Lotte Reiniger etched her name in cinematic history with her groundbreaking animated feature film The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Beyond creating the earliest surviving animated feature film, Lotte Reiniger and her entire body of work remain rather obscure today.
From her first film in …
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Outside of film enthusiasts, film gauges aren’t thought about much. In a digital world where the majority of the public under forty have never touched a reel of film, people don’t even know what film gauges are. 35mm, 16mm, and 8mm are just arbitrary measurements …
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Anyone even slightly familiar with the silent era knows of the staggering amount of films lost to time either through carelessness, accident, or cost-cutting measures. Less discussed are the dozens and dozens of surviving films extant but unavailable for public viewing hoarded by a private …
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Horror has always been a genre tremendously suited for exploring the inner machinations of human desire and morality. Two cinematic adaptations of Maurice Renard’s 1920 novel, Robert Wiene’s 1924 The Hands of Orlac and Karl Freund’s Mad Love, explore this in a tale of …
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When plucked by Daryl F. Zanuck from Paramount to helm the production of 1940’s Brigham Young, director Henry Hathaway initially told Zanuck that “the two dullest things are wagon trains and religion”. Despite Hathaway’s and others’ correct assertion that the project didn’t scream box …
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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 …
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