Mary Pickford, D.W. Griffith, and “The New York Hat” (1912)

I have the remarkable privilege of spending a great deal of my time just a hop away from the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. (Don’t worry Film Forum… you’ll always have my heart.) Just 3 bucks and a few streetcar stops brings me to one of the more remarkable film venues I’ve ever had the privilege of visiting. The physical space is stunning… not quite a movie palace of yore, but grand nonetheless. Of course, the real draw is the top notch programming. From debuts to special events and lectures, TIFF offers a wealth of movie going pleasures. So it was I found myself at the Bell Lightbox on a rainy Saturday morning for a lecture and screening event, Mary Pickford: From Actress to Icon. Read More

Show Don’t Tell: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the gold standard example of early German expressionism in film, is just plain weird. Today we call it a “horror” film, but it’s not scary. It is disorienting and certainly creepy, but you won’t jump in your seat while viewing it. But if you care about the genre known as “horror,” then you have to confront Caligari. If you care about film history in general, about “film noir” in particular, or Post WWI German politics, you have to care about Caligari. Wait, what?

Ladies and gentleman, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is INFLUENTIAL. Often, this weird little movie is lost in the cacophony of critical extrapolation, exegesis, and anagogy. Read More

The Divine Lady - 1929

Thanks to TCM's "Silent Sunday," every Monday afternoon is like Christmas morning. I fire up Tivo to find an alluring, brightly wrapped package and I tear into it. Sometimes, it's an awesome toy, the very one I wanted and sometimes it's a... sweater. Sweaters are just fine, and we all need sweaters, but they don't make for the sexiest presents. Frank Lloyd's The Divine Lady from 1929 is a really nice sweater, well constructed, kind of cozy, and not very exciting.

The plot is a basic and, I'm sure, not too accurate rehashing of the romance between the heroic Lord Horatio Nelson and the somewhat dubious Emma Hamilton. But the plot is a bit szhizophrenic... Read More