2023-08-22 01:39
In an unspecified period of time, probably centuries ago, there was a
very poor girl called Jeom Soon. She was already a young adult, and
would have an arranged marriage with the son of a w… Read More
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This site is dedicated to the preservation of memory of silent films. Although they were quite important in the evolution of cinema, they remain virtually forgotten nowadays. Since the best way to understand the present is taking an attentive look at the past, here you have some movies, pictures, interviews, etc. on silent cinema. Some occasional material on sound films will also be presented. I hope you enjoy getting to know a bit more about the beauty and sheer fun of these golden oldies.
2023-08-20 00:39
Two guys strangled to death their old colleague. After the crime they
put his body in a trunk and then they organized a kind of a party and
invited the parents of the colleague they have ju… Read More
2023-08-19 14:10
This film talks about a poor widow and her son. At first the mother
couldn't really afford the son to continue with his education.
However, her son had a teacher who really encouraged her t… Read More
2022-06-13 00:30
This famous silent film short is a result of the cooperation of Luiz Bunel and famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali in the production/direction. And much has been said – even by Dali… Read More
2022-03-08 18:08
Some films age well, some don’t but there are films that only get better as time passes. The story of a princess who spent a day out without the obligations of her secluded life… Read More
2022-02-21 19:17
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Al St. John (who were respectively uncle and nephew in real life) play two rivals in this in this one-reeler film for the affection of their sweethear… Read More
2022-02-16 21:47
Keystone Studios (which was opened in September 1912) is remembered by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Ford Sterling and many of it's great comedians but also of Bathin… Read More
2022-01-28 19:49
In the first years of Keystone Studios (founded in 1912 in California, USA) we could see a plenty of one reelers and it did not take long until the studio forged its own identity with… Read More
2021-09-11 03:24
Comedians Mabel Normand and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle are paired again, this time as a married couple and the plot of this film deals with another commonplace in silent films (both… Read More
2021-09-08 15:17
Again we can see the successful pairing of Mabel Normand and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. They made films together in the 1910s that were very popular among audiences and this is one… Read More
2021-08-26 10:45
Oh, love! That beautiful feeling even though sometimes it is not possible to make things come true. We can see once more the real-life uncle and nephew actors Roscoe “Fatty” Arbu… Read More
2021-08-24 03:15
Something that brings lots of chaos in silent films is two gentlemen competing for the affection of the same sweetheart. This is what happened between the characters of Roscoe “Fatty&r&hell…Read More
2021-08-23 00:27
An important part of silent comedies was misunderstandings and all the confusion it caused among the characters, which included mistaken conclusions against the good morals of a couple. This… Read More
2021-08-19 11:13
This is one of one reelers (short films that lasted around 11 minutes) made in the beginning of Keystone studios (which had been opened on the previous year in California) with simple plots… Read More
2021-03-21 13:10
Directed by Alain Resnais and written by Marguerite Duras (the famous French novelist), this film is considered groundbreaking for many reasons and it is still studied in cinema universities… Read More
2020-10-14 12:24
This film has a historical importance because, to this date, it is the earliest-surviving film directed by Mabel Normand. She was 21 years old at the time and was at the height of her beauty… Read More
2020-10-12 21:00
In such weird year, when the world has stopped due to a pandemic and the humankind has had to assess how to deal with isolation and to do as many activities as home as possible, we have for… Read More
2020-09-13 17:07
This film was based on the 1909 Spanish novel Sangre y arena (Blood and Sand) by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and the play version of the book by Thomas Cushing. It was produced by Pa… Read More
2020-05-07 19:11
This film was made a short time after huge Rudolph Valentino’s hit, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (USA, 1921) and it was the second and last collaboration of Valentino and Rex In… Read More
2020-05-07 03:14
I have always personally believed that, despite occasional typecasting and overacting in some films, Italian actor Rudolph Valentino’s acting skills did shine bright in his more romant… Read More
2020-05-06 13:34
Director Eric von Stroheim, despite making long and extravagant films – often having as scenery lands far away – he could also provide fluid, light-hearted plots with touches of… Read More
2020-03-08 13:18
Buster Keaton is famous for his masterpieces The General (USA, 1926) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (USA, 1928), but this cute little gem is within the same level of aforementioned films and one of… Read More
2018-07-27 14:42
Director Erick von Stroheim has a larger than life reputation to this day, due to his multiple clashes with studios about budget and artistic freedom and even his tense relationships with so… Read More
2018-07-24 14:20
Nascida Gladys Smith em 08 de abril de 1892 no Canadá, ela tinha dois irmãos mais novos, Lotti e Jack. Seu pai morreu quando Mary tinha cerca de 05 anos de idade, deixando sua… Read More
2018-04-10 03:14
Exaggerated gestures, fake mustaches, simple plots, one-reelers (films that lasted around 11 minutes), actors falling on their butts, scenes with lots of smoke, and actresses performing thei… Read More
2018-03-19 23:58
In the first few years of Keystone studios (founded in 1912), many of their films were one-reelers with quite simple storylines. Other studios produced similar comedies, both in the USA and… Read More
2018-02-28 03:58
This film (together with Coney Island, released in that same year) can show to modern audiences how daily life was like back to the 1910s, which sort of items could be sold in a drugstore, f… Read More
2018-02-22 05:19
Although Mabel Normand was really young when she made this film (circa 20 years old), we can observe that she played a character much younger than herself. This is particularly noticeable by… Read More
2018-02-21 04:58
This film is a rare surviving silent short made by Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett at Biograph studios, which was released in 1912, only some months before Keystone studios was founded by Sen… Read More
2018-02-20 02:22
Even for those who are not fond of silents, this film is full of historic value. By showing a sort of “film inside the film”, we can have a rare insight about what it was like to… Read More
2018-02-19 02:42
The theme of convicts trying to escape prison was relatively common in silent comedies. And comedies –specially slapstick ones - portraying policemen and authorities (who were usually… Read More
2017-09-10 00:01
This is a film by Biograph studios of New York, directed by famous D.W. Griffith (who started working at the studio in 1908 as an actor and soon became a director and chief direct of B… Read More
2017-09-09 03:10
This film was not made at Keystone studios of California, but at Biograph studios of New York, the same that gave D.W. Griffith to the world. The film was directed by Mack Sennett, who in la… Read More
2017-09-07 23:40
Two youths (Tom Clancy and Nellie Nolan) worked in different sections of the same department store without knowing each other and longed for both romance and adventure. Therefore, they decid… Read More
2017-09-07 03:24
Roscoe Arbuckle started making films for Keystone studios in 1913, and it did not take long for him to become very popular. This film was made only three years after he started working at Ke… Read More
2017-08-31 01:26
Phyllis Tomley faces a dilemma between a marriage without excitement and attraction for another man. She often reads novels and considers her own life boring in comparison with thrills that… Read More
2017-08-30 02:08
This romantic comedy has an innocent plot about a wealthy young student (Babs) who was more interested in understanding love than in physical or intellectual activities, like most of girls o… Read More
2017-08-28 00:24
Mabel Normand made a name for herself for her slapstick comedies for Keystone studios in the 1910s, even though she had worked for other studios both before and after that. And even ha… Read More
2017-08-27 15:50
Cecil B. de Mille being himself in a film that turns extravagant –and also with sceneries of great proportions at some moments - and a young Gloria Swanson. Although unknown for many p… Read More
2017-08-24 18:28
It was one of the first female series in Hollywood, although it was not the very first one. It is often mistaken as the very first serial because it was the first one to have had a huge popu… Read More
2017-07-02 16:35
A fine melodrama, with good and subtle acting, good use of nature landscapes and a narrative, straight plot. That means the plot has a narrative style which would become the norm in cinema e… Read More
2017-05-31 03:02
Until Our Gang series of comedy short films started being made by Hal Roach studios, in the 1920s, it was not a commonplace in Hollywood children being portrayed simply playing and with thei… Read More
2017-05-08 01:50
With a plot that was already outdated to its own era, reflecting the recurrent theme of D.W. Griffith of portraying Victorian, virginal young heroines, this film gets to touch the audience a… Read More
2017-04-07 04:19
The subject of peep hole had been explored in films virtually since the invention of cinema and this split reel (a film shorter than a one-reeler, in other words, lasting less than 11 minute… Read More
2017-04-03 04:02
This is a very well-known and famous Keystone short but perhaps more because of Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin feud in the backstage than the film itself. Supposedly Chaplin had disagreem… Read More
2017-02-23 17:34
The comedy shorts of Keystone studios of the 1910s were usually one reelers (circa 11 minutes long), but this one is a two reeler (circa 22 minutes long). The main impact on the plot is that… Read More
2017-02-20 18:35
In this one reeler, Keystone studio remained faithful to his formula of a park (a perfect scenery to benefit from the sunny weather of California), some cops and a girl. But she was definite… Read More
2017-02-19 20:20
This film was made during the first year of Chaplin in films, which he spent working for Keystone studios. Thus, the style of this comedy short was typical of the output of Keystone films of… Read More
2017-02-17 03:08
This film is arguably among the most known silent shorts by Laurel and Hardy. This is a delicious mix of situational comedy and slapstick, of standard material of late 1920s with some subtle… Read More
2017-02-14 02:29
Although this film was Laurel and Hardy’s first talkie, some silent versions of this film with intertitles were also released. So, both silent and talkie versions of Unaccustomed As We… Read More
2016-11-27 18:14
This film is a good example on why Harry Langdon is considered by many critics to be at the same artistic level of the “three masters of silent comedy”, which are Charlie Chaplin… Read More
2016-09-26 05:33
This film follows the same production and plot values of films like, The Big Parade (USA, 1925), among others. WW1 is shown irrespective of politics, focused on the impact of war in the live… Read More
2016-09-13 03:37
Actress Helen Gardner started her career in the legitimate stage on early XX century and she had been making films for some years before being in Cleopatra (her career in cinema seems to hav… Read More
2016-09-01 04:55
This film, despite its overt melodrama acting, also has some gothic elements, especially in the scenery, which is a type of thing that could be found in films by Ingmar Bergman decades later… Read More
2016-08-31 01:48
With naturalistic acting of children, similar to what the audiences would see years later in Our Gang films, this film deals with the theme of friendship that crosses social statuses and soc… Read More
2016-08-29 01:53
Hollywood making fun of itself, already a magical place at late 1920s, full of stars and lively parties, this film even included the cameos of real Hollywood stars as themselves, like Charli… Read More
2016-08-28 19:09
A typical 1910s melodrama, with provides some of greatest imageries of early cinema and reveals the high quality of Danish films of the decade, including the special effects. Denmark had a q… Read More
2016-08-25 02:34
Eric von Stroheim does earn his reputation as a director. Despite the lavish production of his films, the narrative is quite often fluid and smooth, without tiring the audiences. Even the ba… Read More
2016-07-21 03:36
Failmaker Victor Seastrom was still completely unknown in Hollywood back to 1913, but when he finally reached fame in the United States in the 1920s he already had a solid cinematic career i… Read More
2016-07-20 04:08
There are not enough words to write about a such film. Its theme is more alive than ever, although it portrays a war back to an era when going to the war still had a somewhat romantic aura o… Read More
2016-07-19 04:04
German filmmaker F. W. Murnau made a very good work in this film showing the clash between two worlds. Urbanization was already a undeniable reality in many countries of Northern hemisphere… Read More
2016-07-18 06:09
The Thanhouser studios had a very nice output of drama films, but the studio unfortunately lasted only a bit over one decade. It was found prior to 1910, which puts this studio among one of… Read More
2016-06-22 14:25
The so-called silent era officially spanned from 1895 to 1927, even though those dates are still controversial, from the first films being shown by Lumière brothers, Thomas Edison, et… Read More
2016-06-17 01:39
The so-called silent era officially spanned from 1895 to 1927, even though those dates are still controversial, from the first films being shown by Lumière brothers until the release… Read More
2016-06-10 00:41
If not all that glitters is gold, not everything that looks ugly is really hideous. The film starts with a invocation to nature and the bucolic life of the countryside of a Scandinavian… Read More
2016-06-08 03:09
This early film by Keystone studios is more famous for its historical context than its rather simple plot and it is amazing how much history this split reel can have (A “split reel&rdq&hell…Read More
2016-06-06 23:51
A typical film by Keystone studio with misunderstandings, chases, the Keystone cops, flirting, a park and physical gags, but it is as hilarious nowadays as it was 100 years ago. Although the… Read More
2016-06-01 04:35
In addition to be a valuable historical witness of a era gone a long time ago, when cars were still rather new, hats were commonly worn by both men and women, etc this film is also famous fo… Read More
2016-05-30 03:10
Back to a time when flirting on the beach was not something common yet and women in bathing suits was a new phenomena. The style of girls on the beach had a close resemblance to the Bathing… Read More
2016-05-27 02:41
During his first years with Keystone studios, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle often played the roles of helpless men, who could not control themselves and acted like grown up children. H… Read More
2016-05-26 05:55
Although many people associate Mack Sennett with 1910s slapstick comedies with frantic pace, damsels in distress, awkward cops, custard pies, villains with bizarre fake mustaches, etc. his s… Read More
2016-05-25 00:59
Another film by English actor Stan Laurel before his successful regular pairing with Oliver Hardy. Laurel had been in films for around 10 years before he started working with Hardy, mostly i… Read More
2016-05-24 05:21
The diminutive Australian-born comedian Clyde Cook was one of many comedians who ended up being forgotten as time passed, although he was quite popular in his era and had a long career that… Read More
2016-05-24 02:30
Charley Chase was a talented American comedian, who started his career in films in the 1910s and had his heyday in situational comedies of Hal Roach studios in 1920s, both as a actor and dir… Read More
2016-05-22 16:13
Although this film is rather simple and not particularly innovative, it has a big historic value. It is a example of one of first films Stan Laurel made for Hal Roach before being paired wit… Read More
2016-05-22 04:44
2016-05-22 04:42
2016-05-22 04:39
2016-05-22 04:35
2016-05-22 04:33
2016-05-22 04:30
2016-05-22 04:26
2016-05-22 04:24
2016-05-22 04:18
2016-05-22 04:16
2016-05-20 15:48
Max Linder, the pioneer of French comedy, managed to develop a quite simple plot, keeping his subtle, naturalistic acting without broad gestures or loosing the typical dignity of his charact… Read More
2016-05-20 02:30
We can see in the cast of this film two comedians who subsequently developed their careers in completely different ways. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, was a skilled actor and director… Read More
2016-05-18 15:55
Opposite to what some people might think on first inspection, Mack Sennett did not start starring and directing comedies when he founded the Keystone studios in the second semester of 1912… Read More
2016-05-18 03:45
Max Linder was one of most influential comedians of early cinema and one of first characters to be recognized on screen. His screen persona was one of a dandy, often in hot water due to his… Read More
2016-05-18 02:36
A film with the typical elements of a Keystone comedy of 1910s: Misunderstandings, fake mustaches, Keystone cops, chases, a damsel in distress, a simple plot. The paced is slightly slower th… Read More
2016-05-16 02:31
Rhythmic cutting, machine movement, a progressist place, being driven by the industrialization and its hardworking inhabitants. A promising city, which would soon be one of most economically… Read More
2016-05-12 03:18
Compared with 1910s comedies that made his former Keystone studios famous, Mack Sennett really adjusted his short films to tastes of audiences of the Jazz Age. This film is more situational… Read More
2016-04-20 02:48
In this film we can already see the situational comedies by Hal Roach studios at their full splendor with all typical elements: slower pace compared with slapstick comedies (specially those… Read More
2016-04-19 00:10
Urban chaos x countryside peacefulness was already an issue in some places back to 1920s, which makes this comedy relate to modern-day audiences more than average silent films would. The sub… Read More
2016-02-09 23:21
There appeared three men in a house, all of them with completely fake beards and they start opening a hole on the floor. Then, we suddenly see three other people eating on a fancy table, two… Read More
2016-02-09 23:19
Actor Larry Semon was a famous silent comedian with a pretty distinctive style. His films had the style of cartoons, with a plenty of chases (often involving more than one means of transport… Read More
2016-02-07 21:45
In the beginning of film we see a cute scene of Fatty drinking water with his dog Fido. Both of them are close to a Chinese laundry. Fatty enters the place together with Fido and there are s… Read More
2016-02-07 20:43
Actor Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, in his first years at Keystone studios, often played roles of helpless men who behaved like babies. Not the best characterization by Arbuckle, but… Read More
2016-02-06 19:34
This film is ahead of its time with regard to showing airplane scenes. Nevertheless, it was not new in Keystone studios, which had been making films with airplanes since its very first year… Read More
2016-02-05 18:13
Mack Sennett’s character is in love with his mother’s kitchen maid, played by Mabel Normand. However, his mother is not happy about the involvement of her son with the maid. Mean… Read More
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