1914 Poll

[Lencho of the Apes]

Choose your favorite films from 1914 (according to IMDb).

– Each person votes for up to 20 movies. Do not feel compelled to fill the maximum allowable number, if you're enthusiastic about fewer than twenty.
– Do not rank the films except the number 1, it gets two points..

Users are urged to post their provisional lists as soon as possible so that others may use them for recommendations. You may, of course, revise your lists at any point prior to the deadline.

Ballots posted by new members who have not participated in other parts of the forum will not be counted.

Deadline for 1914 lists will be Monday, March 2nd at approximately 1 PM Pacific Time. Or a couple hours later, because this winter it has been very hard for me to adhere to this schedule.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Seen and will consider voting for:

Fantomas: The False Magistrate
Fantomas: Fantomas contre Fantomas
Figures de cire - Tourneur
Le Friquet - Tourneur
Gertie The Dinosaur
Judith Of Berthulia
Tillie's Punctured Romance

Watchlist elsewhere.

[Lencho of the Apes]

I think the Fantomas movies are stand-alone single units the way Feuillade's other serials are not, but I'm inclined to prefer voting for Fantomas as an all-in-one thing, to avoid crowding other titles off voters' lists.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Not going to have time to juggle this with 1910 too, so, final votes:

Let's see...

1. Zapata’s Gang (Urban Gad)
Cinderella (James Kirkwood)
A Helpful (?) Sisterhood (Van Dyke Brooke)
Arthème opérateur (Ernest Servaès)
Daisy Doodad’s Dial (Florence Turner)
La Commune (Cinéma Du Peuple)
Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone)
The Rounders (Charlie Chaplin)
The Little Country Mouse (Donald Crisp)
A Florida Enchantment (Sidney Drew)

Giving my top spot to Zapata's Gang should come with a caveat: it is certainly one of the earliest representations of bisexuality on film, but the character isn't positioned as a role model and seems unconcerned with consent. I received it in its best light, as a heartwarming document of sexual diversity, but your mileage may vary. Cinderella and A Helpful (?) Sisterhood (love the bracket question mark!) are the other personal canon favs here. Both hearttugging feminine loveliness, though appreciation probably requires a generous dose of susceptibility to hearttugging feminine loveliness, which yours truly of course bears in spades.

Little Country Mouse squeaks in because it's a rare chance to glimpse the young Raoul Walsh as an actor (as someone other than John Wilkes Booth). A Florida Enchantment isn't really that good and is heavily reliant on frightful sickening blackface, but it's such an important document in transgender film history, magic seeds that alter your gender expression! a fantasy close to the real-life magic that is today's HRT pills, that I can't bring myself not to pay it mention.

[greennui]

Amor Pedestre (Marcel Perez)
Blue Blood (Nino Oxilia)
War Is Hell (Alfred Machin)¨
Zapata’s Gang (Urban Gad)
Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone)
Gertie the Dinosaur (Winsor McCay)

[flip]

not a year i've seen much from (1913, 1914, and 1917 seem to be my least-seen years), but evelyn's list sounds interesting so i might check some of those out

Kid Auto Races at Venice (Henry Lehrman)
The Rounders (Charlie Chaplin)
Max Speaks English (Max Linder)

[flip]

i thought we were doing one sound era and one silent era year poll each month, or are we doing something different this month?

[Lencho of the Apes]

"One poll that would repay a full month's attention and (sometimes) one poll that doesn't require that." Based on what I see available, people could knock off everything online from 1910 in 2 or 3 diligent, single-minded weeks.

EDIT: Maybe a sound year + 1910 would have been better, but my first plan for this round was 1914 + 1915, and when I saw that was unworkably large, I didn't think as far ahead as I might have.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

(1913, 1914, and 1917 seem to be my least-seen years)

curiously my least seen years are 1917 and 1918 (only 13 movies! i love the 1910s?) , and then also, surprisingly, 1976 and 1977 (just 13 or 14)! mid-Seventies malaise indeed!

doesn't look like there's as much available for 1910 as I'd assumed, so i'm going to make a 1914 watchlist after all too.

[sally]

bauer ♥♥♥

1. child of the big city
mute witnesses
glory to us, death to the enemy
the mysterious x/sealed orders
the wishing ring
expressens mysterium
den røde klub
the magic glass
an engagement of convenience
the fantomas'

can anyone get hold of brute island?

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

can anyone get hold of brute island?

i have it on a drive! after reading MoviesSilently's intriguing non-recommendation of it as the #1 most luridly awful silent movie she'd ever seen. "This movie will turn your stomach and I do not recommend seeing it even to find out how bad it is. You will be left feeling ill and in need of a drink yourself."

[sally]

i have it on a drive! after reading MoviesSilently's intriguing non-recommendation of it as the #1 most luridly awful silent movie she'd ever seen. "This movie will turn your stomach and I do not recommend seeing it even to find out how bad it is. You will be left feeling ill and in need of a drink yourself."

that is exactly the reason i wanted to see it! i think i found it once but the print was dreadful, not watchable, so how's the one you have?

same applies really for engelein....the version on youtube is horrible and i'm not going to watch it.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

that is exactly the reason i wanted to see it! i think i found it once but the print was dreadful, not watchable, so how's the one you have?

hmmm, i'd say it's a watchable copy, but it's definitely unrestored. i just put in the place, so you can see how it looks.

i'll definitely be prioritizing it in my 1914 viewing, despite (or, because of?) Movies Silently's warning

[sally]

ooh, and as with 1910, there's not much on stumfilm.dk, but there is the dreyer scripted (and eng subbed) lay down your arms (says 1915 but imdb says 1914) and the print is so pristine it's like silk being poured into the eyes.

https://www.stumfilm.dk/en/stumfilm/str ... d-vaabnene

[sally]

lubitsch with a moustache? i'm as disturbed as baby



i'm afraid i'm too excited again

[sally]

ooooh, oxilia's blue blood. won't scream reveals at the 1.3 people that might possibly watch this, but aaargh delicious psychodrama





there's even some dancing, though necessarily not as slick as ole cock-eye hips nielsen



also watched salomy jane. lady needs to lay off the lipstick, but this was fun, nature and stuff (big trees) and an unusually attractive hunk. and liked the crime is okay if you're the hero ending. fuck it, kill everyone.

1914 seems pretty good for the women? there's the perils of pauline (too crappy quality for me to watch) and zudora (missing most) serials and plenty of mabel-despite-chaplin.

but mainly i'm still chuckling at 'un idiot qui se croit max linder', just for the title. am going to have a max weekend at some point.

[Lencho of the Apes]

There's a fair amount of Mabel wizzout Chaplin as well, just so you don't have to feel like you're breaking a commitment.

I'm about 2/3 through Pauline, and it's not looking pro-woman at all. I think there's also incomplete Exploits Of Elaine and Hazards Of Helen for the year, though...

[sally]

perils of pauline? exploits of elaine? hazards of helen? well now, i want my own serial too.

anyway, can anyone help? i'd post this in the year poll resources but don't want anyone to think there's any new goodies in there and then just get me begging.

i can find the films, but can anyone look in their secret places and see if there are english subs for:
la fille de delft - machin (i'm relatively okay with french, but would prefer the easy assurance of subs)
woman of tomorrow/zhenshchina zavtrashevo dnya - chardynin
das geheimschloss
il focolare domestico - oxilia
de bertha - chrispijn
la maschera pietosa

if not, i'll just plough on anyway. but these all have czech subs. someone is dedicated.

and looks like fritzi's joining in with us!
https://twitter.com/MoviesSilently/stat ... 3904253953

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

i can find the films, but can anyone look in their secret places and see if there are english subs for:
la fille de delft - machin (i'm relatively okay with french, but would prefer the easy assurance of subs)
woman of tomorrow/zhenshchina zavtrashevo dnya - chardynin
das geheimschloss
il focolare domestico - oxilia
de bertha - chrispijn
la maschera pietosa

I checked and it's a no for me with all of those except woman of tomorrow which it looks like i have already, ahem, purchased. will be in our little secret place soon.

[sally]

loved the stencil colour in maudite soit la guerre! and the aerial photography, and the balloons on fire. also love alfred machin's obsession with windmills. that's my kind of film, windmills, or lighthouses, or any other mega-phallic cinematic stand-ins. throw some nuns in ruins at it and i'm quite satisfied this is making my final list.

[sally]

oh god. it's everywhere

(cept i'm as inclined to watch another chaplin film as i am another woody allen)

https://twitter.com/silentmoviegifs/sta ... 3829645314

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

cept i'm as inclined to watch another chaplin film as i am another woody allen)

oh dear, is there something i don't know about with Chaplin, something abusive and morally disreputable? or is your distaste for chaplin on solely aesthetic grounds?

edit: also maudite soit la guerre looks amazing!

[sally]

cept i'm as inclined to watch another chaplin film as i am another woody allen)

oh dear, is there something i don't know about with Chaplin, something abusive and morally disreputable? or is your distaste for chaplin on solely aesthetic grounds?

edit: also maudite soit la guerre looks amazing!

no no, don't worry, it's just me. i reeeeeeeeally can't stand him. i've no idea why. which is a shame, because he was pretty busy in 1914. on the other hand, i have loads to watch for this year anyway, so i won't miss him.

[rischka]

misadventures of magpies

[mesnalty]

Loving Cabiria, but how can any of the Romans take Fulvius Axilla seriously? The dude's name means "armpit"!

[rischka]

LOL !!! i've got that somewhere, will watch

current list

in the land of the headhunters (curtis)
fantomas vs fantomas (feuillade)
engelein (gad)

[mesnalty]

Loving Cabiria, but how can any of the Romans take Fulvius Axilla seriously? The dude's name means "armpit"!

OK all the civilization vs barbarism myth-making wore thin after a while, but I still liked this overall in the end.

[rischka]

loving sangue bleu thx for the tip sally! fantastic fashions





gifs shamelessly stolen from silentsplease.wordpress.com

[Lencho of the Apes]

misadventures

I feel like "Monkeyshines" might help her to stand out in a crowded field.

[sally]

well...i've never heard that word until now, this place is just full of learning today what with that and 'armpit'.

but speaking of animals, i'm just dumping this here as a record of me watching it, since it's not on letterboxd or imdb that i can find. i like the dutch silents i've seen. very cognizant of their art history (not so much here) with that sitting at light-streaming windows, and what i love most, plenty of outdoors and coastal/ocean stuff, if they haven't jammed a windmill in there somewhere.

but this one it's death by metaphor, actual snake-wrestling that wouldn't get past the animal standards today. but which i found hysterical for some reason...

https://youtu.be/QoyAbKPFQPk