2023 was a great year for cinema. It’s the first time in several years it felt like there was always something worth checking out at my local theater each month. Even with such stiff modern competition, I had just as good luck with the classic …
Continue ReadingMy Top 20 Most Wanted Lost Silent Films
Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway once won a bet writing a devasting six-word short story. For sale: baby shoes. Never worn. As a silent film fan, I can think of an even shorter heartwrenching tale. Silent film. No Prints Extant.
According to a 2013 …
Continue ReadingNational Film Registry 2023 Ballot
Since 1989 the Library of Congress selects 25 American films deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant to add to their official National Film Registry. Not meant to be merely a best-of-list, the National Film Registry signals to studios, copyright holders, archivists, and other moving image …
Continue ReadingThe Third Genius Speaks: Ranking Harold Lloyd’s Sound Films
Of the three silent clowns, Lloyd’s sound career is the least discussed. Keaton’s MGM talkies stand as an example of Buster’s loss of creative and personal control and yet another example of MGM mishandling its comedic talent. Chaplin, after waiting a decade before diving into …
Continue Reading2023 Best Picture Nominees & Classic Film Double Features
This weekend’s 95th Academy Awards celebrates the best of 2022 films from big-budget blockbusters to small independent films. Even if the Academy in recent years has spent less time celebrating the classic films it rewarded in years past to cut down on the ceremony’s running time, …
Continue ReadingTen Great African American Classic Films
Anyone with experience watching classic films has undoubtedly been taken out of an otherwise engaging, entertaining viewing experience when a film swerves into a heavy dose of racism against African Americans. Even well-made and still remembered Hollywood films like The Lost World (1925), Swing Time …
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