First off, last week I snuck into a USC international cinema course at the invite of a friend who’s a student there and they’re covering the time of film history around 1927-1929, right at the advent of sound. Their main lecture was on Soviet Cinema and I found it thoroughly enjoyable considering that I wrote my largest paper in the honors program at PBA about the artistic restraints in Soviet Cinema under the reign of Stalin and Lenin, and how filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein found their way around those barriers. I did extensive research on the theories and films of Eisenstein in particular, and so this lecture was a nice refresher and reminded me of the many long nights in the library devouring the theories and ideas of montage seen in early Soviet propaganda films. They showed clips from “Battleship Potemkin” of course, most notably the infamous Odessa Steps sequence that I had seen numerous times at PBA, and it continues to fascinate in it’s scale, execution, and editing. They then discussed the work of Dziga Vertov and showed clips from his film “Man With A Movie Camera,” a crazy travelogue/documentary/film-within-a-film experience that exercised his theories on film-as-truth and the uncensored view of the world presented by the lens of a movie camera.

Next thing you know, they wrap up the lecture on Soviet Cinema and move on their feature screening of the week that will lead into the following weeks discussion, and they proceed to dim the lights and show Carl Theodor Dreyer’s magnificent 1928 film “The Passion of Joan of Arc” in it’s entirety on the big screen. I had never seen this film before and I must admit it was a rather emotional journey, the mixture of intense close-ups and brilliant black and white cinematography along with strong performances from the central players is enough to chew on for hours after the images on the screen have faded.

From there it was back home to read more in my current Hollywood book-of-the-month, something I’ve tried to make a habit of as of late – picking up and reading a biography or history of a major cinema history figure or movement to continue my self-education out here. I’m making my way through Jeffrey Vance’s very well written and researched new biography on Douglas Fairbanks that is self-titled simply that, “Douglas Fairbanks”. I have a little under 100 pages left, and I strongly recommend getting a copy for yourself or for the library there at PBA, it’s a great read and has many rare behind-the-scenes production stills and archival photographs contained within as well. After this I’m waiting on a copy of the new biography of Victor Fleming to become available from the library for my next read – “Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master” by Michael Sragow. Reading the biography of the life and films of Douglas Fairbanks though has made me find a deeper appreciation for him as an industry forefather for American cinema and I’ve enjoyed screening both his 1920 film “The Mark of Zorro” and 1924 film “The Thief of Bagdad” within the last week. “Bagdad” in particular is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, with the amazing effects and photography emersed in the production design of William Cameron Menzies. You could see this film a hundred times and still see something new in the art direction and set design upon each screening. I’m trying to track down a copy of Fairbanks 1922 “Robin Hood” right now from the local library…

And finally, all this to say, I think this week I’m going to sit down and enjoy F.W. Murnau’s 1922 ode to horror and German Expressionism “Nosferatu”, they’re screening it this coming Monday the 26th of October on TCM in the wee hours of the morning (or late hours of the 25th depending on your time zone I suppose). Ah… so little time, so many great silent films left to discover. It truly is a unique era of cinema history that is sadly all too often overlooked except for a small contingent of cinephiles, and I wish more people were aware of just how amazing and well crafted some of these classics are. Thanks for the review of “The Man Who Laughed”, I’ll have to add it to my list!