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- The fallibility of film history: Valeria Creti unmasked as Filibus
- Il cinema ritrovato 2018 in review
- Bologna-bound: Il cinema ritrovato 2018
- Buster on the big screen: a visit to the delightful Time Cinema
- The perilous camera-eye: El sexto sentido | The Sixth Sense (ES 1929)
- Coda to Valentine’s Day: silent film postcards
- Power couples of Italian silent film
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Tag Archives: Asta Nielsen
Coda to Valentine’s Day: silent film postcards
Flowers and chocolates and clichés, I don’t care, but I really like the idea of reclaiming Valentine’s Day as a time to express your feelings for the important people in your life. I have so many amazing friends, they mean … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Misc
Tagged Anna Sten, Asta Nielsen, Brigitte Helm, Francesca Bertini, Ivan Mosjoukine, Pola Negri, postcards
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Now on the Media History Digital Library: several of my film magazines
Well, when I say ‘now’, I mean ‘several months ago’. Last year, I went on holiday to Europe (including taking in Il Cinema Ritrovato), and while in the Netherlands, I picked up several issues of the Dutch journal Cinema en Theater … Continue reading
Posted in Misc
Tagged Alfred Abel, Asta Nielsen, film magazines, Geraldine Farrar, Leda Gys, Louise Glaum, Lucy Doraine, MHDL, Pola Negri, Sessue Hayakawa
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Book review: “The Film Explainer” by Gert Hofmann
My grandfather Karl Hofmann (1873-1944) worked for many years in the Apollo cinema on the Helenenstrasse in Limbach/Saxony. I knew him towards the end of his life, with his artist’s hat, his walking stick, his broad gold wedding ring that … Continue reading
Emilie Sannom, daredevil of the movies
In the history of film, the 1910s was the premier decade for female action stars. Long before Ellen Ripley became the prototype for the modern female badass, silent movie screens were filled with fearless women, female daredevils, adventurers and spies. … Continue reading
The film star performing the film star: Asta Nielsen in Die Filmprimadonna (DE 1913)
“Lower the flags in her honour; she is incomparable and without peer.” So wrote early film theorist Béla Balázs of Asta Nielsen in his 1924 book Der Sichtbare Mensch (The Visible Man). It is well-known that Nielsen was one of the first international … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Asta Nielsen, cinema of 1913, cinema of Germany, EFG, excellent women, film about film, nitrate damage, Urban Gad
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Double trouble: Die falsche Asta Nielsen | The False Asta Nielsen (DE 1915)
Die falsche Asta Nielsen is a film that, barring a miracle, I will never see: no copies are known to exist. It’s a great shame, because it looks like a lot of fun! Asta in a double role, a comedy … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Asta Nielsen, blogathon, cinema of 1915, cinema of Germany, dual roles, excellent women, film about film, lost films, original research, Urban Gad
11 Comments
Odds and ends
A quick roundup before I head to Le Giornate del Cinema Muto! First, a few more notes on film preservation, which seems to be having a moment of mainstream attention. In this short article, head staff at NARA and the LoC are quoted; the … Continue reading
Asta Nielsen’s Hamlet (DE 1921)
What if Hamlet was actually … a woman? That is the central premise of the 1921 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, starring Asta Nielsen in the role of Prince Hamlet. The concept is drawn from an 1881 publication, The Mystery … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Asta Nielsen, cinema of 1921, cinema of Germany, cross-dressing, dangerous female sexuality, excellent women, queer
8 Comments
Das Liebes-ABC | The ABC of Love (DE 1916)
Asta Nielsen: great actress, or greatest actress? She’s by far one of my favourite things about the silent era. Much has been written about her vitality, her versatility, and her charisma, so I won’t belabour the point – but it … Continue reading
Silents, Please! 