Silents, Please!

Shots from El sexto sentido (The Sixth Sense, ES 1929), an independent film that looks at the objectivity and manipulability of images within the frame of a melodrama. Read more about the film here!

My latest post writes up Il padrone delle ferriere (The Master of the Ironworks, 1919). The incomparable Pina Menichelli is resplendent in this ludicrous melodrama about social class, pride, and passion.

Desire, dreams, and mythology: Il fauno (The Faun), Italy 1917.

These shots are from The Active Life of Dolly of the Dailies (US 1914); Gemma di’Sant Eremo (IT 1918); Die Filmprimadonna (DE 1914); Pasionaria (ES 1915).

Dancer and cinema actress Stacia Napierkowska. Left: Le pain des petits oiseaux | Bread for the Birds (FR 1911); right: Les Vampires II: La bague qui tue (FR 1915). Napierkowska was fêted in France, prolific in Italian film, and arrested in America - read more about her career here.

More here, film from the NFPF.

Lia Formia in L’illustre attrice Cicala Formica (IT 1920). Read more here.

Caino (IT 1918), starring the diva Helena Makowska. Read more here.

Lyda Borelli in Malombra (1917). Read more about this film here.

Danish actress, stuntwoman and all-around action woman Emilie Sannom. These shots are from a compilation film of her work called Filmens Vovehals (Daredevil of the Movies; DK 1923). Read more about her here!

Shanghai on screen in the 1930s. Gifs made in reference to the short stories of Chinese modernist writer Mu Shiying; read more here.

Lonesome, dir Paul Fejös (US 1928).

Asta Nielsen in Die Filmprimadonna | The Film Prima-donna, dir. Urban Gad (DE 1913). More info here.

Ruan Lingyu (阮玲玉) in 新女性 | New Woman (CN 1935). A tragic film that anticipated the death of one of the greatest of all silent screen actresses. More here. 

From Sessue Hayakawa vehicle His Birthright (US 1918). Read more here

Sessue Hayakawa in His Birthright (US 1918). Read more here!

Hesperia, Emilio Ghione and Kally Sambucini in the Za La Mort film Anime buie | Dark Souls (IT 1916). More on the film here and on the Za La Mort series  here.