Essays, interviews, archives, and video resources on early cinema — curated reading on films, directors, and movements across the silent and early sound eras.
Review by Kyle Westphal
Mabel Normand scored a smash hit with this feature-length comedy about a mining camp brat who goes to live in the big city. Chaos ensues but you knew that already.
Jack Miller argues that Dovzhenko’s Earth represents a radically non-narrative alternative to Eisenstein’s dialectical montage, treating its agrarian subjects and the natural world as monumental, painterly presences rather than characters in a story.
Cara Marisa Deleon explores the tension between the film’s progressive ideals and its deeply patriarchal treatment of its female characters
Festival analysis of Dupont's revolutionary mobile camera techniques.
Essay on Seiter's pre-Code examination of small-town morality and rumors about women's sexuality.
Criterion's overview of Sternberg and Dietrich's melodrama about a chanteuse's moral decline.
Criterion release with comprehensive essay on this greatest achievement of Chaplin's career.
Festival resource on Garbo and Gilbert's chemistry and film legacy.
Ebert's essay on Chaplin's masterpiece and its lyrical romanticism and defiance of sound cinema.
Festival resource on one of cinema's greatest comedies.
Critical essay on Chaplin's final silent film and its combination of comedy and profound emotion.
Essay on this early Wayne western musical and its influence on the singing cowboy genre.
Essay examining Ozu's distinctive editing and compositional techniques in this family comedy.
Academic essay analyzing themes of desertion and redemption across film adaptations of Hemingway's novel.
Criterion's analysis of Lang's political thriller banned by the Nazi regime.
Critical analysis of Vidor's exploration of forbidden desires around race and sexuality in pre-Code Hawaii.
Essay on how the film uses Shirley Temple's innocence as counterpoint to adult corruption and crime.
Essay on Bette Davis's groundbreaking performance and the film's dark portrayal of obsession.
Critical analysis of how the film navigated Hays Code restrictions while exploring human weakness.