In 1915: The first transcontinental telephone call took place; The Rocky Mountain National Park was established; The US Congress designated the US Coast Guard as a military branch; Typhoid Mary was placed in a quarantine; The Vancouver Millionaires defeated the Ottawa Senators to win the Stanley Cup; Babe Ruth hit his first career home run; Leo Frank was lynched for the alleged… Continue reading One thousand nine hundred and fifteen trips around the sun: A look back at 1915
Tag: Silent films
11905 HE*: A look back at 1905
*The Human era calendar, first proposed by Cesare Emiliani in 1993 was an attempt to eliminate the confusing distinction of BC and BCE in the Common Era calendar. 11905 HE is the Common Era equivalent of 1905. In 1905: The Russo-Japanese War ended; The Trans-Siberian Railway opened; Las Vegas was founded; Albert Einstein published his ideas regarding the special theory… Continue reading 11905 HE*: A look back at 1905
Best of the 1900s
Kobelkoff (1900) This short film about “Human Torso” Nikolai Kobelokoff reminds us how different the world was a century ago. With no arms or legs, Kobelkoff became a circus freak. In this short snippet it looks like he is enjoying his life despite his severe handicap. Some viewers will see this as exploitation; they have… Continue reading Best of the 1900s
Best of the 1910s
The Birth of a Flower (1910) A remarkable achievement from the early days of cinema: a lovely large scale exploration of a small scale occurrence which often flies under our radar. The Hallucinations of Baron Munchausen (1911) Once again, Georges Méliès demonstrates his enormous creative capacity, using the story of Baron Munchausen as a launching pad… Continue reading Best of the 1910s
Remind me why the Babadook always follows the tracks
By the Law (1926) Five prospectors head to the Yukon. After one of them kills two of his compatriots, the survivors, a husband and wife, subdue him, but, isolated from civilization, struggle deciding how to proceed. Should they extract justice or wait weeks for the authorities to come? Adapted from a novel by Jack London,… Continue reading Remind me why the Babadook always follows the tracks
Wandering in the company of four horny men named Riley
Horns (2014) When Ignatius Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) proposes to his longtime girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple), she rejects him, telling him she loves someone else. The next morning, Merrin is found dead and everyone in town, except for his childhood friend Lee (Max Minghella), believes a spurned Ig murdered her. A pariah, Ig spirals into a… Continue reading Wandering in the company of four horny men named Riley
Best of the 1920s
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) Francis recounts the time he exposed Dr. Caligari as a murderous sociopath who hypnotized one of his patients to commit his crimes. As he finishes his story, we learn Francis is actually patient at an insane asylum and his account is his latest delusion. This film invented the now… Continue reading Best of the 1920s
Best of the 1930s
The Blood of a Poet (1930) The first part of Jean Cocteau’s Orphic trilogy is a surrealist fever dream. An artist paints a mouth which starts talking, then transfers to his hand, then to a nearby statue. This statue convinces the artist to pass through a mirror to a bizarre world inhabited by opium smokers… Continue reading Best of the 1930s
I silently killed the last guardians of the last seductive galaxy
Kill Your Darlings (2013) Naive freshman Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) enrolls at Columbia University where he meets Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston), William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster) and Edie Parker (Elizabeth Olsen). Carr bribes an older man, David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall) to write his papers by promising sexual favors, but when he grows bored with… Continue reading I silently killed the last guardians of the last seductive galaxy
The greatest chariot race
Ali (2001) Michael Mann’s films are focused on individuals struggling with identity issues. In Manhunter (1986), Will Graham is torn between his safe, normal life and the world of the psychotic serial killers he chases. In Last of the Mohicans (1992), Hawkeye must choose between the society he grew up in and the Native American culture he comes… Continue reading The greatest chariot race