Dir. Carl Dreyer, starring Lisbeth Movin, Thorkild Roose, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Anna Svierkier.
I felt a sudden urge to find another film made during WWII under German occupation, this time in Denmark, but Day of Wrath could not be more different than Les Enfants du Paradis.
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Les Enfants du Paradis / Children of Paradise (1945) dir. Marcel Carné, starring Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur. Another film shot in wartime, with a fascinating backstory. During the occupation of France, German authorities decided to keep the French film industry going, as a kind of public relations move, and many French films were produced during this period, under Nazi supervision. The Germans restricted subject matter and put limits on film length, which is why this three-hour epic is ostensibly broken into two parts – it was shot as two films, but has always been shown as one.
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Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, starring Nikolay Cherkasov. I thought I’d pick another film made as WWII was still raging. As the Axis forces were approaching Moscow, Sergei Eisenstein and many other Soviet filmmakers were evacuated to Alma Ata in the Kazakh Republic, where he came up with the plan to make a three-part film about the 16th century tsar who united Russia. With Stalin’s enthusiastic approval, the project launched into production at the Mosfilm studio in Alma Ata.
Continue readingComments Off on 8. Ivan the Terrible, Pt. 1 (1944)
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Last night I watched this epic, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier, backed up by a cast of thousands. This lavish production was made while Britain was still at war, in fact it was partly financed by the British government as a morale booster, and Churchill himself had input in the script revisions. (Besides shortening the play for time, several instances were cut in which the King does some extremely not-nice things. Apparently they wanted to keep the film as uplifting as possible.) Henry V was a good choice for a rousing, patriotic picture, with Henry’s memorable pre-battle speeches (“Once more unto the breach! Dear friends, once more…” and “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”), not to mention a plucky British army beating all the odds to win a decisive victory over a foreign foe.
Continue readingComments Off on 9. Henry V (1944)
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Directed by Howard Hawks, starring Garry Cooper. I knew this was a very highly regarded film, and despite a little patriotic hokum, I enjoyed it a lot. It’s the true story of Alvin C. York, the Tennessee farmer and sharp shooter who applied for conscientious objector status during WWI, was denied, and then went on to become one of the most highly decorated heroes of the conflict.
Continue readingComments Off on 10. Sergeant York (1941)
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Here’s a little self-isolation game for you. It’s like ‘Where’s Waldo’ but way more intellectual…
(* and yes, I know I’m conflating Surrealism here with Dada and general Avant-gardeism, but I liked it as a title! Enough with the quibbling!)
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(Yes, another blog post about the pandemic, or at least about watching movies during the pandemic. It does, however, apply to non-isolation movie viewing as well.)
So why is now a good time to watch old movies? As everyone is shut up at home waiting out the high tide of covid-19, I know many are looking to Netflix and other streaming services for distraction and solace. If you do, consider this: old movies may be more consoling than newer flicks.
Continue readingComments Off on Why Watch Old Movies? or: The Consolation of History
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This was going to be a post about my latest writing projects, but after watching a seriously silly movie last night I decided to write instead about silent movies. I’ve loved old movies since I discovered the Late Show on the two TV channels we had in the 1970s, so I’ve always been a fan of the obvious stars – Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton et al – but recently I’ve been doing research for a new book (more on that in another post to come) and have been digging deeper for lesser known gems. I compiled a list of silents that I wanted to watch (yes, I created a spreadsheet for this. I love lists) and was happily proceeding in chronological order.
The very early shorts (1895-1905) are dominated by the Lumière brothers and Georges Méliès, then the Americans respond with some energetic though rather crude efforts like The Great Train Robbery. I spent many months watching the Biograph shorts directed by D.W. Griffith between 1909 and 1914, which are at the heart of the new book I’m writing, so I will definitely have more to say about them in future posts. During this period Griffith was churning out lively little potboilers at a rate of 2-3 per week, so even though many seem to be lost, there is still a lot to see!
After that I became interested in early films from other countries, beyond the obvious ones like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Battleship Potemkin. Thanks to the almighty internet, I have found some really fascinating Danish, German, Swedish, Italian, French, British, Russian and Japanese films.
And then, yesterday, I happened to come across this Silent Era List of the 100 Top Silent Films. Not only the top 100, mind you: this site also lists the next 200 films that didn’t make the top 100! Oy! So much for my progress; I now have over 400 titles on my list!
Last night I picked out one I’d never heard of: The Oyster Princess (1919), directed by Ernst Lubitsch. This is one of Lubitsch’s early films, made in Germany before he went Hollywood. What a weird little delight this is. It’s kind of a fairy tale, kind of a parody of capitalism, but mostly just wacky. Apart from the creepy tendency of the heroine’s father to peek through keyholes, this one even ages relatively well.
It’s one hour in length and quite fun. I will continue to share my early movie finds here, if there’s enough interest!
Postscript
Interested? Want to see some of these for yourself? As most silent movies were made between 1900 and the late 1920s, they are in the public domain and most are readily available online to stream for free. There are a lot of titles available on Youtube, as well as the two sites I go to most frequently, Internet Archive* and OpenCulture.
Want a list to guide you? This Top 10 Guardian list is a great starting point, listing the most critically acclaimed films. You can pick out a director you like and then hunt down their titles. Or you can go right to the mega list I mentioned earlier, at Silent Era.
*I really love this site, but I am saddened to hear that there is a copyright brouhaha brewing between them and authors over printed material they post on their site for free. I need to find out more before I decide whether to continue using this resource – if you know more about this please let me know.
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Filed under Miscellaneous Weirdness, Movies, My Projects
Labour-labor, theatre-theater, jewellery, jewelry… If you find the inconsistencies in spelling between American and Anglo-English irritating, let me tell you, it could have been much, MUCH worse!
My awareness of British vs American spellings began way back in Grade One. I was just learning to read and brought a picture book home from school that featured two adorable kittens and cans of paint. The word “color” in it surprised me, because I was pretty sure that wasn’t how you spelled that word. Then someone (parent? teacher?) told me that both spellings were correct. Wait… WHAT? Mind blown.
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So my progress on the Eldritch sequel has been halted for the moment as I put together an outline proposal on another project. More on that to come, but it’s a novel and after much gnashing of teeth I finally came up with my Act III! Nothing like breaking through a mental barrier and solving plot problems all at once!
The secret to my breakthrough was both taking a break and indulging in a research-related movie. The story is to have a historical setting and watching newsreel footage from the time suddenly filled in the gaps for me. There is nothing more useful than being able to picture the setting, the people, the events…
A fresh blanket of snow outside, peace and quiet, and a roaring fire did their bit to contribute as well.
Yay me!
(Moments of satisfaction for writers are solitary and rather fleeting, therefore they must be enjoyed. I shall celebrate with egg nog and then take the garbage out.)
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