Napoleon Blackstone Vann: Outlaw on the Big Screen
Showing posts with label silent film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label silent film. Show all posts
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Buster Keaton - Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. is the story of a naive, college-educated young man who must prove himself to his father, a riverboat captain. This silent classic features the famous stunt where a cyclone blows down a wall on top of Keaton who passes, unharmed, through a precisely placed open window.
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Related links:
Roger Ebert: The Films of Buster Keaton
Reviews of Steamboat Bill, Jr.
AMC filmsite
Combustible Celluloid
DVD.net
Other silent flicks posted on EPW:
The Navigator | A Trip to the Moon | Faust | Sherlock Jr. | The Great Train Robbery | The Iron Mask
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Related links:
Roger Ebert: The Films of Buster Keaton
Reviews of Steamboat Bill, Jr.
AMC filmsite
Combustible Celluloid
DVD.net
Other silent flicks posted on EPW:
The Navigator | A Trip to the Moon | Faust | Sherlock Jr. | The Great Train Robbery | The Iron Mask
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The Iron Mask (1929)
I borrowed THE IRON MASK Starring Douglas Fairbanks from my mother-in-law, enjoyed it, and discovered it on the always reliable YouTube. MASK was Fairbank's last silent film and a sequel to 1921's The Three Musketeers. This version includes an introductory prologue spoken by Fairbanks, original subtitles deleted and 1952's narration voiced by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. added.
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Other silent flicks posted on EPW:
The Navigator | A Trip to the Moon | Faust | Sherlock Jr. | The Great Train Robbery
Related topics:
Alexandre Dumas bio | Who was the "Man in the Iron Mask"?
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Other silent flicks posted on EPW:
The Navigator | A Trip to the Moon | Faust | Sherlock Jr. | The Great Train Robbery
Related topics:
Alexandre Dumas bio | Who was the "Man in the Iron Mask"?
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Silent Night at the Movies: A Trip to the Moon (1902)
A Trip to the Moon is a French black and white science fiction film loosely based on the popular novels, From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells. Written and directed by Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston, A Trip to the Moon is the first science fiction film that utilized innovative animation and special effects. The film runs 14 minutes if projected at 16 frames per second (the standard frame rate when the film was made). Extremely popular at the time of its release, A Trip to the Moon remains the best-known of the hundreds of Méliès's fantasy films. [Source: Wikipedia]
More info: Georges Melies | AMC review | The Smashing Pumpkins
Sunday, August 17, 2008
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter, was the very first narrative film and became the prototype for the American western. Porter used state of the art techniques including parallel editing, pan shots, double exposure composite editing and on location shooting. This western was filmed in New Jersey and Delaware and produced at Thomas Edison’s studio.
Porter based the movie on a 1896 story by Scott Marble and was inspired by Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch who, in 1900 Wyoming, separated a mail car from the rest of the train and blew up the safe holding $5,000 cash.
In the final scene, a man aims a gun into the camera and shoots, which caused audiences of the time to leap in fear. This scene has been used for effect in other movies like Tombstone and paid homage to in Goodfellas.
Porter based the movie on a 1896 story by Scott Marble and was inspired by Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch who, in 1900 Wyoming, separated a mail car from the rest of the train and blew up the safe holding $5,000 cash.
In the final scene, a man aims a gun into the camera and shoots, which caused audiences of the time to leap in fear. This scene has been used for effect in other movies like Tombstone and paid homage to in Goodfellas.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Faust (1926)
I only recently watched the remarkable silent film, Faust, directed by F.W. Murnau, and I’m not sure what took me so long to see it considering I really enjoyed his earlier film Nosferatu (1922).
Faust is based on a German legend about a man whose good intentions become his downfall after he bargains with the devil. In Murnau’s poetic masterpiece, I was struck by the outstanding visual images he was able to create with the limited technology of the time. In a most unforgettable scene, the daunting figure of Mephisto (Emil Jannings), wings outstretched, looms over the miniature town planting the seeds of a plague knowing that Faust (Gösta Ekman) will set out to cure the people. The use of contrast between light and shadows, camera angles, imposed images and multiple shots all contribute to the exquisite special effects that were paramount to Murnau’s perfection. Some may find the sets and the imagery to be outdated, but as Roger Ebert wrote, “The world of Faust is never intended to define a physical universe, but is a landscape of nightmares.” While the music featured in this version is not the original score, it’s quite effective if a bit overextended by the end.
I’m a huge history buff, and anytime I watch a movie or read a book that I really enjoy, I have a compulsory urge to dig into the circumstances of what brought that particular piece to fruition and also the background of the creator... maybe I should have been a biographer.
Some interesting highlights from Murnau’s life: Faust was his last German film before heading to America. He went on to direct Sunrise (1927), which the British Film Institute named the seventh-best film in the history of motion pictures in 2002. Murnau did not see the premiere of his last film Tabu (1931); he died the week before in a car accident. Only 11 people attended the funeral, including Greta Garbo, Emil Jannings and Fritz Lang. Garbo requested a deathmask of Murnau be made, which she kept on her desk during her years in Hollywood.
Faust has certainly renewed my interest in the very talented visionary, F.W.Murnau.
Faust is based on a German legend about a man whose good intentions become his downfall after he bargains with the devil. In Murnau’s poetic masterpiece, I was struck by the outstanding visual images he was able to create with the limited technology of the time. In a most unforgettable scene, the daunting figure of Mephisto (Emil Jannings), wings outstretched, looms over the miniature town planting the seeds of a plague knowing that Faust (Gösta Ekman) will set out to cure the people. The use of contrast between light and shadows, camera angles, imposed images and multiple shots all contribute to the exquisite special effects that were paramount to Murnau’s perfection. Some may find the sets and the imagery to be outdated, but as Roger Ebert wrote, “The world of Faust is never intended to define a physical universe, but is a landscape of nightmares.” While the music featured in this version is not the original score, it’s quite effective if a bit overextended by the end.
I’m a huge history buff, and anytime I watch a movie or read a book that I really enjoy, I have a compulsory urge to dig into the circumstances of what brought that particular piece to fruition and also the background of the creator... maybe I should have been a biographer.
Some interesting highlights from Murnau’s life: Faust was his last German film before heading to America. He went on to direct Sunrise (1927), which the British Film Institute named the seventh-best film in the history of motion pictures in 2002. Murnau did not see the premiere of his last film Tabu (1931); he died the week before in a car accident. Only 11 people attended the funeral, including Greta Garbo, Emil Jannings and Fritz Lang. Garbo requested a deathmask of Murnau be made, which she kept on her desk during her years in Hollywood.
Faust has certainly renewed my interest in the very talented visionary, F.W.Murnau.
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