Written by Imogen Sara Smith The pleasures of Trapped (1949) are as simple, as short and sharp, as its one-word title. That word says it all: there will be no escape, the tunnel is a dead end, the jaws […]
First there was the crash, then there was the novel, and then there was the film… In 1882, the Union Générale bank collapsed, which subsequently led to the French stock market to crash, causing the worst economic crisis of […]
Written By Scott Holleran “The Descendants”, featured during Turner Classic Movies’ 10th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood on April 12, 2019, included Dyan Cannon’s and Cary Grant’s daughter, Jennifer Grant, Hasna Muhammad, daughter of Ossie Davis (Do […]
Recently, our Flicker Alley media team was able to interview our Producing Partners for Flying Clipper, Busch Media Group. We found out that it is no small feat to restore film negatives in 4k! What inspired you to restore […]
Flicker Alley, The Blackhawk Films Collection® and Lobster Films have been producing partners in classic film production and releases for about sixteen years. Recently, one of our Flicker Alley staff members was able to interview the boss of both […]
We admit it… we (along with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival) are still reeling—pun intended—from last month’s announcement of Behind the Door (1919) being named Best Single-Disc Release at the Il Cinema Ritrovato DVD Awards in Bologna, Italy. In […]
Documentaries capture reality — or, to be more precise, a cinematic version of reality. The earliest films by the Lumière brothers are, in fact, short documentaries focused on daily occurrences. As Auguste and Louis Lumière realized, audiences can learn a lot […]
The Cinevent Classic Film Convention is held every Memorial Day weekend in Columbus, Ohio. This four-day event (Thursday-Sunday, May 24-May 27) features almost 50 hours of film screenings and thousands of square feet of vendor space with all manner […]
People have amazing stories from their first time watching This is Cinerama and Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich. Flicker Alley decided to share a few memories to celebrate Cinerama titles. “Shortly before Windjammer was completed, famed English […]
By Nigel Dreiner Silent films can be a difficult sell to younger audiences. Attempting to “turn” your friends onto silent cinema will often become a frustrating experience; one ends up trying to “defend” a silent film instead of simply […]
The VCS Radio Conservatory recently utilized Flicker Alley’s A Trip to the Moon. What is the VCS Radio Conservatory, you ask? The VCS Radio Conservatory is the arts and broadcasting department at Vacaville Christian Schools. It’s a music studies program! […]
In celebration of This is Cinerama and Windjammer being re-released, Flicker Alley invites you through a brief tour of Cinerama’s history. “Cinerama was an ultra-widescreen process…where the screen ideally curved around to cover the viewer’s peripheral vision and give them a […]
Composing for film can be incredibly tricky. The soundtrack makes or breaks the film, sometimes even surpassing the action onscreen. Where would 2001: A Space Odyssey be without Strauss? The Dark Knight without Zimmer? The Lord of the Rings without Shore? […]
THE DIRECTOR: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau was born December 28th, 1888. An openly gay German director, he is best known for his work on the film Sunrise, widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. Here’s a Roger Ebert […]
To celebrate both Halloween and Georges Méliès (who enjoyed a costume or two himself), Flicker Alley held a costume contest to win copies of our now out-of-print Digipak edition of Georges Méliès: Encore – New Discoveries (1896-1911). The rules: Dress up […]
Flicker Alley would like to take this opportunity to highlight one of the archival elements included in our bonus feature image gallery of The Lost World Deluxe Blu-ray edition. Thanks to the generous contribution by our friend and colleague […]
“The cinema of today resembles a melody without orchestration.” —Abel Gance. In celebration of Abel Gance’s birthday (OCT 25th!), here’s a look into the French director’s history. An influential and early director, he is most famous for his films, J’accuse (1918), La […]
Last month in celebration of Lobster Films’ critically-lauded restoration of The Lost World, Flicker Alley announced its first animated video contest. Fans were encouraged to submit short animated videos inspired by Flicker Alley titles in order to compete to […]
Did you know The Lost World was supposed to have a sequel? When it premiered in 1925, there was no doubt that Harry O. Hoyt’s film was a Jurassic hit. The Herald Tribune called it “a fascinating picture,” while […]
Flicker Alley just received our first shipment of The Lost World Blu-rays! All preorders will be going out in the next few days and we’ll have limited stock available at this weekend’s Cinecon Classic Film Festival in Hollywood! You […]
Win a free Blu-ray edition of The Lost World from Flicker Alley! Before it disappeared from circulation in 1929, The Lost World was heralded for its groundbreaking stop-motion effects. Animator Willis O’Brien created dozens of prehistoric monsters to tower […]
Your complete guide to the early Charlie Chaplin shorts at Keystone, Essanay and Mutual! Signing a contract with Keystone Studios in 1913, Charlie Chaplin left the vaudeville to begin what would become a legendary career on the silver screen. After […]
Please click the name of each director and film to learn more, including running times and composers. Alice Guy Blaché Les Chiens Savants (1902) Une Histoire Roulante (1906) La Barricade (1907) Falling Leaves (1912) Making an American Citizen (1912) [...]
Our thanks to everyone who voted in the 2016 Flicker Alley Awards! Voters were entered to win a $10 FlickerAlley.com gift code. The randomly generated winner is... Jeffrey W.! Congratulations, Jeffrey! Please check your inbox for your gift code! [...]
By Sarah Bastin Catharine Burton Deely is the granddaughter of American writer Owen Johnson (1878-1952), who penned the 1927 novel Children of Divorce and worked on the manuscript for its film adaptation. Deely spent twenty years in Los Angeles as an executive […]
Flicker Alley is proud to present the following essay by Karie Bible. Karie Bible is the in-house tour guide at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and has been there since 2002. She also co-wrote the books “Location Filming in Los Angeles” […]
Flicker Alley is proud to present the following essay by Nora Fiore. As “The Nitrate Diva,” Nora Fiore celebrates classic cinema on her blog, Twitter, and Tumblr. Note: This essay contains spoilers about the plot of Children of Divorce. […]
Flicker Alley is proud to present the following essay by Beth Ann Gallagher. Film fanatic Beth Ann Gallagher lives on a California island, where she writes her blog Spellbound by Movies. Being a retro buff, her blog celebrates silent […]
Flicker Alley is proud to present the following essay by Jeff Lundenberger. A graduate of Thomas Edison State University, Jeff Lundenberger is an ardent classic film fan who is a regular contributor to blogs, printed publications, and classic film […]
Flicker Alley is proud to present the following essay by Robert M. Fells. Robert M. “Bob” Fells is an independent film historian and author. An attorney and trade association executive in the Washington, D.C. area, Bob has been collecting […]
By Sarah Bastin Today, September 30, 2016, is the 64th anniversary of the debut of Cinerama, when This Is Cinerama premiered in theaters in 1952. In honor of this anniversary, Flicker Alley presents the following interview! Film historian […]
Flicker Alley is proud to present the following essay by Robert M. Fells. Robert M. “Bob” Fells is an independent film historian and author. An attorney and trade association executive in the Washington, D.C. area, Bob has been collecting […]
By Sarah Bastin Film historian and preservationist David Shepard is the founder of Film Preservation Associates, the owner of Blackhawk Films® Collection and the producer of many Flicker Alley titles, including Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film 1920-1970, Chaplin’s […]
Flicker Alley is proud to present the following essay by Mary Mallory. Mary Mallory is a photograph archivist, historian and the co-author of the recent books Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays and Hollywoodland. She blogs on Los Angeles and film […]
By Sarah Bastin Last week, Flicker Alley sat down with Serge Bromberg, film preservationist and founder of Paris-based Lobster Films, before his presentation at the TCM Classic Film Festival on Friday, April 29, entitled “Amazing Film Discoveries.” Bromberg is […]
Flicker Alley is proud to present the following essay by Laura Grieve of Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, written for Detectives and Dames: A Flicker Alley Noir Blog-a-Thon! Actor Dennis O’Keefe stars in Woman on the Run (1950), available on Blu-ray/DVD […]
In order to celebrate our upcoming Blu-ray/DVD releases of Too Late for Tears (1949) and Woman on the Run (1950), Flicker Alley is hosting Detectives and Dames: A Flicker Alley Noir Blog-a-Thon! Every week until the films’ release on May 10, […]
Flicker Alley is proud to announce a new bonus feature to our upcoming Blu-ray/DVD Combo Edition of Woman on the Run: “Woman on the Run Locations Then and Now.” CitySleuth of ReelSF.com leads a virtual tour around San Francisco, […]
Ballet Mechanique (1923-24) by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy is hailed as a masterpiece of early avant-garde filmmaking. The opening credits features a title card with the phrase "Charlot présente le ballet mécanique" along with a cutout figure all modern movie-goers [...]
When filming L'Inhumaine (1924), director Marcel L'Herbier endeavored to assemble an artistic team of visual and plastic vanguards. Who better then to provide sculptures for this cutting-edge production than avant-garde artist and pioneer of modern sculpture, Joseph Csaky? Born [...]
We'd like to say a hearty thank you to the 230+ fans who voted in the first ever Flicker Alley Awards. Thank you for helping us celebrate the unprecedented number of films we released in the past year. As we celebrate [...]
French filmmaker Marcel L'Herbier's groundbreaking contributions to cinema helped to define the country's "first" avant-garde or "Impressionist" movement, which began to take shape in 1917. While his futuristic fairy tale L'Inhumaine (1924) is lauded as an Impressionist masterpiece, in a way the [...]
The Tramp character that Charlie Chaplin created at Keystone, developed at Essanay, and perfected at Mutual has the incredible ability to transcend circumstance, bringing much-needed laughter to the most unexpected of places. Author Aviva Stein recounts her moving firsthand experience attending […]
All My Babies: A Midwife's Own Story is the story of "Miss Mary" Coley, an African-American midwife more than half a century ago in rural Georgia. Its production sponsored by the Georgia Department of Public Health as a demonstration [...]
Feminist, rebellious, and a close friend of Marcel L’Herbier’s, famed opera singer Georgette Leblanc shared the director's artistic vision for L'Inhumaine (1924). In the film, Leblanc plays Claire Lescott, the "inhuman woman" who lives on the outskirts of Paris where she draws important men [...]
With the intention of capturing the trends of the time in the field of artistic creation, director Marcel L'Herbier surrounded himself with exceptional collaborators on the film L'Inhumaine. One of these collaborators was future filmmaker Claude Autant-Lara, whose first [...]
Stan Brakhage had a voracious appetite for visionary experience in all forms. Not only did Brakhage pursue a radical approach to filmmaking between 1953 and 2003, he also lectured widely and wrote on the history of cinema, art, literature and aesthetics, […]
In the midst of drafting his 1899 stage adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, William Gillette sent Arthur Conan Doyle the following cable: “May I marry Holmes?” To which Conan Doyle famously responded, "You may marry him, murder him, or do [...]
What role should film play in the classroom? Are movies a distraction or a tool that can be used to enhance children’s learning experience? These questions that educators grapple with today are anything but new. Take this excerpt from the April 11, […]
By Dan Kamin, performer and author of The Comedy of Charlie Chaplin: Artistry in Motion Mr. Chaplin threw up his hands. “I have been in the Essanay Studio just fifteen minutes,” he said, “and I don’t know anything about anything.”[1] […]
Bruce Baillie is one of the great figures in American avant-garde filmmaking. Since 1960, he has produced a body of films unsurpassed for their lyrical sensuality, expressive honesty and formal inventiveness. His 1966 film, Castro Street (The Coming of Consciousness) transforms a walk down a […]
One of the many rare bonus features included on the Sherlock Holmes Blu-ray/DVD set is an HD transfer of ‘Interview with Arthur Conan Doyle’ from the Fox Movietone Collection. In this excerpt, Conan Doyle explains how his frustration with […]
“It is quite a three pipe problem,” Sherlock Holmes tells Dr. Watson in The Red-Headed League, “and I beg that you won’t speak to me for fifty minutes.” While that short story was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle […]
Tonight, David Arquette kicks off his tour as Sherlock Holmes in the play Sherlock Holmes: A New Theatrical Adventure. He’ll join the long tradition of stage and screen actors who have embodied the quick-witted detective – all beginning with the […]
Experimental filmmaker and artist Lawrence Jordan is known as a maverick spirit in the avant-garde world. A key figure in San Francisco’s avant-garde art scene in the 1950s-60s, Jordan also played a pivotal role in the expansion of the Film Department […]
Launched in 1999, The Chaplin Project brings together a consortium of international archives with Lobster Films in Paris and the Cineteca di Bologna in Italy to restore all of Charlie Chaplin’s short films and features. Serge Bromberg, founder of […]
The National Board of Review’s Committee on Exceptional Motion Pictures reviewed three experimental films by Maya Deren for their March 1946 issue of New Movies magazine, including Meshes of the Afternoon, part of Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film […]
In this Flicker Alley exclusive, Donald Sosin describes his journey to becoming one of today’s leading silent film composers and his method behind creating new scores for four of the films included in Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film 1920-1970: Manhatta, The […]
by Charles Epting The community of Niles, California is synonymous with Charlie Chaplin. The town hosts an annual Charlie Chaplin Days festival, antique store windows are lined with images of the iconic actor, and a life-sized statue of the […]
Daughter of acclaimed independent filmmaker Shirley Clarke, Wendy Clarke grew up immersed in the avant-garde art film culture of New York in the 1960s. Her wedding is the focus of the “Wendy’s Wedding” vignette in Jonas Mekas’ Walden: Diaries, Notes and […]
Ballet Mechanique (1923-24) by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy is a Dadaist post-Cubist art film. The film has undergone a 2K digital restoration from 35mm for the Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film 1920-1970 Blu-ray/DVD collection with music by George Antheil from original [...]
By Fernand Léger Every effort in the line of spectacle or moving picture should be concentrated on bringing out the values of the object—even at the expense of the subject and of every other so called photographic element of […]
After its 1938 premiere, Mark Donski’s The Childhood of Maxim Gorky quickly became essential viewing for film societies and art houses across the globe. In 1957, nineteen years after the debut, the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA was one such repertory film house […]
Movie magazines are an invaluable resource to silent film scholars and fans alike. Join noted author and researcher Annette D’Agostino Lloyd as she describes the fascinating story of one of the most important such publications. This essay originally appeared […]
We’re honored to announce KCRW has named Dziga Vertov: The Man with the Movie Camera and Other Newly-Restored Works as one of its exclusive DVD Club selections. Each year, Wall Street Journal film critic and KCRW film commentator, Joe Morgenstern […]
Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film 1920-1970 premieres on Blu-ray/DVD September 29, 2015. The 37 Films in the digital retrospective include: The 1920s Manhatta (1920-21) by Charles Sheeler, Paul Strand 2K digital restoration from 35mm 1.33:1 black & white silent […]
Cecil B. DeMille created a world of style and elegance in The Affairs of Anatol, starring Gloria Swanson and Wallace Reid. Presenting debauchery with amazing visual flair, DeMille clearly meant the film to be as much a decorative feast. [...]
In the blog post below, Fritzi Kramer of Movies Silently takes a look at the iconic David and Goliath fight scene in the coming-of-age silent Tol’able David, now available on Manufactured-On-Demand (MOD) DVD. This blog post originally appeared on the […]
Women fainted in the aisles when The Sheik was released in 1921. The titled Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres) is carried into the desert by an Arab chieftan, Ahmed Ben Hassan (Rudolph Valentino), who takes one look at her […]
Classic film blogger Aurora (@CitizenScreen) reveals the history behind the preservation and reconstruction of The Lost World (1925). The excerpt below originally appeared on the Once Upon a Screen blog as part of the For the Love of Film: The Film […]
by Charles Epting, author of University Park, Los Angeles (Brief History) My name is Charles Epting. I’m 21 years old, and I almost exclusively watch silent films. That is a fact that is often met with incredulity by my peers. […]
William Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes comes to Blu-ray/DVD this fall, and pre-orders are now available. Don’t want to wait? Here’s your chance to see the historic film before the home video release. Flicker Alley is proud to co-present the premiere […]
The themes in the 1927 Soviet comedy Bed And Sofa were daring for the time – or any time. In the essay below, blogger Liz provides insightful analysis into the message behind director Abram Room’s oeuvre, the female protagonist Liuda’s […]
Flicker Alley’s latest release, The House of Mystery (La Maison du mystère), stars Ivan Mosjoukine, the silent era leading man known in Europe as the “Russian Valentino.” In the following exclusive essay, Vika Paranyuk, Soviet film historian and Yale graduate student, […]
Part One – THE DAWN OF STEREOSCOPIC CINEMATOGRAPHY: Kelley’s Plasticon Pictures (1922/1923) William T. Crespinel/Jacob Leventhal tests (1924-1927) John Norling/Jacob Leventhal tests (1935) Thrills for You (1940) New Dimensions (1940) Now is the Time (1951) Around is Around (1951) O […]
In this review of The Man With the Movie Camera, blogger Silver Screenings posits that the innovative techniques used in the silent Soviet documentary represent both the construction of visual poetry and the deconstruction of filmmaking. This post originally appeared […]
Liuda meets Volodia for the first time when Volodia inadvertently walks in on her changing in this scene from the 1927 Soviet comedy, Bed And Sofa. ***If the video below will not load, click here to watch directly on YouTube.*** Bed […]
Classic film blogger Aurora (@CitizenScreen) talks chess obsession and the art of film editing in her review of the 1925 Soviet classic, Chess Fever. The post below originally appeared on the Once Upon a Screen blog as part of Movies Silently‘s […]
In this exclusive essay for The Archives blog, Ed Hulse, serial film aficionado and author of Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders: Cliffhanger Serials of the Silent-Movie Era, takes us on a journey through the genesis of American serial film, its lasting […]
By 1924, Russian-born Ivan Mosjoukine had already established himself as one of French cinema’s top leading men, with roles in Le Brasier ardent and The House of Mystery, a 10-episode serial by Films Albatros. In its July 8, 1924 issue, French film […]
THE BEST ARBUCKLE/KEATON COLLECTION, VOLUMES ONE & TWO (coming soon to Manufactured-On-Demand DVD) features 12 films representing the earliest collaboration between these two comic giants. The essay below describes the genesis of Buster Keaton and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s professional relationship […]
One of the earliest French film fan magazines, Mon Ciné updated eager cinema enthusiasts weekly with the latest news on upcoming releases and the leading men and women in them. The cover of the February 28, 1924 issue below […]
In this exclusive essay for The Archives blog, Chuck Harter, co-author (with Michael J. Hayde) of “Little Elf: A Celebration of Harry Langdon” explores the life and career of this gifted artist and tells of the odd circumstances that prompted […]
Mabel and Me, Jon Boorstin’s new novel, features fictionalized versions of Mabel Normand, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Mack Swain, and other silent movie stars. Enjoy the video trailer below and scroll down to read Ch. 27 of the book. Which silent […]
In this exclusive essay for The Archives blog, author and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jon Boorstin discusses Mabel Normand, the enigmatic silent era star who plays the lead role in his new fiction novel, Mabel and Me, now available from Angel […]
Dubbed “the great detective of silent film locations,” author John Bengtson traces old Hollywood through the films of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd in his books Silent Echoes, Silent Traces, and Silent Visions. In the excerpt from his Silent Locations […]
In the silent era, local movie theaters used glass slides to promote coming attractions. The images on the slides were projected onto the screen to let movie-goers know what to expect in the coming weeks. This was especially useful […]
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Little Tramp,’ Flicker Alley sat down with Chaplin expert Dan Kamin, the man who taught Robert Downey, Jr. how to promenade and pratfall in the Oscar-nominated film Chaplin (1992). In Part 2 of […]
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Little Tramp,’ Flicker Alley sat down with Chaplin expert Dan Kamin, the man who taught Robert Downey, Jr. how to promenade and pratfall in the Oscar-nominated film Chaplin (1992). In Part […]
In 1954, Betty and Johnny Marsh embarked on a dream tour through Switzerland and France. The result was the spectacular travelogue Cinerama Holiday, the highest-grossing box office hit of 1955. Today, Betty Marsh York was kind enough to […]
In 1954, Betty and John (Johnny) Marsh embarked on a dream tour through Switzerland and France. The result was the spectacular travelogue Cinerama Holiday, the highest-grossing box office hit of 1955. Today, Betty Marsh York was kind enough to […]
Last Monday Flicker Alley was lucky enough to be invited for the 10th anniversary of The Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study. An archive so huge the house enough film to wrap around the world one-and-a-half times (about 250 […]
With the upcoming release of THIS IS CINERAMA and WINDJAMMER we’ve been having some interest about the process that mimics Cinerama’s famous curved screen called Smilebox. Here’s a brief description of the process from Dave Strohmaier, the director of […]
Flicker Alley and Cinerama Inc. invite you to experience THIS IS CINERAMA and WINDJAMMER in their world home video premieres! Release Date: September 25, 2012 Flicker Alley and Cinerama Inc. are pleased to announce the home video digital premieres […]
