Articles

This page lists longer-form pieces that I’ve written.

• Fatal passions: an overview of the Italian divas. Profiling the genre of the Italian diva film, and its decadent female stars.

• Yevgeni Bauer’s After Death (1915): an in-depth exploration of this wonderful film and its literary and historical antecedents.

• Forgotten film stars: Ellen Jensen-Eck. This actress starred in the delightful film Das Geheimschloß, which is discussed here along with her general filmography.

• 10 lost silent films that I’d love to see. Far too many films are lost: here are ten that I wish I could watch.

• An interview with Bin Li, nitrate film specialist. Bin Li talks about his fascinating work in film preservation at Haghefilm.

• Pina Menichelli directed by Nino Oxilia: before la diva Pina. We know and love Pina as a grand diva, but what about her earlier roles?

• To the stars and beyond: movies dream of outer space, 1898-1910. A look into early films about space travel.

• Shanghai modern: the cinematic fiction of Mu Shiying. Jazz-age Shanghai is brought to life in short stories with a distinctly cinematic flavour.

• Forgotten film stars: Emilie Sannom, daredevil of the movies. Little-remembered today, Emilie Sannom was a female action hero in the teens and a bona fide stuntwoman.

• Film advertising: Italian question marks. Documenting an interesting quirk of Italian film advertising in the 1910s.

• 1918: Fragments of Menichelli. My research into Gemma di Sant’Eremo and La passeggiera, two films starring Pina Menichelli which survive only in fragmentary form.

• Diva films about diva films. Looking at several self-referential diva titles: L’illustre attrice Cicala Formica (1920), Leda innamorata (1915), and Bertini’s Mariute (1918).

• A visual tour of the Shanghai Film Museum. Walk in my metaphorical shoes through this wonderful museum.

• Silent cinema from the vaults to the world: an interview with film archival scholar Grazia Ingravalle. How does the work of archives and cinémathèques influence the way we perceive silent film? Grazia Ingravalle shares her research on early and silent film curatorship.

• Romance of celluloid: celebrating nitrate film. Ahead of George Eastman Museum’s Nitrate Picture Show, a look at the most fetishized and prized film base.

• Researching and restoring Universal’s King of Jazz (1930): an interview with James Layton and Crystal Kui. James and Crystal describe their work on the forthcoming publication King of Jazz: Paul Whiteman’s Technicolor Revue, focusing on the archival research they undertook for this project.

• Stacia Napierkowska on film. Fêted in France, arrested in the US, and prolific in Italy: I take a tour through Napierkowska’s screen career, with a particular look at two of her 1916 Italian titles.

• In search of Astrea, mysterious ‘strongwoman’ of the Italian silent cinema. Athletic star (and noblewoman) Astrea had a short-lived but notable career on the Italian screen. Here I present my research and a photo gallery of this enigmatic forzuta.

• Image, light, sound – magic: Reporting back on Il Cinema Ritrovato 2016. It was a blast! Here’s my festival report.

• Varieté at the NZIFF: An interview with composer Johannes Contag. In 2016, Jo premiered a wonderful score for Varieté (DE 1925). Here, he talks about his approach to composing for silent film, his influences, and his process.