After his 14-film screen partnership with Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton took over the Comique comedy unit to direct 19 short comedies before jumping into features. Keaton's two-reel comedies from 1920 to 1923 stand neck and neck with many of his features, displaying some of his most inventive and surreal gags in all his career. For this year's Silent Movie Day, I'll be sharing my personal ranking of all 19 of his solo short comedies.

With Silent Movie Day on September 29th, I've been celebrating this whole month with tons of different reviews, activities, and events including: Silent Movie Day Blogathon Join in the fun by submitting your own writing or simply reading posts around the blogosphere celebrating silent cinema on September 29th. The Seven Types of Lost Silent Films My new three-reel video essay…

After a couple of years' hiatus, the Silent Movie Day Blogathon is back! This year I'll be co-hosting it along with the blogathon's founder Lea from Silentology to celebrate the sixth annual Silent Movie Day. The blogathon will give you a chance to share your love of silent cinema and your thoughts on any topic related to silent movies. We hope to use the blogathon to follow the spirit of Silent Movie Day's original founders:

Variety (1925) is a German silent film that takes a pretty traditional love triangle and adds some incredible cinematography. Shot by legendary cinematographer Karl Freund, the film showcases his “unchained camera” technique, a large reason Variety was voted #8 on Silent Era's Top 100 Silent Movies List, which I'm reviewing as part of a bi-weekly series sharing whether I agree with each film's inclusion on the list.

Sometimes we let a genre fool us. Whether horror, melodrama, or romance, in the case of Roman Holiday, genre films are often seen as a separate category when discussing the greatest films. But don't let the light touch fool you; Roman Holiday is one of the best-crafted films of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The story of a princess falling in love with an American journalist during a week among the commoners, …

Few films have been as influential as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Released in 1920, this early horror masterpiece didn’t just define a genre but also ushered in a golden age of German silent cinema and established visual techniques that later inspired the shadowy style of film noir. The film is told through the eyes of Francis, who recalls a strange time when a traveling showman named Dr.

Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd are firmly on the Mt. Rushmore of silent comedians; the fourth face of silent comedy, however, is a bit of debate. Langdon, Arbuckle, Linder, and Laurel & Hardy often come up when discussing the next tier below the Big Three of Silent Comedy. Today, I submit to you Raymond Griffith for your consideration. Raymond Griffith is not a household name among even fans of silent comedy; yet, the best of his comedy is just as intricately designed and hilarious as that of Chaplin, Keaton, or Lloyd.

When most people think of German silent cinema, the mind often jumps to the bold stylization of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or the gothic horror of Nosferatu. But alongside the Expressionist movement, another style was taking shape that aimed to depict reality with unflinching honesty. G.W. Pabst’s Joyless Street (1925) stands as a defining example of this alternative: a sobering, realist depiction of economic despair in postwar Vienna.

You may have noticed over the last few months I've been posting less on my blog; however, it doesn't mean I haven't been busy. In fact, I've been putting more work than usual into my hobby of classic movies than usual! I've been focusing a lot of time working on my silent film YouTube channel. Reading up on a topic, writing a script, recording narration, editing said audio file, and editing videos and images together, and mastering a final version to upload to YouTube is quite a gargantuan task.

In a perfect world, I would have been in Pordenone, Italy, for the complete in-person festival like last year. However, I opted for the second-best choice, tuning in for the world-renowned silent film...

‎Show The Plot Thickens, Ep Go West, Young Man - Jun 6, 2024

What to learn about the namesake of Taylor Swift's new hit song Clara Bow? Watch a twenty minute dive deep into her life and career.