A scientist's invisible ray freezes Paris into immobility.
A man (Henri Rollan) lives in the Eiffel Tour. A morning he wakes up early and decides to take a walk by the street of Paris...but he realises that it's not the usual Paris but a diserted city. Little by little he sees some people that are like asleep, but they're really paralized. At the airport a plain arrives from Marseilles. It's passengers are a group of colorfull characters that soon encounter that all the people are paralized. When the truth is discovered, these characters will learn that a crazy cientist has developed a mistery ray that has paralized not only Paris but the hole world.
The Marxist struggle reaches outer space in this fanciful Russian science fiction film from the silent period. Los (Nikolai Tsereteli) is an engineer who dreams of traveling to other worlds and imagines that a beautiful woman named Aelita (Yuliya Solntseva) lives on the planet Mars. Frustrated with the petty political conflicts that are a big part of life on Earth, Los builds a spaceship and travels to Mars, where he discovers that the lovely Aelita really does exist and is Queen of the Planet.
Josef von Sternberg's 1927 Underworld was given a rare airing at the New York Film Festival, introduced by festival director Richard Pena as the 'ur-gangster film.' Whether it is ur remains to be seen, since gangster films have been floating around the edges of American movies since the early silent period in D. W. Griffith's Musketeers of Pig Alley and Raoul Walsh's 1915 feature Regeneration. In fact, with von Sternberg as director, it is hardly a gangster film at all. It more of a reverie on what a gangster film could have become if the Depression hadn't got in the way.
In the spring of 1917, America enjoys peaceful prosperity, while war rages in Europe. In New York, laborer Slim Jensen toils on a skyscraper, while in the Bowery, Michael "Bull" O'Hara tends bar. On the other side of town, wealthy idler James Apperson scoffs at the idea of working in his father's factory. All three men's lives are interrupted by the news of America's declaration of war against Germany. Disinterested in the war news, Jim is bewildered by the patriotic fervor that stirs the crowds and inspires an enthusiastic parade.
Wunder der Schöpfung is an extraordinary, fascinating Kulturfilm trying to explain the whole human knowledge of the 1920s about the world and the universe. 15 special effects experts and 9 cameramen were involved in the production of this film which combines documentary scenes, historical documents, fiction elements, animation scenes and educational impact. It its beautifully colored, using tinting and toning in a very elaborated way. Some visual ideas in the sequences with a space shuttle visiting different planets in the universe seem to have to be the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Roderick Usher is obsessed with painting a portrait of his dying wife Madeline, aware that as his work progresses, so his wife's condition deteriorates. She eventually dies, but returns from the grave to save Roderick from the blaze that destroys the house of Usher after it's been struck by lightning.
Although it's far from being a faithful adaptation of Poe, this remains a quite remarkable and creepy film, full of marvellous visual invention though missing the opportunity to explore the complex character relations that were evident in the novel - Roderick and Madeline are now man and wife, for example, and not brother and sister. But as an exercise in pure cinematic style it's still hard to beat.
The only thing one need to know about "Belyy orel" is that two great Russian artist, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Vasilii Kachalov, were act in this movie. In all other respects this film is absolutely unremarkable. The rip was made from the old VHS. So I apologize for poor quality.
Then, I ask you not to judge me harshly for the translation.
DIR Abram Room
SCR Abram Room, Viktor Shklovsky
DP Grigori Giber
CAST Nikolai Batalov, Lyudmila Semyonova, Leonid Yurenyov, Vladimir Fogel, Yelena Sokolova, Mariya Yarotskaya A married couple have a small apartment in Moscow. When an old friend of the husband’s arrives in the city, he is unable to find lodgings. Kolia, the husband, invites his friend to move in with them. While Kolia is away on business, sensual Liuda and attractive Volodia fall in love and have an affair. After his initial outrage, the husband calms down. Kolia winds up on the sofa, and the three settle into a menage-a-trois until the wife finds herself pregnant. The two men are trying to decide what to do, but Liuda is strong enough to make her own decisions. Considered a landmark film because of humor, naturalism, and its sympathetic portrayal of the woman. —IMDb
"Der Bettler vom Kölner Dom" (The Beggar From Cologne Cathedral) (1927) is a very remarkable and well-done German detective silent film made by Herr the not well-known- Rolf Randolf.
The detective or police genre was fairly uncommon for the German silent cinema ( Teutonic audiences preferred more interesting metaphysical and depressing subjects for their entertainment…
DIR Benjamin Christensen
SCR Benjamin Christensen
DP Johan Ankerstjerne
CAST Benjamin Christensen, Astrid Holm, Karen Winther, Maren Pedersen, Wilhelmine Henriksen, Kate Fabian, Oscar Stribolt, Clara Pontoppidan, Alice O'Fredericks, Johannes Andersen, Elith Pio, Aage Hertel, Ib Schönberg
ED Edla Hansen Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the middle ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious—instead it’s a witches’ brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous. —The Criterion Collection
In documentary style, events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of 1917 to the end of the provisional government and the decrees of peace and of land in November of that year. Lenin returns in April. In July, counter-revolutionaries put down a spontaneous revolt, and Lenin’s arrest is ordered. By late October, the Bolsheviks are ready to strike: ten days will shake the world. While the Mensheviks vacillate, an advance guard infiltrates the palace. Anatov-Oveyenko leads the attack and signs the proclamation dissolving the provisional government. —IMDb
Based on the novel The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle.I have to say, I don't agree at all with the previous reviewer, who calls The Fighting Eagle a 'sermonic' film, and implies that it is top-heavy with title cards and preachy! In my opinion, it's nothing of the sort. It's a delightful swashbuckling romp, set in the first decade of the nineteenth century, in which the aspiring and sometimes slightly incompetent soldier, Etienne Gerard (Rod La Rocque), is keen to make his mark by serving Napoleon. La Rocque is his usual charming and handsome self, and some of his comic misadventures are laugh out loud funny: watch out for the scene in which, trapped in a barrel, he bounces down a hill, and lands at the feet of the Emperor, whereupon, pulled to his feet, he is too dazed to stand up straight and can barely manage to salute.
when a young prince is accused of a crime that could embroil him in international scandal, debonair super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes comes to his aid, and quickly discovers that behind the incident lurks a criminal mastermind eager to reduce Western civilization to anarchy. Adapted from the hugely popular stage version of Arthur Conan Doyle s stories (by William Gillette), SHERLOCK HOLMES not only provided Barrymore with one of his most prestigious early roles, but also presented the screen debuts of two notable actors: William Powell (The Thin Man) and Roland Young (Topper). SHERLOCK HOLMES was mastered from a 35mm restoration by the George Eastman House Motion Picture Department, and is accompanied by a score by Ben Model, performed on the Miditzer Virtual Theatre Organ.
"The Shanghai Document (Russian: Шанхайский документ) is an early documentary film. This silent film was directed by Yakov Bliokh (Яков Блиох,1895-1957) and was released in the USSR in 1928.
The film portrays Shanghai, China in the early 1920s. It shows the contrasts between the world of Western expatriates (including Britons, Americans, New Zealanders, Australians, and Danes) who live in the luxurious Shanghai International Settlement, and that of the Shanghainese inhabitants, who spend their days laboring.
The events which inspired the film revolve around the Chinese nationalist revolution (1925-27), including the May Thirtieth Movement, and the First United Front of the Chinese Communist Party, and the Nationalists (the Kuomintang), and its collapse in February 1927 when Chiang Kai-shek ordered a purge of the Communists in Shanghai and in other cities held by the revolutionaries"
