1914 Poll

[sally]

why is there so much war already? maybe all the history books are out by a year or two

[sally]

also this is ace, it's like early jeff keen

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wat ... 914-online

[rischka]

location not authorized

i got a couple days to catch up and make a list now, then i'll be gone for a couple of weeks

DO NOT DESPAIR

[sally]

mopping up some shorts, short enough to try and tackle subless (i'm getting pretty good about being blase about meaning, and besides it's not as bad as the dreadful subs i just suffered through for corbucci's two marshals)

really liked the misterio de dolor fragment: my bucolic big tick, some intelligent shots, and sexual delirium looming. shame that's the only bit there is left.

also a bit hot was max speaks english, (as much as one can speak anything in a silent movie)....very sweet as she stuffed a paper heart down her blouse....

and then the helpful (?) sisterhood which was endearingly engaging until the utterly unbelievable ending when the rich bitches were meant to realise that they were rich bitches. as if.

i'm running out of watch-quality 1914 films now.

which of the oz's is least terrifying?

[Lencho of the Apes]

least

I haven't seen Magic Cloak yet, but I'd go with Patchwork Girl over Scarecrow. The PG character is pretty terrifying, but in a good way.

[rischka]

sangre bleu (oxilia)
child of the big city (bauer)
zapatas bande (gad)
cabiria (pastrone)
in the land of the headhunters (curtis)
fantomas vs fantomas (feuillade)
mysterious x (christensen)
engelein (gad)

i still have mcveagh of the south seas and woman of tomorrow to watch

[sally]

[arkheia]

Hoping to find time to catch up on 1914 films this weekend but just in case I don't, here's my current list. I did find time to check out Lay Down Your Arms! (thanks to Magpies for the link to that wonderful transfer!), an interesting drama with a lot of curious cinematographic choices, i.e. this shot below.

https://streamable.com/fp1ye

The Curse of Greed (Léonce Perret)
Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone)
Down With Weapons (Holger-Madsen) [this is titled Lay Down Your Arms! on letterboxd but on iMDB it's under the title Down With Weapons]
Blue Blood (Nino Oxilia)
Gertie the Dinosaur (Winsor McCay)
Kid Auto Races at Venice (Henry Lehrman)
War Is Hell (Alfred Machin)
The Virginian (Cecil B. DeMille)
Caught in a Cabaret (Mabel Normand)
Mabel’s Strange Predicament (Mabel Normand)
Little Angel (Urban Gad)
Judith of Bethulia (D.W. Griffith)
The Mysterious X (Benjamin Christensen)
Il focolare domestico (Nino Oxilia)
Mute Witnesses (James Kirkwood)
Cinderella (Yevgeni Bauer)
The Avenging Conscience: or ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ (D.W. Griffith)
The Wishing Ring: An Idyll of Old England (Maurice Tourneur)
The Wrath of the Gods (Reginald Baker)
Chrysanthemums (Pyotr Chardynin)

[sally]

wow lionel barrymore as scumbag rapist in the woman in black. such a horrifyingly eloquent barn door. i just don't know why i decided to watch this today

[Lencho of the Apes]

Some last-minute finds from the thrift store that is yt, looks like they'll keep me busy right up to the end -- If anybody was needing a copy of Sangue Azul, it has come available, but only with Dutch or Spanish titles. Also recently uploaded: Beverly Of Graustark, a USA production. There's a Tess Of The Storm Country directed by Porter and starring Pickford, and there's another Asta Nielson/Gad thing called Engelein, but it's a phone-cap from a projection screen AND the titles are only in German, so I'm going to pass on that one.

Thanks for the Barrymore, Mags, one more for me to to d/l...

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention, there's also a feature by Leonce Perret, the Oval Portrait/Rocks Of Kador guy. Called Le Roman De Un Mousse.

[sally]

well just in case it gets taken for approval, the wow wasn't for the excellent film techniques. (it's alright, but i didn't clock anything that was moving movies forward) but just for how refreshingly unabashed lionel's sleaziness was, and how nice it was to a see a film not be coy about it or somehow blame the victim or make out that she enjoyed it. i mean even the fucking letterboxd description says she was 'seduced'. no. she wasn't. good on you, 1914. there's class/race stuff too but nothing's perfect.

if anyone is still looking for even more 1914, there's also a very nice copy of a german version of the hound of the baskervilles floating around (my 'eyes' screenshot above) but it's not very sherlocky. and the doggy-woggy is too cute.

i don't know how anyone has managed to watch engelein. you guys speak up! the only copy i (and i guess lencho) can see, is practically just smears...

EDIT: waiting for lencho's thoughts on the perret......i haven't seen enough of perret to know whether this is very perret-ish

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

i don't know how anyone has managed to watch engelein. you guys speak up! the only copy i (and i guess lencho) can see, is practically just smears...

the only copy i have access to looks to be the same, so i'm assuming folks just suffered through the illegibility

[sally]

ah, then they are better viewers than i am. i don't want it to, but the blurriness of what i'm watching really affects what i think of it. don't realise it at the time though, which is irritating. and odd because i don't care about or want to invest in a blu-ray player.

i liked beverly of graustark more than lencho, there's another 1914 film that's similar, oscar apfel's the last volunteer. both very proto-lubitsch in the 'disguised prince' plot. or even proto-proto-lubitsch. but even a whisper is enough for me... (more lubitschy than the one starring the actual man himself that remains from 1914, but i chuckled at that, and that was....ripe...)

https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/reco ... 595365&p=7

[Angel]

The best
Det hemmelighedsfulde X (Sealed Orders)

Also great
Maudite soit la guerre (War Is Hell)
The Wishing Ring: An Idyll of Old England

Very good
Cabiria
Le faux magistrat (Fantômas 5: The False Magistrate)
The Avenging Conscience: or 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'
The Bargain
What's His Name

Good
Ma l'amor mio non muore... (Love Everlasting)
Misterio de dolor (Mystery of Pain)
Nemye svideteli (Mute Witnesses)
Sangue blu (Blue Blood)
Tess of the Storm Country
The Perils of Pauline
Tillie's Punctured Romance

[sally]

ma l'amor mio non muore... had completely passed me by sneaking on letterboxd as 1913. another italian diva film woohoo watching it NOW!

altho still peeing my pants in excitement at the cinematic tragedy of blue blood....how she could only redeem/reconcile her 'crime' as revealed in the photograph (illusion in the real) by committing suicide on stage (the real in the illusion)..

i am going to miss 1914 a lot

[ofrene]

Fantomas: The False Magistrate

The Mysterious X
Fantômas: Fantômas Against Fantômas
Blue Blood
...

[sally]

cabiria was like, wow. then....yay....then....ah.....then....hmmmm....then......okay end now. all the sick decadent d'annunzio stuff all deliciously at the beginning, and then it just dragged. but still, epic.

but then there's shorts enough to savour. and i'm beginning to quite fancy olaf fønss now, even dead.

[mesnalty]

Watched Sealed Orders/The Mysterious X on Stumfilm last night, and I'm glad I did, because by golly, that lighting! Final list:

1. Sealed Orders/The Mysterious X (Christensen)

Fantomas (Feuillade)
Cabiria (Pastrone)
The Avenging Conscience (Griffith)

[Lencho of the Apes]

Perret's Mousse looks very Perret indeed; unfortunately I wasn't able to finish it last night, but it's definitely at or near the top of my list already.

A lot of things have seemed to be inching toward Lubitsch territory, but Le Paradis (Leprieur, Belgium) is the closest to Lubitsch of anything I've seen for the year. "I wouldn't dream of letting my daughter marry a man who didn't already have a mistress. That's immoral!"

Mystery Of The Express Train/Denmark has the expressionist lighting and some Fantomasy/mabusy touches.

I think I'm about done now, almost ready to make final list.

[Holymanm]

1. In the Land of the Head Hunters (Edward S. Curtis)

[sally]

Watched Sealed Orders/The Mysterious X on Stumfilm last night, and I'm glad I did, because by golly, that lighting!

yeah, what a delightful coincidence that it's their most recent addition - so i could rewatch for the poll in a much better print than when i originally saw it (it's not as pristine as some on stumfilm, but still very watchable) whoever created that site has my relentless approbation...

and then that's me done too. that leaves poor old 1910 with just a day, but i have been ever so pleased with 1914. list to follow

[sally]

1. Det hemmelighedsfulde X/The Mysterious X (Benjamin Christensen)
Sangue blu/Blue Blood (Nino Oxilia)
Nemye svideteli/Mute Witnesses (Yevgeny Bauer)
Zhenshchina zavtrashevo dnya/Woman of Tomorrow (Pyotr Chardynin)
Ditya bolshogo goroda/Child of the Big City (Yevgeny Bauer)
Zapatas Bande/Zapata's Gang (Urban Gad)
Le roman d'un mousse/The Curse of Greed (Léonce Perret)
Maudite soit la guerre/War is Hell (Alfred Machin)
The Wrath of the Gods (Reginald Barker)
L'anglais tel que Max le parle/Max Speaks English (Max Linder)
Cinderella (James Kirkwood)
Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge/The Reign of Terror (Albert Capellani)
The Bargain (Reginald Barker)
Kreitserova sonata/The Kreutzer Sonata (Vladimir Gardin)
The Last Volunteer (Oscar Apfel)
Misterio de dolor/Mystery of Pain (Adrià Gual)
Deutsche Helden (Franz Hofer)
Ma l'amor mio non muore/Love Everlasting (Mario Caserini)
Carmen (Giovanni Doria, Augusto Turqui)
La maschera pietosa

[Lencho of the Apes]

I'll go with these

Le Roman de un mousse - Perret

The Avenging Conscience - D W Griffith
Le Chevalier Du Maison Rouge - Capellani
Child Of The Big City - Bauer
A Christmas Carol
Cinderella - James Kirkwood
Les enfants du capitaine Grant - Jasset
Expressen Mysterium
Fantomas I ALMOST FORGOT IT, dementia taking hold.
A Florida Enchantment
In The Land Of The Headhunters - Edwin Curtis
Lay Down Your Arms -
Maudit soit La Guerre - Machin
Max Speaks English
Mute Witnesses - Bauer
The Mysterious X/ Sealed Orders - benjamin Christensen
Le Paradis - G. Leprieur
Pride Of race - ince
The Two Columbines - Harold Shaw
The Wrath Of The Gods - Ince

Last minute discovery: Harold Shaw, first great British director of the classical-narrative era? Plus an Ince western that rules, despite casting Sessue Hayakawa as a Native American.

[sally]

Last minute discovery: Harold Shaw, first great British director of the classical-narrative era? Plus an Ince western that rules, despite casting Sessue Hayakawa as a Native American.

yeah, loved both of those. that shaw is way above anything else i saw from gb. it's odd it's got so few views seeing as it's available in good print on the bfi site. and that ince was so sad! (the only 1914 film i might have sobbed a bit over) but maybe not everyone is as thrilled with 1914 as i was...i could have chosen a completely different 20 really.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Activity ends in about two and a half hours.

[Lencho of the Apes]

3 fin 6.JPG (27.13 KiB) Viewed 3954 times

[Lencho of the Apes]

Forty Helens agree!

1 The Mysterious X/ Sealed Orders - benjamin Christensen

2
Fantomas
Sangue blu/Blue Blood (Nino Oxilia)

4
Cabiria (Pastrone)
Le Roman de un mousse - Perret

6
The Avenging Conscience - D W Griffith
Cinderella - James Kirkwood
Maudite soit La Guerre - Machin
Mute Witnesses - Bauer
Zapatas Bande/Zapata's Gang (Urban Gad)

11
Child Of The Big City - Bauer
In The Land Of The Headhunters - Edwin Curtis
Kid Auto Races at Venice (Henry Lehrman)
Max Speaks English

15
The Bargain (Reginald Barker)
Le Chevalier Du Maison Rouge - Capellani
Engelein (Urban Gad)
A Florida Enchantment
Lay Down Your Arms -
Ma l'amor mio non muore/Love Everlasting (Mario Caserini)
Misterio de dolor/Mystery of Pain (Adrià Gual)
The Rounders (Charlie Chaplin)
The Wishing Ring: An Idyll of Old England
The Wrath Of The Gods - Barker

[Lencho of the Apes]

Surprising upsets in both of today's polls -- at the beginning, it looked like The Abyss was the popular favorite for 1910, and I swear I never imagined that anything would beat Fantomas for '14. I just don't know what voters are thinking these days...