Tag Archives: cinema of 1913

A rainbow of silent film

Regular readers will have noticed that things have been pretty quiet around Silents, Please! for the last year or so. Partly, this was because I channelled a lot of energy into researching, writing and drawing my Feminist Media Histories article: a very … Continue reading

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Silent film fiction: Pearl White, Bert Williams, and Missing Reels

It’s been some time since I’ve done a book review post. Here I’ll talk about my recent fiction reads dealing with silent films or film performers: one novel about a lost film search, and two fictional biographies, tracing the lives … Continue reading

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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

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10 lost silent films that I’d love to see

As an art form, silent film lasted for a mere 40 years, c.1895-1935. It’s well known that the great majority of films from the silent era are now lost, whether due to destruction (either deliberate, as by many studios, or accidental, … Continue reading

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Ma l’amor mio non muore! | Love Everlasting (IT 1913)

Lyda prima diva! What better place to begin Diva December than the film that started it all: Ma l’amor mio non muore! | Love Everlasting (IT 1913), starring the inimitable Lyda Borelli. Ma l’amor mio tells the story of Elsa Holbein, the … Continue reading

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Suffragettes on film: Emmeline Pankhurst, Les Femmes Députées (FR 1912), The Pickpocket (US 1913)

On this day in 1893, the women of New Zealand voted in a general election for the first time. New Zealand was the first self-governing nation in the world to grant universal suffrage, following the tireless campaigning of activists such as … Continue reading

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100 years ago: Figures de Cire | The Man with Wax Faces (FR 1913)

An early work by renowned director Maurice Tourneur, Figures de Cire is a horror film that presages German Expressionism in its use of light and shadow. It’s a prototypical haunted-house film: out carousing with his friends, Pierre boasts that he is totally without fear (“la peur … Continue reading

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Сумерки женской души | The Twilight of a Woman’s Soul (RU 1913)

I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Twilight of a Woman’s Soul is a misnomer for this story: a more accurate title might be The Strength of a Woman’s Soul, or indeed, The Twilight of a Man’s Soul. The plot … Continue reading

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