine the monkey on his shoulder. DPs: Reggie Lanning & Elgin Lessley.

A funnily dressed pet for National Dress Up Your Pet Day (USA) (please don't!).

– Now, see! You kill-a de monk! – Pay him for that baboon… or I'll run you in!

After cameraman Buster accidentally knocks over a monkey, he has no choice but to take the sailor-suited simian along on his movie shoots.

Escrime [Fencing] (Étienne-Jules Marey, 1890)

Jan

4

revolvers

Escrime (1890)
Escrime (1890)

Footage of Marey at work. Note the mobility of his invention. (via).

A revolver to commemorate Samuel Colt's sale of 1 000 revolvers to butcher Captain Samuel Walker in 1847.

“Art and science encounter each other when they seek exactitude.”

– Étienne-Jules Marey

However, where there is bloodshed, there can be art. Scientist Étienne-Jules Marey studied movement, and further adapted an existing revolver-style camera gun invented by astronomer Jules Janssen in 1874. The revolution in Marey's invention was not in the least in its mobility. Unlike Muybridge, whose locomotion experiments required a huge, cumbersome setup, Marey could strap on his “gun”, and shoot moving footage while following his target around. His chronophotograph Escrime can be considered Marey's first successfully captured moving footage.

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924)

Jan

2

dragons

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)

Siegfried (Paul Richter), seen from the back, bathing in the blood of the slain dragon. On his left shoulder blade, a linden leaf. DPs: Carl Hoffmann, Günther Rittau & Walter Ruttmann.

Dragons or lizards, January's soul symbol.

À propos de Nice – point de vue documenté [À propos de Nice] (Boris Kaufman + Jean Vigo, 1930)

Jan

1

New Year's Day

À propos de Nice - point de vue documenté (1930)

Exuberant prostitutes, Jean Vigo (5th from the left), and people who appear to be men in drag, dance on a landing with confetti all around them. In the moving footage they can be seen high-kicking with increased vulgarity, the camera posed below them. DP: Boris Kaufman.

Confetti for New Year's Day.

“In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial… the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution.”

– Jean Vigo in his manifesto Vers un cinéma social

Die Puppe [The Doll] (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919)

Dec

16

Stupid Toy Day

Die Puppe (1919)

The doll (Ossi Oswalda) mischievously sticks out her tongue. DPs: Theodor Sparkuhl & Kurt Waschneck .

A ridiculous toy for Stupid Toy Day.

“She must have one complex mechanism!”

– Lancelot