Essays, interviews, archives, and video resources on early cinema — curated reading on films, directors, and movements across the silent and early sound eras.
Historical analysis of the film's significance in developing narrative cinema techniques.
Essay on Seiter's pre-Code examination of small-town morality and rumors about women's sexuality.
Critical essay on the film's significance in science fiction cinema history.
Historical examination of the film's editing techniques and narrative innovation.
Ebert's great movies essay celebrating this quintessential 1930s screwball comedy.
Festival guide to Pickford's department store romance.
Essay analyzing Ozu's blend of comedy and social critique in his exploration of class and family.
Essay on this early John Wayne western and its themes of child abuse within a morality play tradition.
Essay on Pabst's intimate depiction of WWI trench warfare and its immediate Nazi ban.
Essay on Griffith's biographical film and its portrayal of Lincoln as a humanized figure.
Criterion's overview of Ozu's acclaimed silent film about childhood and social hierarchy.
Analysis of this early sound biography and its historical inaccuracies alongside its artistic merits.
Critical analysis of Edison's adaptation and its approach to Shelley's novel.
Criterion release with essay on Sternberg's direction of Dietrich in her triumphant American debut.
Essay on Dreyer's dreamlike approach to horror and psychological terror in his first sound film.
Analysis of Hitchcock's second talkie and its theatrical staginess in cinematic adaptation.
Critical essay on Chaplin's early comic performance and character development.
Scholarly examination of the film's innovative approach to extreme close-up and film form itself.
Analysis of Pabst's effective realism and brilliant use of sound in this anti-war film.
Festival resource on Hitchcock's directorial debut and early thematic concerns.
Festival resource on Browning's unique approach to grotesque cinema.
Festival analysis of Dupont's revolutionary mobile camera techniques.
Festival documentation of Kinugasa's pioneering avant-garde masterpiece.
Festival documentation of Keaton's personal favorite and commercially successful comedy.