SCFZ

Pick your favourite movies of 1919 (according to IMDB), up to 20 films.

20-film ballots must be ranked as follows (with point totals assigned):
Five tiers 5-4-3-2-1
Four tiers 4.5-3.5-2.5-1.5
Three tiers 5-3-1
Two tiers 4-2
One tier (aka unranked) 3

Ballot totals that aren't divisible by the number of tiers must be unranked. So 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 film ballots are unranked.

The Railway Owner 1919 Il padrone delle ferriere Directed by Eugenio Perego
Song of the Scarlet Flower 1919 Sången om den eldröda blomman Directed by Mauritz Stiller
The Plague in Florence 1919 Die Pest in Florenz Directed by Otto Rippert
The Ancestress 1919 Die Ahnfrau Directed by Jakob Fleck, Luise Fleck
Dr. Wise on Influenza 1919

The Doll 1919 Die Puppe Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Sir Arne’s Treasure 1919 Herr Arnes pengar Directed by Mauritz Stiller
Different from the Others 1919 Anders als die Andern Directed by Richard Oswald
Sansone e la ladra di atleti 1919 Directed by Armando Mustacchi
Kuleshov Effect 1919 Эффект Кулешова Directed by Lev Kuleshov

my favourite lubitsch and my favourite griffith are both from this year

Die Puppe (Ernst Lubitsch)
Broken Blossoms (DW Griffith)
The Tantalizing Fly (Max Fleischer)

Back to God's Country (David Hartford)
Behind the Door (Irvin Willat)
The Grim Game (Irvin Willat)

The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch)
The Grocery Clerk (Larry Semon)
Blind Husbands (Erich von Stroheim)

Daddy-Long-Legs (Marshall Neilan)
Meyer from Berlin (Ernst Lubitsch)
Ask Father (Hal Roach)

The Roaring Road (James Cruze)
Nerves (Robert Reinert)
Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (Hugh Ford)

what the hell was in lubitsch's water in 1919 (they're both great but meyer (aka SALLY Meyer) from berlin works as a total parody of blind husbands)


blind husbands - erich von stroheim
meyer from berlin - ernst lubistch
the oyster princess - ernst lubistch
the doll - ernst lubistch
the sultan of love - rené le somptier, charles burguet
ravished armenia - oscar apfel
the ancestress - jakob fleck, luise fleck
the wicked darling - tod browning
victory - maurice tourneur
behind the door - irvin willat
the plague in florence - otto rippert
when the clouds roll by - victor fleming
the president - carl theodor dreyer
sir arne's treasure - mauritz stiller
le bercail - marcel l'herbier
haceldama - julien duvivier
towards the light - holder-madsen

haceldama and the sultan of love are streaming on henri (gaston modot is sooooooo hot, i too would bite his hand)

https://www.cinematheque.fr/henri/film/ ... vier-1919/
https://www.cinematheque.fr/henri/film/ ... tier-1919/

I'll start here:

El Automovil Gris - Enrique Rosas
J'Accuse - Gance
Blind Husbands - von Stroheim

The Greatest Question - Griffith
The Doll - Lubitsch
Sons OF Ingmar - Sjostrom
The Plague In Florence - Rippert
Nerves - Reinert
Sir Arnes Treasure - Stiller

The Other Half - Vidor
Victory - Tourneur
The False Faces - Irving Willat
My Brother Is Coming - Kertesz
Rose - France - L'Herbier

Broken Blossoms - That Guy
Getting Mary Married - Dwan
The Oyster Princess - Lubitsch
Male And Female - de Mille
Don't Change Your Husband - de Mille
The Wicked Darling - Browning

i am a latecomer to "The Oyster Princess" party



no clue what made me wait so long



sooo impressed!


it's so good in so many ways

Three fragmented Italian 1919 films can be found in this one

der kulterer wrote: ↑Fri Nov 01, 2024 5:33 pm it's so good in so many ways

It's a comfort food movie to me! My favourite silent Lubitsch & favourite movie of 1919.

j'accuse - gance
blind husbands - stroheim
barrabas - feuillade
the doll - lubitsch
the oyster princess - lubitsch
sir arne's treasure - stiller
the wicked darling - browning
when the clouds roll by - fleming
true-heart susie - griffith
broken blossoms - griffith

Haven't seen many, probably won't see more, but this what I got:

Sir Arne's Treasure (Stiller)
Song of the Scarlet Flower (Stiller)
Sons of Ingmar (Sjostrom)
The Fairy of Solbakken (Brunius)

True Heart Susie (Griffith)
A Dangerous Proposal (Carlsten)
The President (Dreyer)
Broken Blossoms (Griffith)

Victory (Tourneur)
The Wicked Darling (Browning)
Unknown Love (Perret)
Broken Butterfly (Tourneur)

The Grocery Clerk (Semon) (RIP to my friend Richard Lair, who recommended this to me years ago)

Fatal Flight of an Aeroplane under a Prague Bridge (produced by Degl Brothers)

A flight under Prague’s Railway Bridge in July 1919 and its tragic consequences: the death of the director of the cinematographic department of the YMCA in Prague.

unfortunately, it's only with Czech intertitles but they say the following (notice the peculiar way of storytelling!!)...

Italian pilot Tennente Haas intended a stunt of flying below Prague's Railway Bridge.
(shot of a flying airplane)
daring flight was supposed to be filmed from a boat in the middle of the river.
(shot of the middle of the river)
three persons present in the boat:
James B. Mac Creary, the director of the cinematographic department of the YMCA in Prague
(still photography of the stunt's victim, the martyr of the sensational cinema)
the other two saved their lives last minute by dropping down to the bottom of the boat:
Ing. C. Jindra Brichta, the cinematographer
(shot of the aforementioned survivor)
a river custodian Orasský
(some synopses mention him as a second victim but you can see he is alive and rowing)
what was left of the cinematic apparatus in the boat
(the debris of the camera)
the course of action of the disaster:
the airplane flew low just above the water's surface and passed below the bridge flawlessly, but then it failed to fly up again and hit the camera and the American Mac Creary.
the catastrophe was captured by another camera situated on the shore.
(shot of the other camera)
departure in the best mood.
(shot of the boat leaving the shore, cinematographer waving, poor Mac Creary still alive boating to the other world)
8 hours 27 minutes
(shot of the flying airplane)
3 minutes later!!
(airplane flying below the bridge)
(the debris of the plane)
pilot suffered only minor injuries.
(crowds sniffing the YMCA blood)
airplane on the shore.
(ppl posing with the debris of the airplane)
sad epilogue
(funeral of James B. Mac Creary)

i have no doubts that this oddity truly happened but the film still feels like an early mockumentary (that could be titled "Death of the Camera Apparatus — Survival of the Camera Man").
i only regret they didn't try to fake they rescued the film stock from the smashed camera and didn't insert into the story a dizzying abstract sequence.

i feel that the end-by-clunky-poem-intertitle slightly let j'accuse down (unless it was explained by the comment earlier in the film that some things couldn't be shown in images as "the eyes are too far from the heart", but dunno still seems like a cop out, why make a visual film at all then abel? a film to show the limits of film? anyway...)



also, freaked out early on because i have mostly been playing with actaeon-related stuff in ai lately

I'm totally ignorant about 1919, but I also loved a handful of films.

Films seen: 16


FInal list

Heart o' the Hills (Joseph De Grasse/Sidney Franklin , USA)
Jön az öcsém "My Brother Is Coming" (Michael Curtiz, Hungary)
The Busher (Jerome Storm, USA)
Az aranyember "Man of Gold" (Alexander Korda, Hungary)
Sunnyside (Charles Chaplin, USA)



not a fan of:

Sir Arne’s Treasure 1919 Herr Arnes pengar Directed by Mauritz Stiller
Different from the Others 1919 Anders als die Andern Directed by Richard Oswald
Back to God's Country (David Hartford)
The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch)
Nerves (Robert Reinert)
when the clouds roll by - victor fleming
Don't Change Your Husband - de Mille
...