“Dear Sir, “We are shipping you to-day by Adams Express one specially made Paper Mache Skeleton.
Very truly yours,The Skeleton (1912)
Oct
7
1912
.png)
A note for Dr. Robert Tilton dated October 7th, 1912.
– H. Brandle.”
“Dear Sir, “We are shipping you to-day by Adams Express one specially made Paper Mache Skeleton.
Very truly yours,The Skeleton (1912)
Oct
7
1912
.png)
A note for Dr. Robert Tilton dated October 7th, 1912.
– H. Brandle.”
La plage 23 septembre 1971 + 18° (Paul-Armand Gette, 1971)
Sep
23
1971

A filmstrip with three stills. The first one is a shot from above. We seen a young woman's thighs in a short skirt. She's kneeling down in the sand. Someone's hand hovers above one of her knees. The both wear matching leather jackets. Still two and three are merely identical; a young blond woman looking sideways. Behing her tall dune grass. Image source
Die Republik der Backfische [The Republic of Flappers] (Constantin J. David, 1928)
Sep
20
1928

The Berliner Zeitung (a rag of a paper that's still around to this day) of September 20, 1928. It blares something about America and Graf Zeppelin, the then-new airship. DP: Mutz Greenbaum.
Depending on the language version you watch, you'll see a 1928 newspaper headline dated September 20 (a Thursday), January 10 (a Tuesday), or January 9 (a Monday).
Cagliostro – Liebe und Leben eines großen Abenteurers [Cagliostro] (Richard Oswald, 1929)
Aug
15
1785
.png)
A title card: LE 15 AOÛT 1785. DPs: Maurice Desfassiaux & Jules Kruger.
“On July 4, 1976 I and my camera toured the state of Colorado with governor Richard D. Lamm, as he traveled in parades with his children, appeared at dinners, lectured, etc. On July 20, I spent the morning in his office in the state capitol and the afternoon with himself and his wife in a television studio, then with Mrs. Lamm greeting guests to the governor’s mansion and finally with Governor Lamm in his office again. These two days of photography took me exactly one year to edit into a film which wove itself thru multiple superimpositions into a study of light and power.”The Governor (Stan Brakhage, 1977)
Jul
4
1976
And July 20
– Stan Brakhage
“Sicily! The night had a thousand eyes. All sorts of smells shrieked at once. An unfurled coil of wire brought our car, swathed in moonlight as if surrounded by mosquito netting, to a halt. It was hot. Impatient, the drivers broke off singing the most beautiful love song, striking the car with a monkey wrench and insulting Christ and his mother with a blind faith in their efficacy. In front of us: Etna, the great actor who bursts onto the stage two or three times each century, whose tragic extravagances I had arrived to film. An entire side of the mountain was a blazing spectacle. The conflagration reached up to the reddened corners of the sky. From a distance of twenty kilometers, the rumbling at times seemed to be a triumphal reception heard from afar, as if a thousand hands were applauding in an immense ovation.”La montagne infidèle [The Infidel Mountain] (Jean Epstein, 1923)
Jun
22
1923
.jpg)
Unrestored film stock showing extensive damage to both the celluloid and the depicted structure. In 2024, the reels were rediscovered in Spain and restored by the Filmoteca de Catalunya (via). DP: Paul Guichard.
Filmmaker Jean Epstein and his cameraman Paul Guichard made their way to the Etna on June 22, 1923. This was merely five days after the eruption started.
– Jean Epstein, Le Cinématographe vu de l’Etna (1926) (via)
“It's spooky! It sounds… unholy!”The Unholy Three (Tod Browning, 1925)
May
6

Tweedledee (Harry Earles), Hercules (Victor McLaglen), and Echo – The Ventriloquist (Lon Chaney). DP: David Kesson.
– Echo
Japanicky [Felix the Cat in Japanicky] (Otto Messmer, 1928)
May
03
.png)
A cheeky looking Felix stands in a doorway with a bamboo roller shutter. Inside the room a woman in Japanese dress sits in front of a tea bowl and pot on top of a small platform. From the ceiling hangs a (Chinese) lantern and from the wall a large scroll that reads May 3 in stereotypical Oriental lettering.
and May 4.
L'eclisse del 17 aprile [An Eclipse of the Sun] (1912)
Apr
17
1912

Scientists in impeccable suits observing the 1912 solar eclipse. The colour used for tinting this scene, a turquoise, indicates moonlight/dusk. Image source: Cineteca di Bologna (via).
Even: As You and I (Roger Barlow, Harry Hay + LeRoy Robbins, 1937)
Feb
27

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