1911 Poll 2.0

[greennui]

https://letterboxd.com/film/picturesque-colorado/
https://letterboxd.com/film/motoring-over-ben-nevis/
https://letterboxd.com/film/riprese-in-egitto/

What Caserini/Bertini did you want added, sal?

[sally]

Also, it's not on LB, so I can't gauge who's seen it, but A Day In The Life Of A Wigan Miner looks like essential Sallycore. Produced by a labor union! And I thought Wigan was all about dance clubs...

ah you got me! love it. but i think i already voted for it in 1910 if this is the one you mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D581TDHFpmE

cuz:

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wat ... 910-online
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257522/
https://letterboxd.com/film/a-day-in-th ... oal-miner/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7kgSKVCvfI

[sally]

https://letterboxd.com/film/picturesque-colorado/
https://letterboxd.com/film/motoring-over-ben-nevis/
https://letterboxd.com/film/riprese-in-egitto/

What Caserini/Bertini did you want added, sal?

awesome! i have 1911 burnout so will be breaking a few days and also haven't watched those two yet so all i can say is here (they may already be on letterboxd though and i'm just searching using the wrong words!):

Gabriella di Beaulieu / Gabrielle of Beaulieu
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216766/
dir: Mario Caserini
cast: Maria Caserini
https://www.cinetecamilano.it/film/1385


and the other one is (though only part 2 is online) i mean, take your pick of names, no idea how you decide what it's called

Tristano e Isolda / Tristan and Isolda / Tristano e Isotta / Tristan et Yseult / Tristain and Isolda / Tristan and Isolde
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211683/?r ... mg_act_134
dir: Ugo Falena
cast: Francesca Bertini
https://www.loc.gov/item/87706592/

[Lencho of the Apes]

early french barge film

I predict, with my uncanny Mesmeric powers, that you will discover another perfect prototype of L'Atalante very soon.

[greennui]

https://letterboxd.com/film/tristano-e-isolda/
https://letterboxd.com/film/gabriella-di-beaulieu/

[sally]

https://letterboxd.com/film/tristano-e-isolda/
https://letterboxd.com/film/gabriella-di-beaulieu/

thank you again! ♥

early french barge film

I predict, with my uncanny Mesmeric powers, that you will discover another perfect prototype of L'Atalante very soon.

okay now i'm worried i'll miss it - if i don't mention is by poll close please yell at me

[rischka]

letting you all sort it out, then i'll watch all the winners in one day thx for your efforts

[sally]

greennui can you do your magic and change lea sui pattini to 1911?
https://letterboxd.com/film/lea-sui-pattini/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1208701/

fell asleep through karađorđe and imagined i was in a necklace for my beloved (only with tons more murder)


has anyone seen boggs' captain kate? it's one of the weird ones of the year that i don't know if the off-kilter was intentional or what. in theory the plot is: pretty gal gets rescued, but even accounting for the uncomfortable racism (TOM MIX IN BLACKFACE! ARGH!) and the very confused & unhappy exotic animals, i can't even see why she needs to be rescued as she seems to be coping magnificently on her own, and the ending - agonised, caged animals then cut to her as 'civilised wifey'....just....

only other couple of boggs i've seen, aside from nice staging, has similar hints of unconventional things so idk what's going on really or if i'm overinterpreting

also another weird one from the year that i watched what feels like weeks ago but am still mulling over is jobard change de bonne which has the main character have problems with women then ends with whipping sadism after appearing as napoleon. idk what's going on there either. is cohl doing the woman as country thing, or just his usual crazy....

[Lencho of the Apes]

I didn't get any of those things from Captain Kate, but now that you've described them, I can't unsee them. In general, I'm taken aback by how many resourceful action-hero women there are in 1911, but...

I don't think Jobard represents 'woman as country' because she's the domestic help -- WaC would usually require her to be one of the anointed ladies of the more-leisured classes, wouldn't it? But after recognizing the "housemaid flirting with policemen" convention, I didn't understand much. Why Napoleon? Dunno.

[greennui]

greennui can you do your magic and change lea sui pattini to 1911?

[wba]

Hmmm, seems like I've seen a measly 12 films from this year, and none of them were remarkable.
I guess I'll pass on voting for this year.

[sally]

i like films that don't play as expected so captain kate might make the final cut (but then it might not cuz there's tons to choose from!) and yeah 1910's women were fun, them and post-2000's with everything else inbetween bar the odd exception pretty disappointing.

on the other hand.....i also like some films that are as expected....l'uragano! basically mouret's lady j but with more diva and teeny weeny chairs! (i am fully team clotilde)

[Angel]

The Lonedale Operator
Enoch Arden: Part I + Part II
Den sorte drøm
Ved Fængslets Port

[sally]

@lencho i have seen the apparent vigo!

although now that i've seen a bunch of 1911 perrets can conclude in general that quality is in inverse proportion to how much he's acting in it, things flow wonderfully through his camera not just horizontally ie it's more cinema than theatre, and also that he really is mr highlight-reel. why take two hours to tell something when you can ram it all in in 15 mins...

but anyway my laptop has died, i've lost a bunch of movies and all my bookmarks and i don't even know what else i was gonna watch for 1911, woe!

[sally]

my last but one of the 14 danish films available for 1911 - the ballet dancer, and waaaaaaaaaaay too much asta and waaaaaaaaaaay too little valdemar, there was only about 3 seconds of him being hot, couldn't class this as 'erotic melodrama' at all. poor old wasted..........vally? valdek? (wtf is the diminutive of valdemar? greennui, does it exist in sweden? any ideas?)

but anyway there was SO obviously a scene in the beginning where (let's just call him) V and asta had a bet or something over who could do the silliest thing in the scene - she swatting imaginary flies, he falls off his chair...


i know the 1911 danish sherlocks are mostly lost but apart from them has anyone been able to find:
bedraget i døden (a dead man's child)
gennem kamp til sej (thru trials to victory)
en hjemløs fugl (a homeless bird)

would like to complete denmark

[sally]

sorry! also this is good:

the test of friendship dir. bannister merwin

• real industrial skyscraper construction porn

• the female love interest is an older woman with a daughter

• one of the main protagonists beats the shit out of an animal abuser

[Lencho of the Apes]

I was gonna recommend that Test Of Friendship to you, wrote a post this morning, but it didn't go through somehow. Glad you found it. Also rec. : La Legende Des Ondines. And there's a fragment of Feuillade lurking; it's called Le Secrete Du Corsaire Rouge and it reminded me of Jasset's Captain Grant.

When your puter died, did you flail about, throw your arms into the air, clutch your forehead and collapse in dismay?

[greennui]

oor old wasted..........vally? valdek? (wtf is the diminutive of valdemar? greennui, does it exist in sweden? any ideas?)
would like to complete denmark

Valle, I'd say. Such an old fashioned name!

[sally]

ta razz!

it's true, i cried in pure gesture when my laptop went kaput, but i definitely didn't do any bloody pointing. that's OUT in 1911, and things get black-marked for it. although i am so acclimatized to the period now that i'm actually enjoying those stupid, violent euro comedy shorts.

and yes! that agonizing pirate feuillade fragment....

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

La caduta di Troia (Pastrone, Itala Film) Wow wow wow. This is probably the best Italian silent historical spectacular I've ever seen. Splendid staging. If people haven't seen the HD restoration, I can share.

[sally]

♥ shame it's so short!

also still going uh at this:

[sally]

yesterday there were 699 1911 films on letterboxd, now there are 723! someone's been busy! if it's anyone here please note them so can adjust my viewing if necessary!

also, anyone manage to find any frank powell films for 1911? he was such a hit in the 1910 poll....

[greennui]

A quick look and it seems like a bunch of films by Broncho Billy Anderson has been added.

Haven't been able to find any films by mr immortal.

[sally]

lol he's survived longer than his movies

my last danish one - dyrekøbt ære - definitely an 'erotisk melodrama' for the first few mins then it's just meh, but warranted a david bordwell comment in this lovely piece on nordisk, pushing back on the film historian obsession with american editing (not bordwell's greatest fan but i approve of this one) http://www.davidbordwell.net/essays/nor ... p#_ednref5

although i only really perked up when things got obscene. here she is waiting for her lover, echoing the pose of the statue behind her which is anticipating her future naked shag-fest. don't look!

[Lencho of the Apes]

Good catch! I was aware of the statue, but my head was comparing it to the artwork that had been visible in her personal space, previous scene, and I didn't notice she was playing charades with the artwork in his room.

[...]

Bordwell's great for certain things like tracking the history of blocking in films and such, so I'm happy to read him on that. The Blom film I've watched for the year, The Dangerous age had that mix of formally clever, but situationally daft staging, where the woman twice gets busted getting her flirt on at a party amidst all the other guests, as if that isn't what verandas were made for. But it allows Blom to get in a lot of info in one set up, so kinda works despite itself. I'll give it a good bit of credit for the ending though, the futility of a duel after the woman who set it in motion has died is a nice touch. Makes for a good comparison too with Maggi's Il sogno di un tramonto d’autunno, which I thought was a really effective symbolist-decadent telling of a somewhat similar tale, but that film muffed it at the very end, needing only a few more seconds to drive home the feeling it was going for. I have to wonder if there was something cut out or lost in the version I saw, which had German subtitles placed in slightly odd positions. I might tweet-gif post on the movie later since I've got a bit of a fascination with Maggi right now.

[ofrene]

2 tier

New York 1911
Enoch Arden

On the Brink
Animated Putty

[sally]

I might tweet-gif post on the movie later since I've got a bit of a fascination with Maggi right now.

do it greg! i got excited about that film a bit further up the thread. i've seen 8 maggi and the only one i didn't like was robinet boxeur besides i don't think that's complete. even think his figaro's wedding of 1913 is nicer than the gaston ravel one of 1929.

really really wanted to see his grenadier roland for this 1911 poll (looks like tons of lovely snow) but haven't been able to find it....

i'm getting bored with 1911 now, nothing much left on my watchlist that's that exciting, so might watch a few more patouillards, cunegondes, jobards & the like and then cap it off at 200 films....

[...]

It is done. Kinda a long weird mess of posts for those frickin' character limits, but to get giffy wid it I guess that's what ya gotta do.

[niminy-piminy]

"a Slavic sorceress"!