In the early days of silent film, pioneers like Alice Guy-Blaché and Lois Weber were among the first women to call the shots as directors. They paved the way for the cinema we know and love now. Decades of sexism sidelined others from following in their footsteps, but today, women directors are continuing to defy the odds and make film history, tell incredible stories, and visualize the moments that stick with us long after the credits have rolled.
From documentaries to thrillers, there’s no genre women directors haven’t shaped in a major way. If you’re looking to watch more movies directed by women, Netflix has an entire collection of them just for you. Don’t know where to start? We’ve curated a list of 13 films — and a few extra recommendations for your queue — you can stream right now.
From documentaries to thrillers, there’s no genre women directors haven’t shaped in a major way. If you’re looking to watch more movies directed by women, Netflix has an entire collection of them just for you. Don’t know where to start? We’ve curated a list of 13 films — and a few extra recommendations for your queue — you can stream right now.
- 4/18/2024
- by Monica Castillo
- Tudum - Netflix
Guy Maddin: “I’m just always shuffling around timelines in my head to make sense of time’s great flow.”
Guy Maddin on hacking my dreams, elevators and escalators, Franz Wright’s Kindertotenwald, Lois Weber, Haruki Murakami, Mathieu Amalric and Arnaud Desplechin’s dreamwork, thinking of numbers, Federico Fellini’s dream journal, A Director’s Notebooks, I Vitelloni and Rimini, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, and an enchanted place called Riminipeg were all discussed in the second instalment on The Rabbit Hunters, co-directed with Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, and starring Isabella Rossellini as a “merged version” of Fellini and Giulietta Masina.
Guy Maddin with Anne-Katrin Titze on his hometown and Federico Fellini’s: “Fellini is from the city of Rimini in Italy, which is really just the Winnipeg of Italy.”
From Winnipeg, Guy Maddin joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on The Rabbit Hunters.
Anne-Katrin Titze:...
Guy Maddin on hacking my dreams, elevators and escalators, Franz Wright’s Kindertotenwald, Lois Weber, Haruki Murakami, Mathieu Amalric and Arnaud Desplechin’s dreamwork, thinking of numbers, Federico Fellini’s dream journal, A Director’s Notebooks, I Vitelloni and Rimini, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, and an enchanted place called Riminipeg were all discussed in the second instalment on The Rabbit Hunters, co-directed with Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, and starring Isabella Rossellini as a “merged version” of Fellini and Giulietta Masina.
Guy Maddin with Anne-Katrin Titze on his hometown and Federico Fellini’s: “Fellini is from the city of Rimini in Italy, which is really just the Winnipeg of Italy.”
From Winnipeg, Guy Maddin joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on The Rabbit Hunters.
Anne-Katrin Titze:...
- 3/24/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
This year, all the Oscar-contending directors are nominated for original screenplay: the Daniels, Todd Field, Martin McDonagh, Ruben Östlund and Steven Spielberg (writing with Tony Kushner).
This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.
The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms.
So here’s Film History 101.
In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.
In the next few years, he was joined by some heavyweights: Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”) and John Huston (“The Maltese Falcon”) in 1941; Leo McCarey (co-writer of “Going My Way”); Billy Wilder (writing with Raymond Chandler) for “Double Indemnity” in 1944; and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“Dragonwyck”), 1946.
However, a writer-director wasn’t an innovation.
This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.
The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms.
So here’s Film History 101.
In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.
In the next few years, he was joined by some heavyweights: Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”) and John Huston (“The Maltese Falcon”) in 1941; Leo McCarey (co-writer of “Going My Way”); Billy Wilder (writing with Raymond Chandler) for “Double Indemnity” in 1944; and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“Dragonwyck”), 1946.
However, a writer-director wasn’t an innovation.
- 3/3/2023
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Since the creation of the camera and the dawn of cinema, film has been one long experiment. Experimental film has often been defined through its rejection of traditional storytelling and structure, its defiance of logic or reason while creating mesmerizing scenes through dreamlike abstraction and subjective narrative.
A key figure in the early history of experimental film was the French filmmaker Georges Méliès. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Méliès was one of the first filmmakers to use special effects and trick photography to create fantastical and surreal images on the screen. His films, such as A Trip to the Moon and The Impossible Voyage, were some of the first examples of what would later be called experimental film. Another important trailblazer during the silent era was female director Lois Weber who is credited in creating an estimated 200 to 400 films. She was credited with pioneering the use of the...
A key figure in the early history of experimental film was the French filmmaker Georges Méliès. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Méliès was one of the first filmmakers to use special effects and trick photography to create fantastical and surreal images on the screen. His films, such as A Trip to the Moon and The Impossible Voyage, were some of the first examples of what would later be called experimental film. Another important trailblazer during the silent era was female director Lois Weber who is credited in creating an estimated 200 to 400 films. She was credited with pioneering the use of the...
- 1/19/2023
- by Robert Lang
- Deadline Film + TV
Women Were Better Represented in Hollywood During the Silent Film Era, AFI Study Reports (Exclusive)
A new study from AFI shows that women during Hollywood’s silent era represented a higher percentage of writers, directors and producers.
The study comes at a time when recent data shows Hollywood has fewer female filmmakers and directors behind some of its biggest titles.
The AFI study, titled “Women They Talk About,” documents the unrecorded contributions of female filmmakers in the silent film era and uncovers the true story of women as pioneers in American cinema.
“The AFI Catalog — used all over the world by academics and film fans alike as the document of record for American film history — directly informs the way the story of film history is being told and spotlights the women who played foundational roles in the art form,” said Susan Ruskin, Dean of the AFI Conservatory and EVP of the American Film Institute. “We hope these new discoveries through the Women They Talk About...
The study comes at a time when recent data shows Hollywood has fewer female filmmakers and directors behind some of its biggest titles.
The AFI study, titled “Women They Talk About,” documents the unrecorded contributions of female filmmakers in the silent film era and uncovers the true story of women as pioneers in American cinema.
“The AFI Catalog — used all over the world by academics and film fans alike as the document of record for American film history — directly informs the way the story of film history is being told and spotlights the women who played foundational roles in the art form,” said Susan Ruskin, Dean of the AFI Conservatory and EVP of the American Film Institute. “We hope these new discoveries through the Women They Talk About...
- 1/6/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.One Sings, The Other Doesn't.Images have long played a role in the movement against abortion rights. In April 1965 the cover story of Life magazine proclaimed to show the “Drama of Life Before Birth,” with a multi-page spread by Swedish photojournalist Lennart Nilsson that included the first published image of a living fetus inside the womb, as well as other photos of fetal development. Those other images, however, were taken of miscarried or terminated fetuses, arranged in various positions outside the mothers’ bodies.Nevertheless, this one image of a living fetus persists in being co-opted by the anti-abortion contingent, embellishing all sorts of materials to emphasize a belief that abortion is tantamount to murder. This side has to their benefit a single image—or at least the single basis of an image,...
- 10/13/2022
- MUBI
Anthony Banua-Simon’s nonfiction feature debut, Cane Fire, is a personal family history, historical explainer of sugar production, ode to union organizing and expose of a Hawaiian island’s mistreatment of its native people. Each of these elements are connected. Focusing on the island of Kaua’i, one of the most photographed areas of land in countless Hollywood productions, Cane Fire derives its title from a (now lost) 1934 film directed by Lois Weber, in which Banua-Simon’s great-grandfather was an extra. Banua-Simon uses this personal trivia as a way to dive into the egregious ways the island (and its people) have been depicted […]
The post Hawaiian History and Hypergentrification: Anthony Banua-Simon on Cane Fire first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Hawaiian History and Hypergentrification: Anthony Banua-Simon on Cane Fire first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/24/2022
- by Erik Luers
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Anthony Banua-Simon’s nonfiction feature debut, Cane Fire, is a personal family history, historical explainer of sugar production, ode to union organizing and expose of a Hawaiian island’s mistreatment of its native people. Each of these elements are connected. Focusing on the island of Kaua’i, one of the most photographed areas of land in countless Hollywood productions, Cane Fire derives its title from a (now lost) 1934 film directed by Lois Weber, in which Banua-Simon’s great-grandfather was an extra. Banua-Simon uses this personal trivia as a way to dive into the egregious ways the island (and its people) have been depicted […]
The post Hawaiian History and Hypergentrification: Anthony Banua-Simon on Cane Fire first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Hawaiian History and Hypergentrification: Anthony Banua-Simon on Cane Fire first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/24/2022
- by Erik Luers
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
By Glenn Dunks
A history of exploitation unfurls in Anthony Banua-Simon’s Cane Fire like the plot of a Hollywood movie. A deeply empathetic documentary, Cane Fire takes its title from a Lois Weber film, White Heat. That film, Weber’s last from 1934, is considered lost and survives only in images and fragments. As Banua-Simon shows, that is a lot like the non-white population of the island of Kaua’i, where it was filmed, who have been worked until their backs were broken by a series of industries that have crushed and sapped the non-white population like you would strip bare sugar cane.
First it was sugar cane and pineapples, then Hollywood who used locals as extras in bright and colourful productions starring big names like Elvis Presley and John Wayne. Today it’s tourism—an industry that has caused Hawaii more broadly to become the most expensive state to live in,...
A history of exploitation unfurls in Anthony Banua-Simon’s Cane Fire like the plot of a Hollywood movie. A deeply empathetic documentary, Cane Fire takes its title from a Lois Weber film, White Heat. That film, Weber’s last from 1934, is considered lost and survives only in images and fragments. As Banua-Simon shows, that is a lot like the non-white population of the island of Kaua’i, where it was filmed, who have been worked until their backs were broken by a series of industries that have crushed and sapped the non-white population like you would strip bare sugar cane.
First it was sugar cane and pineapples, then Hollywood who used locals as extras in bright and colourful productions starring big names like Elvis Presley and John Wayne. Today it’s tourism—an industry that has caused Hawaii more broadly to become the most expensive state to live in,...
- 5/18/2022
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
While director Anthony Banua-Simon uses the revelation as a sort of “gotcha” moment to end his documentary Cane Fire, hearing Kauai-native Larry Rivera—an entertainer who performed at the Coco Palms before it was destroyed in a hurricane, who rubbed elbows with the likes of Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby—admit the only “Hawaiian legends” he knows are the ones his former boss Grace Guslander fabricated to awe tourists isn’t really a surprise. He and co-writer Michael Vass set the table for that truth too well throughout their deep dive into the island’s colonial legacy, separating allies from exploiters and ancestors from opportunists. That doesn’t make Rivera a villain. It simply shows the insidiousness of the systematic destruction and appropriation of Hawaiian culture and land.
We’re transported back to the origins of the Hawaii we know as the 50th state of America. Captain Cook arrives, white plantation owners follow,...
We’re transported back to the origins of the Hawaii we know as the 50th state of America. Captain Cook arrives, white plantation owners follow,...
- 5/17/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Audrey Diwan’s Happening launched New Directors/New Films in April, mesmerizing viewers with the story of a brilliant literature student from a working-class background seeking an abortion to keep her life from derailing. In 1963 France the procedure was illegal. The suspense builds with each week a new chapter title as she seeks help from doctors, friends, the boy she slept with, and her body continue to change. Everyone backs away, judgmental, terrified of being thrown in prison for helping, or both.
‘Happening’ took the Golden Lion in Venice last year. Star Anamaria Vartolomei won the César Award for best newcomer Deadline review here. Diwan and Marcia Romano wrote the screenplay based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Annie Ernaux.
IFC Films releases ‘Happening’ (L’événement) in four theaters this weekend – IFC Center/Lincoln Plaza in New York, the Landmark/the Grove in LA, expanding thereafter a bit faster than anticipated.
‘Happening’ took the Golden Lion in Venice last year. Star Anamaria Vartolomei won the César Award for best newcomer Deadline review here. Diwan and Marcia Romano wrote the screenplay based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Annie Ernaux.
IFC Films releases ‘Happening’ (L’événement) in four theaters this weekend – IFC Center/Lincoln Plaza in New York, the Landmark/the Grove in LA, expanding thereafter a bit faster than anticipated.
- 5/6/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Morgan Neville’s company Tremolo Productions is officially in production of an untitled Andy Kaufman documentary alongside Josh and Benny Safdie’s Elara Pictures. The Emmy-nominated Alex Braverman will direct the feature-length film.
“No matter how many times I watch Andy Kaufman’s work, I feel like I’m seeing a magic trick for the very first time,” Braverman said. “I’m excited for our project to honor that. This is the film I’ve wanted to make my entire life.”
The Safdie brothers will executive produce the project alongside Rick Rubin and Braverman’s father Chuck Braverman, who produced Kaufman’s 1980 special “Andy Kaufman Plays Carnegie Hall.” Wavelength founder and CEO Jennifer Westphal also will executive produce.
Wavelength and Tremolo had previously worked together on the 2018 Mr. Roger’s documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” directed by Neville. This documentary also marks the second time Neville and Rubin have worked together on a project,...
“No matter how many times I watch Andy Kaufman’s work, I feel like I’m seeing a magic trick for the very first time,” Braverman said. “I’m excited for our project to honor that. This is the film I’ve wanted to make my entire life.”
The Safdie brothers will executive produce the project alongside Rick Rubin and Braverman’s father Chuck Braverman, who produced Kaufman’s 1980 special “Andy Kaufman Plays Carnegie Hall.” Wavelength founder and CEO Jennifer Westphal also will executive produce.
Wavelength and Tremolo had previously worked together on the 2018 Mr. Roger’s documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” directed by Neville. This documentary also marks the second time Neville and Rubin have worked together on a project,...
- 4/13/2022
- by Wilson Chapman and Carson Burton
- Variety Film + TV
For the first time in Academy history in 2021, two women (Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell) were nominated for Best Director. For the 2022 Oscars, a female director (Jane Campion) received a second nomination in the same category for the first time. Although women have often been overlooked in the Best Director category, there is a rich history of filmmaking from women throughout the history of the industry, with many taking charge of their production by multitasking in various areas of the filmmaking process.
To celebrate March as Women’s History Month, let’s look back at some of the contributions of female filmmakers, and the recognition their films have received from the Academy.
One of the first directors in history was a French woman named Alice Guy-Blache, who directed over 400 shorts beginning in 1896. In 1911, Lois Weber became the first prominent American female director, and was one of the most successful filmmakers...
To celebrate March as Women’s History Month, let’s look back at some of the contributions of female filmmakers, and the recognition their films have received from the Academy.
One of the first directors in history was a French woman named Alice Guy-Blache, who directed over 400 shorts beginning in 1896. In 1911, Lois Weber became the first prominent American female director, and was one of the most successful filmmakers...
- 3/11/2022
- by Susan Pennington and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
For the first time in Academy history in 2021, two women (Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell) were nominated for Best Director. For the 2022 Oscars, a female director (Jane Campion) received a second nomination in the same category for the first time. Although women have often been overlooked in the Best Director category, there is a rich history of filmmaking from women throughout the history of the industry, with many taking charge of their production by multitasking in various areas of the filmmaking process.
To celebrate March as Women’s History Month, let’s look back at some of the contributions of female filmmakers, and the recognition their films have received from the Academy.
One of the first directors in history was a French woman named Alice Guy-Blache, who directed over 400 shorts beginning in 1896. In 1911, Lois Weber became the first prominent American female director, and was one of the most successful filmmakers...
To celebrate March as Women’s History Month, let’s look back at some of the contributions of female filmmakers, and the recognition their films have received from the Academy.
One of the first directors in history was a French woman named Alice Guy-Blache, who directed over 400 shorts beginning in 1896. In 1911, Lois Weber became the first prominent American female director, and was one of the most successful filmmakers...
- 3/9/2022
- by Susan Pennington, Chris Beachum and Misty Holland
- Gold Derby
If you weren’t around at the time, it’s hard to communicate just what a splashy, dominating place the Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller occupied during the 1970s. Wertmüller, who died on Thursday at 93, was far from the first celebrated woman director — just think of Agnès Varda, Shirley Clarke, Elaine May, Lois Weber, Ida Lupino, Dorothy Arzner, or Barbara Loden. But apart from the infamous Leni Riefenstahl, it’s fair to say that Wertmüller was the first woman filmmaker to become a household name. She was the first to receive an Academy Award nomination for best director, the first to adorn the cover of major magazines, the first to rule and own the zeitgeist.
And rule it she did. “Swept Away,” Wertmüller’s controversial 1974 drama about a wealthy snob (Mariangela Melato) and one of her lowly yacht crew members (Giancarlo Giannini), who wind up swapping roles after the two are stranded on a desert island,...
And rule it she did. “Swept Away,” Wertmüller’s controversial 1974 drama about a wealthy snob (Mariangela Melato) and one of her lowly yacht crew members (Giancarlo Giannini), who wind up swapping roles after the two are stranded on a desert island,...
- 12/10/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
by Cláudio Alves
In such works as his Story of Film and Women Make Film, Mark Cousins has put forward the idea that film history is sexist by omission. That's undeniable when one considers the case of the many women film pioneers who saw their achievements overshadowed by and even misattributed to their male colleagues. Lois Weber, who's currently being celebrated on the Criterion Channel, is one of those filmmakers whose legacy has been usurped, forgotten, despite both its quality and importance. The fact most of her 140 films are lost doesn't help matters. However, the few that have survived speak of an accomplished visual storyteller, political artist, and fearless provocateur. I think every cinephile should know about Lois Weber, and here's why…...
In such works as his Story of Film and Women Make Film, Mark Cousins has put forward the idea that film history is sexist by omission. That's undeniable when one considers the case of the many women film pioneers who saw their achievements overshadowed by and even misattributed to their male colleagues. Lois Weber, who's currently being celebrated on the Criterion Channel, is one of those filmmakers whose legacy has been usurped, forgotten, despite both its quality and importance. The fact most of her 140 films are lost doesn't help matters. However, the few that have survived speak of an accomplished visual storyteller, political artist, and fearless provocateur. I think every cinephile should know about Lois Weber, and here's why…...
- 6/3/2021
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
While the summer movie season will kick off shortly––and we’ll be sharing a comprehensive preview on the arthouse, foreign, indie, and (few) studio films worth checking out––on the streaming side, The Criterion Channel and Mubi have unveiled their May 2021 lineups and there’s a treasure trove of highlights to dive into.
Timed with Satyajit Ray’s centenary, The Criterion Channel will have a retrospective of the Indian master, along with series on Gena Rowlands, Robert Ryan, Mitchell Leisen, Michael Almereyda, Josephine Decker, and more. In terms of recent releases, they’ll also feature Fire Will Come, The Booksellers, and the new restoration of Tom Noonan’s directorial debut What Happened Was….
On Mubi, in anticipation of Undine, they’ll feature two essential early features by Christian Petzold, Jerichow and The State That I Am In, along with his 1990 short documentary Süden. Also amongst the lineup is Sophy Romvari’s Still Processing,...
Timed with Satyajit Ray’s centenary, The Criterion Channel will have a retrospective of the Indian master, along with series on Gena Rowlands, Robert Ryan, Mitchell Leisen, Michael Almereyda, Josephine Decker, and more. In terms of recent releases, they’ll also feature Fire Will Come, The Booksellers, and the new restoration of Tom Noonan’s directorial debut What Happened Was….
On Mubi, in anticipation of Undine, they’ll feature two essential early features by Christian Petzold, Jerichow and The State That I Am In, along with his 1990 short documentary Süden. Also amongst the lineup is Sophy Romvari’s Still Processing,...
- 4/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
“The Dark Knight,” “Shrek,” “Grease,” “The Blues Brothers,” “Lillies of the Field,” “The Hurt Locker,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Joy Luck Club” and “The Man With the Golden Arm” are among this year’s additions to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
“This is not only a great honor for all of us who worked on ‘The Dark Knight,’ this is also a tribute to all of the amazing artists and writers who have worked on the great mythology of Batman over the decades,” said Christopher Nolan, director of “The Dark Knight.”
“Lillies of the Field” star Sidney Poitier, who became the first Black person to win the Oscar for best actor, said, “‘Lilies of the Field’ stirs up such great remembrances in our family, from the littlest Poitiers watching a young and agile ‘Papa’ to the oldest – Papa Sidney himself!”
Janet Yang, producer of “The Joy Luck Club,...
“This is not only a great honor for all of us who worked on ‘The Dark Knight,’ this is also a tribute to all of the amazing artists and writers who have worked on the great mythology of Batman over the decades,” said Christopher Nolan, director of “The Dark Knight.”
“Lillies of the Field” star Sidney Poitier, who became the first Black person to win the Oscar for best actor, said, “‘Lilies of the Field’ stirs up such great remembrances in our family, from the littlest Poitiers watching a young and agile ‘Papa’ to the oldest – Papa Sidney himself!”
Janet Yang, producer of “The Joy Luck Club,...
- 12/14/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
The Library of Congress has unveiled its annual list of 25 movies to make the cut for the National Film Registry. The selection this year, considered among America’s most influential motion pictures, includes such titles as Christopher Nolan’s 2008 The Dark Knight; DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek, 1978 summer musical smash Grease and 1980 John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd comedy The Blues Brothers.
The list also notably shines a spotlight this year on diverse stories and filmmakers including Wayne Wang’s 1993 The Joy Luck Club; 1963’s Lilies Of The Field, for which Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win the Oscar for Best Actor; Melvin Van Peebles’ 1971 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song; 2010 documentary Freedom Riders; and 1982’s Losing Ground from Kathleen Collins.
Out of the 25 movies selected, there is a record number of films directed by women including Losing Ground, as well as Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar winner The Hurt Locker, 1913 silent film Suspense,...
The list also notably shines a spotlight this year on diverse stories and filmmakers including Wayne Wang’s 1993 The Joy Luck Club; 1963’s Lilies Of The Field, for which Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win the Oscar for Best Actor; Melvin Van Peebles’ 1971 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song; 2010 documentary Freedom Riders; and 1982’s Losing Ground from Kathleen Collins.
Out of the 25 movies selected, there is a record number of films directed by women including Losing Ground, as well as Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar winner The Hurt Locker, 1913 silent film Suspense,...
- 12/14/2020
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
[Editor’s note: The below piece was originally published on February 26, 2019. It has been expanded from the 100 greatest films directed by women of all time to the 111 greatest, as of October 3, 2020.]
For as long as there have been movies, there have been women making them. When the Lumière brothers were shocking audiences with their unbelievable depiction of a running train, Alice Guy-Blaché was pioneering her own techniques in the brand-new artform. When D.W. Griffith was pioneering advances in the art, and building his own studio to make his work, Lois Weber was doing, well, the exact same thing.
When Hollywood was deep in its Golden Age, Dorothy Arzner, Dorothy Davenport, Tressie Souders, and many more women were right there, making their own films. It’s not even a trend that really abated, because it was never a trend. For so long, women being filmmakers was simply part of the norm, and while recent studies have made it clear that the industry needs a wake-up call when it comes to the skills of some of our finest working filmmakers (who just so...
For as long as there have been movies, there have been women making them. When the Lumière brothers were shocking audiences with their unbelievable depiction of a running train, Alice Guy-Blaché was pioneering her own techniques in the brand-new artform. When D.W. Griffith was pioneering advances in the art, and building his own studio to make his work, Lois Weber was doing, well, the exact same thing.
When Hollywood was deep in its Golden Age, Dorothy Arzner, Dorothy Davenport, Tressie Souders, and many more women were right there, making their own films. It’s not even a trend that really abated, because it was never a trend. For so long, women being filmmakers was simply part of the norm, and while recent studies have made it clear that the industry needs a wake-up call when it comes to the skills of some of our finest working filmmakers (who just so...
- 10/3/2020
- by Kate Erbland, Eric Kohn, Christian Blauvelt, Anne Thompson, David Ehrlich, Chris O'Falt, Zack Sharf, Jude Dry, Tom Brueggemann, Bill Desowitz, Tambay Obenson and Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
“Women Make Film.” The title of Irish film savant Mark Cousins’ sprawling 14-hour follow-up to “The Story of Film” serves both as a statement of fact and, if punctuated slightly differently, a call to action: “Women, Make Film!”
Where the earlier documentary was a monumental survey of the medium, attempting to cram its entire history into a single project, with footage shot through the windshields of cars on nearly every continent. He and editor Timo Langer have assembled montage upon montage of magic moments, the vast majority plucked from films even I was unfamiliar with, amounting to an invaluable film appreciation workshop. It’s ideal for those with open minds and eclectic tastes, such as festival audiences and subscribers of Turner Classic Movies and The Criterion Channel, where the film can be absorbed in bite-size chunks.
“This is a film school of sorts in which all the teachers are women,...
Where the earlier documentary was a monumental survey of the medium, attempting to cram its entire history into a single project, with footage shot through the windshields of cars on nearly every continent. He and editor Timo Langer have assembled montage upon montage of magic moments, the vast majority plucked from films even I was unfamiliar with, amounting to an invaluable film appreciation workshop. It’s ideal for those with open minds and eclectic tastes, such as festival audiences and subscribers of Turner Classic Movies and The Criterion Channel, where the film can be absorbed in bite-size chunks.
“This is a film school of sorts in which all the teachers are women,...
- 9/1/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
While the detail of the history of Kaua'i is shown to be complicated by Anthony Banua-Simon's well-structured documentary about the Hawaiian island, it is also depressingly familiar - a story of the might of big business, colonialism, cultural appropriation and the disenfranchisement of the indigenous population that, as in so many places across the globe, has proved stubbornly resilient to change.
The Cane Fire of the title refers to the first of more than 100 films and TV shows to be shot on Kaua'i - from South Pacific to Fantasy Island. Made in 1934 by Lois Weber, the film - now lost - tackles a relationship between a colonialist and an indigenous young woman and builds to a rebellious conflagration. Banua-Simon uses film clips throughout this documentary, to illustrate the way people's perception of Hawaii has been shaped by them, showing along the way how the local populace are almost always relegated to.
The Cane Fire of the title refers to the first of more than 100 films and TV shows to be shot on Kaua'i - from South Pacific to Fantasy Island. Made in 1934 by Lois Weber, the film - now lost - tackles a relationship between a colonialist and an indigenous young woman and builds to a rebellious conflagration. Banua-Simon uses film clips throughout this documentary, to illustrate the way people's perception of Hawaii has been shaped by them, showing along the way how the local populace are almost always relegated to.
- 6/5/2020
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The denizens of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences need to get their eyesight checked. 2019 was another watershed year for women on and off-screen, even if the accolades accrued at the Golden Globes and Oscars did not reflect it. Greta Gerwig released her highly anticipated Little Women, Olivia Wilde made her directorial debut with the sassy, Gen Z Booksmart, Big Little Lies Season 2 aired on HBO, and a slew of films ushered in a horror renaissance featuring astonishing female leads including Florence Pugh in Midsommar and Lupita Nyong’o in Us. But 2019 also marked a year of great loss: the prolific filmmaker Barbara Hammer passed away, as did luminary Agnès Varda and the performance artist and experimental filmmaker, Carolee Schneemann. Which is to say, women were in the news when it came to cinema; some of us just had to know where to look.
While feminist film theory from...
While feminist film theory from...
- 3/8/2020
- by jbindeck2015
- Den of Geek
The passing of a fabled star like Kirk Douglas always prompts obits that are respectful, if not adulatory, replete with a signature photo – Spartacus in Douglas’ case. But now a major re-think is overtaking the obit business. Yes, even death is getting a makeover, as evidenced in several arenas.
A new documentary, Overlooked, analyzing the evolution of obits will shortly emerge from Netflix and the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground. Paramount Television is partnering with the New York Times on a doc about the rituals of obit writing. Revisionist attitudes are also explored in Mobituaries, a witty if snarky new book by Mo Rocca, the CBS commentator.
The “new journalism” of obit writing may be good news for the deceased, but the revisionist trend may also stir political angst. “Men have to accept the fact that, in the new world of diversity, they may become second-class corpses,” confides one veteran...
A new documentary, Overlooked, analyzing the evolution of obits will shortly emerge from Netflix and the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground. Paramount Television is partnering with the New York Times on a doc about the rituals of obit writing. Revisionist attitudes are also explored in Mobituaries, a witty if snarky new book by Mo Rocca, the CBS commentator.
The “new journalism” of obit writing may be good news for the deceased, but the revisionist trend may also stir political angst. “Men have to accept the fact that, in the new world of diversity, they may become second-class corpses,” confides one veteran...
- 2/28/2020
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
This exemplary free-to-use site, which presents the newly restored riches of Denmark’s early cinema archive, is well worth shouting about…
Silent film’s place in the streaming realm is a conflicted one: it’s at once ubiquitous and oddly hard to find. Which is to say there’s plenty of it lying around online, often free of charge. The Internet Archive, much praised in this column, is obviously rich in early cinema gems if you can negotiate some circuitous searching, while YouTube is awash in soundless classics and curios alike, albeit in variable states of repair. (At least sound quality is never an issue.)
Netflix has more to offer than you’d expect at first glance. The streaming giant’s back catalogue of classics may have dwindled, yet it’s still the place to find a neat transfer of, for example, trailblazing female film-maker Lois Weber’s landmark abortion drama Where Are My Children?...
Silent film’s place in the streaming realm is a conflicted one: it’s at once ubiquitous and oddly hard to find. Which is to say there’s plenty of it lying around online, often free of charge. The Internet Archive, much praised in this column, is obviously rich in early cinema gems if you can negotiate some circuitous searching, while YouTube is awash in soundless classics and curios alike, albeit in variable states of repair. (At least sound quality is never an issue.)
Netflix has more to offer than you’d expect at first glance. The streaming giant’s back catalogue of classics may have dwindled, yet it’s still the place to find a neat transfer of, for example, trailblazing female film-maker Lois Weber’s landmark abortion drama Where Are My Children?...
- 11/30/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
With his epic fourteen-hour documentary “Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema,” writer/director Mark Cousins doesn’t skimp in his continuing pursuit to celebrate female filmmakers. Set to finally screen at its full-length (in five parts) next month at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie is narrated by an eclectic list of voices.
UK actresses Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton, New Zealander Kerry Fox, India icon Sharmila Tagore, and Hollywood star Debra Winger all join previously announced narrators Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton, who is an executive producer. Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which debuted at Venice 2018.
“We have 11 decades of women making films,” Swinton told IndieWire. “Another slight tweak of the goalpost is talking about women filmmakers. Women have made films since Mary Pickford onwards in incredible numbers. We know who made Hitchcock’s films with him (Alma Reville), but we don’t focus on it.
UK actresses Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton, New Zealander Kerry Fox, India icon Sharmila Tagore, and Hollywood star Debra Winger all join previously announced narrators Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton, who is an executive producer. Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which debuted at Venice 2018.
“We have 11 decades of women making films,” Swinton told IndieWire. “Another slight tweak of the goalpost is talking about women filmmakers. Women have made films since Mary Pickford onwards in incredible numbers. We know who made Hitchcock’s films with him (Alma Reville), but we don’t focus on it.
- 8/14/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
With his epic fourteen-hour documentary “Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema,” writer/director Mark Cousins doesn’t skimp in his continuing pursuit to celebrate female filmmakers. Set to finally screen at its full-length (in five parts) next month at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie is narrated by an eclectic list of voices.
UK actresses Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton, New Zealander Kerry Fox, India icon Sharmila Tagore, and Hollywood star Debra Winger all join previously announced narrators Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton, who is an executive producer. Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which debuted at Venice 2018.
“We have 11 decades of women making films,” Swinton told IndieWire. “Another slight tweak of the goalpost is talking about women filmmakers. Women have made films since Mary Pickford onwards in incredible numbers. We know who made Hitchcock’s films with him (Alma Reville), but we don’t focus on it.
UK actresses Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton, New Zealander Kerry Fox, India icon Sharmila Tagore, and Hollywood star Debra Winger all join previously announced narrators Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton, who is an executive producer. Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which debuted at Venice 2018.
“We have 11 decades of women making films,” Swinton told IndieWire. “Another slight tweak of the goalpost is talking about women filmmakers. Women have made films since Mary Pickford onwards in incredible numbers. We know who made Hitchcock’s films with him (Alma Reville), but we don’t focus on it.
- 8/14/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
It has been 15 years since the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media was founded, and there is still a lot of important work to be done. The actress and producer has worked tirelessly with her team to research the statistics on women working in the entertainment industry, taking that data “privately and directly to the creators and saying, ‘Hey, did you know this?'” But, Davis points out, she is never there to “shame or blame anybody.” After the data is presented, it is up to those in power to consciously choose to change the way they hire.
Now, Davis has lent her own power to Tom Donahue’s documentary, “This Changes Everything,” which is designed to shine a more public light on the imbalances both in front of and behind the camera that still exist today.
“Perhaps the behind the camera imbalance is a conscious gender bias and perhaps on-screen is more unconscious,...
Now, Davis has lent her own power to Tom Donahue’s documentary, “This Changes Everything,” which is designed to shine a more public light on the imbalances both in front of and behind the camera that still exist today.
“Perhaps the behind the camera imbalance is a conscious gender bias and perhaps on-screen is more unconscious,...
- 8/9/2019
- by Danielle Turchiano
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWanuri Kahiu on the set of RafikiRafiki director Wanuri Kahiu has announced her latest project, an adaptation of Octavia Butler's 1980 Wild Seed, produced by Viola Davis and written by novelist Nnedi Okorafor. Butler's novel follows two immortal African beings whose tumultuous rivalry takes them across pre-colonial West Africa to a plantation in the American South. Recommended VIEWINGFrom March 20–April 2, Vdrome is screening Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil's documentary Inaate/Se/ [it shines a certain way. to a certain place/it flies. falls./]. The film "imagines new indigenous futures, looking simultaneously backward and forward." The new trailer for Hong Sang-soo's Grass is at once simple and cryptic, conveying one of many mysteries encountered by a young writer observing intimate interactions in a bustling cafe. The dreamy, video game-inspired images of Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel's Jessica Forever come to life in a new trailer.
- 3/27/2019
- MUBI
In honor of Women's History Month, this March, Syfy Fangrrls is launching a new limited podcast dedicated to women in genre films whose accomplishments have gone unrecognized or have been forgotten. In today's Highlights, we also have details on the California run of Evil Dead The Musical and Popcornflix's first wave of streaming movies with Terror Films.
Syfy Fangrrls Presents Limited Podcast Series Forgotten Women of Genre: "Syfy Wire Fangrrls present: Forgotten Women of Genre.
March is Women's History Month and while Syfy Fangrrls celebrates women's achievements throughout the year, they’re going above and beyond for the upcoming month with a limited podcast series called Forgotten Women of Genre.
Science fiction, fantasy, and all associated genres have finally evolved from a niche interest into a mainstream staple. But the women who have been instrumental in creating and shaping the nerdverse have largely gone unrecognized. Until today. Forgotten Women...
Syfy Fangrrls Presents Limited Podcast Series Forgotten Women of Genre: "Syfy Wire Fangrrls present: Forgotten Women of Genre.
March is Women's History Month and while Syfy Fangrrls celebrates women's achievements throughout the year, they’re going above and beyond for the upcoming month with a limited podcast series called Forgotten Women of Genre.
Science fiction, fantasy, and all associated genres have finally evolved from a niche interest into a mainstream staple. But the women who have been instrumental in creating and shaping the nerdverse have largely gone unrecognized. Until today. Forgotten Women...
- 3/18/2019
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAmy Heckerling on the set of the Off Broadway musical of her film Clueless.We are delighted by the news shared by the New York Times that American auteur Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) is producing an Off-Broadway musical of her pop culture landmark film (and so much more!), Clueless. For more on the director, read our 2016 interview.Recommended VIEWINGMarcelo Martinessi's lovely debut film The Heiresses, a delicate drama focusing on the self-discovery of a wealthy, middle-aged queer women in Paraguay, gets an English trailer. We reviewed the film at the 68th Berlinale held earlier this year.The Criterion Collection produced this lovely video exploring the birth and programming vision of New York's Walter Reade cinema. Recommended READINGIt's that time of the year again: Year-end lists of the best films of 2018 have...
- 12/12/2018
- MUBI
When it opens its doors late next year, the $388 million Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will feature exhibits designed to capture the interest of movie fans and historians alike, making it “the first institution of its scope and scale devoted to the past, present, and future of cinema,” the Museum said today in announcing its plans for the opening.
“The Museum’s exhibitions are as expansive and imaginative as the movies we love,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson in a release distributed during a luncheon today at the Petersen Automotive Museum across Wilshire Boulevard from the construction stie. “With its piazza and open spaces, the Museum will be a gathering place for film lovers and will invite people from all over the world to re-experience and deepen our collective love of this art form, accessible to all.”
A long-term exhibit, tentatively titled “Where Dreams Are Made: A Journey Inside the Movies,...
“The Museum’s exhibitions are as expansive and imaginative as the movies we love,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson in a release distributed during a luncheon today at the Petersen Automotive Museum across Wilshire Boulevard from the construction stie. “With its piazza and open spaces, the Museum will be a gathering place for film lovers and will invite people from all over the world to re-experience and deepen our collective love of this art form, accessible to all.”
A long-term exhibit, tentatively titled “Where Dreams Are Made: A Journey Inside the Movies,...
- 12/4/2018
- by David Robb
- Deadline Film + TV
There will be the expected crowd-pleasers: a gallery devoted to the making of The Wizard of Oz, complete with Dorothy's ruby slippers; a backdrop from Singin' in the Rain; and spotlights on screen icons from Humphrey Bogart to Marilyn Monroe. But as it balances the demands of serving both starstruck tourists and serious film scholars, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures also promises to explore less familiar corners of film history, acknowledging pioneering silent movie directors Alice Guy-Blache and Lois Weber and the early black movies created by African-American director-producer Oscar Micheaux.
"It's really important that it's a full ...
"It's really important that it's a full ...
- 12/4/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
There will be the expected crowd-pleasers: a gallery devoted to the making of The Wizard of Oz, complete with Dorothy's ruby slippers; a backdrop from Singin' in the Rain; and spotlights on screen icons from Humphrey Bogart to Marilyn Monroe. But as it balances the demands of serving both starstruck tourists and serious film scholars, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures also promises to explore less familiar corners of film history, acknowledging pioneering silent movie directors Alice Guy-Blache and Lois Weber and the early black movies created by African-American director-producer Oscar Micheaux.
"It's really important that it's a full ...
"It's really important that it's a full ...
- 12/4/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In among Venice’s typically stellar documentary line-up was Northern Irish director Mark Cousins’ next film: Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema.
More details are emerging today about the episodic 16-hour documentary, whose first four hours will debut on the Lido and be narrated by Tilda Swinton. The film will celebrate female directors from around the world.
The project is produced by Hopscotch Films, with Dogwoof handling world sales. Swinton will also serve as an executive producer on the movie, which is debuting in Venice’s Classics strand.
Cousins writes and directs, with John Archer from Hopscotch producing. Four years in the making and still in production, the finished film will be ready in spring 2019.
The epic undertaking is made up of forty chapters to be narrated by Swinton and other leading women in cinema who have yet to be announced. According to the production, “using almost...
More details are emerging today about the episodic 16-hour documentary, whose first four hours will debut on the Lido and be narrated by Tilda Swinton. The film will celebrate female directors from around the world.
The project is produced by Hopscotch Films, with Dogwoof handling world sales. Swinton will also serve as an executive producer on the movie, which is debuting in Venice’s Classics strand.
Cousins writes and directs, with John Archer from Hopscotch producing. Four years in the making and still in production, the finished film will be ready in spring 2019.
The epic undertaking is made up of forty chapters to be narrated by Swinton and other leading women in cinema who have yet to be announced. According to the production, “using almost...
- 7/31/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe controversial production of Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovskiy's Dau has come to an end, and there is now a trailer and a promotional website to prove it. The film was rumored to have taken nearly twelve years, recruiting a cast and crew of thousands in an isolated town that recreated life in the 1950s Soviet Union. Dau will likely be released as multiple films and a television series, but the new trailer presents it as primarily an "experiment." As Siddhant Adlakha says in his 2017 dissection of the film, "the remaining details, both factual and emotional, are still speculation that falls in the realm of audience interpretation." Professor and Kubrick expert Nathan Abrams has discovered the presumably lost screenplay to Kubrick's Burning Secret, an adaptation of a 1913 novella by Viennese writer Stefan Zweig. Long...
- 7/18/2018
- MUBI
There’s an alarming degree of disingenuousness, or perhaps merely naiveté, permeating “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.” To begin with, there’s that title, “The Untold Story,” which ignores a number of earlier documentaries not to mention the significant amount of scholarship on pioneering filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché. Also omitted is any mention of the 2009 Gaumont and Kino DVD box sets that made 66 of her films available. These are what can be called inconvenient truths, for Pamela B. Green, director of “Be Natural,” is on a mission to discover why — supposedly — no one has ever heard of Alice Guy-Blaché.
As Green tells it, the reason is pure and simple: Because she was a woman, Guy-Blaché was written out of the history books. That’s not entirely wrong. Alice Guy, as she was then known, was present at the very start of the film industry and played a crucial...
As Green tells it, the reason is pure and simple: Because she was a woman, Guy-Blaché was written out of the history books. That’s not entirely wrong. Alice Guy, as she was then known, was present at the very start of the film industry and played a crucial...
- 5/31/2018
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
Cannes ’18 Review by Peter BelsitoThis may be the best film I saw at Cannes and is largely unknown as is its subject. The female director this film is about largely invented filmmaking as we know it and directed 1000 plus films of all types beginning in the 1890s and continuing for 20 years in Europe and the Us. She was then shuffled aside by the industry and her role and contributions then ignored.
This new film about her was directed, edited and co-written (with Joan Simon) by Emmy-nominated Pamela B. Green and largely funded with Kickstarter and sympathetic movers and shakers like Redford (whose Wildwood Enterprises is listed as a production company) and the late Hefner, a film aficionado.
It would seem irresistible, and even prominently features Academy President John Bailey (charmingly going in search of one of the first movie cameras) among its many interviewees and participants.
But who is Alice...
This new film about her was directed, edited and co-written (with Joan Simon) by Emmy-nominated Pamela B. Green and largely funded with Kickstarter and sympathetic movers and shakers like Redford (whose Wildwood Enterprises is listed as a production company) and the late Hefner, a film aficionado.
It would seem irresistible, and even prominently features Academy President John Bailey (charmingly going in search of one of the first movie cameras) among its many interviewees and participants.
But who is Alice...
- 5/29/2018
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Recently completing one of the longest shoots of his career with The Irishman, most other directors would consider that an accomplishment enough, but in between takes, Martin Scorsese somehow found time to construct a new curriculum as part of his “The Story of Movies” film course, produced with his company Film Foundation. This latest edition is “Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” and is free for students. However, if one would just like to follow along with their own personal screenings, the full list is available.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing. For young people born into this world now, it’s absolutely crucial that they get guided,” Scorsese says (via IndieWire). “They have to learn how to sort the differences between art and pure commerce, between cinema and content, between the secrets of images that are individually crafted and the secrets of images that are mass-produced.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing. For young people born into this world now, it’s absolutely crucial that they get guided,” Scorsese says (via IndieWire). “They have to learn how to sort the differences between art and pure commerce, between cinema and content, between the secrets of images that are individually crafted and the secrets of images that are mass-produced.
- 3/29/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Martin Scorsese and his nonprofit organization The Film Foundation have announced their brand-new film curriculum, “Portraits of America: Democracy on Film.” The curriculum is the latest addition to the group’s ongoing film course “The Story of Movies,” which aims to teach students how to read the language of film and place motion pictures in the context of history, art, and society. Both “Democracy on Film” and the course are completely free for schools and universities.
“Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” is broken down into eight different sections, all of which include in-depth looks at some of the most important American films ever made, from Chaplin to Ford, Coppola, Spielberg, and ultimately Scorsese himself. The program is presented in partnership with Afscme. Scorsese announced the curriculum at a March 27 press conference in New York City.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing,” Scorsese explained. “For...
“Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” is broken down into eight different sections, all of which include in-depth looks at some of the most important American films ever made, from Chaplin to Ford, Coppola, Spielberg, and ultimately Scorsese himself. The program is presented in partnership with Afscme. Scorsese announced the curriculum at a March 27 press conference in New York City.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing,” Scorsese explained. “For...
- 3/27/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
No, the movie star Ingrid Bergman was never a starlet with a seven-year contract, and her stellar career didn’t begin opposite Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. It all happened in Sweden, where she turned herself into a screen sensation in just a couple of years. Eclipse’s six-disc set shows the immediate success of the daring Bergman, but also her acting range — her sterling qualities seem fully formed even in her first features.
Ingrid Bergman’s Swedish Years: Eclipse Series 46
The Count of the Old Town, Walpurgis Night, Intermezzo, Dollar, A Woman’s Face, June Night
DVD
1935-1940 / B&W / 1:37 full frame / 82, 79, 92, 77, 100, 89 min. / Street Date April 10, 2018 / available through The Criterion Collection / 55.96
Starring: Ingrid Bergman
Directed by Edvin Adolphson & Sigurd Wallén; Gustaf Edgren; Gustaf Molander; Gustaf Molander; Gustaf Molander; Per Lindberg
With the example of Greta Garbo preceding her by a decade, Ingrid Bergman decided early on that Sweden would...
Ingrid Bergman’s Swedish Years: Eclipse Series 46
The Count of the Old Town, Walpurgis Night, Intermezzo, Dollar, A Woman’s Face, June Night
DVD
1935-1940 / B&W / 1:37 full frame / 82, 79, 92, 77, 100, 89 min. / Street Date April 10, 2018 / available through The Criterion Collection / 55.96
Starring: Ingrid Bergman
Directed by Edvin Adolphson & Sigurd Wallén; Gustaf Edgren; Gustaf Molander; Gustaf Molander; Gustaf Molander; Per Lindberg
With the example of Greta Garbo preceding her by a decade, Ingrid Bergman decided early on that Sweden would...
- 3/20/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
We may not have film of the legendary actresses Lily Langtree or Sara Bernhardt to enjoy, but now we can see the famed Anna Pavlova dance and act, in an epic-length revolutionary saga inspired by a Grand Opera. In conjunction with the BFI and the New York Public Library, The Milestone Cinematheque gives us the full 2015 restored feature. A second disc offers more vintage film clips of the world’s first ballerina with an international touring company.
The Dumb Girl of Portici
Blu-ray
The Milestone Cinematheque
1916 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Aperture / 112 min. / La muette de Portici / Street Date February 6, 2018 / 26.38
Starring: Anna Pavlova (Pavlowa), Rupert Julian, Wadsworth Harris, Douglas Gerrard, John (Jack) Holt, Nigel De Brulier, Lois Wilson.
Cinematography: Dal Clawson, Allen G. Siegler, R. W. Walter
Written by Lois Weber from the opera byDaniel Auber, Germain Delavigne, Eugène Scribe
Produced by Carl Laemmle
Directed by Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley
The...
The Dumb Girl of Portici
Blu-ray
The Milestone Cinematheque
1916 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Aperture / 112 min. / La muette de Portici / Street Date February 6, 2018 / 26.38
Starring: Anna Pavlova (Pavlowa), Rupert Julian, Wadsworth Harris, Douglas Gerrard, John (Jack) Holt, Nigel De Brulier, Lois Wilson.
Cinematography: Dal Clawson, Allen G. Siegler, R. W. Walter
Written by Lois Weber from the opera byDaniel Auber, Germain Delavigne, Eugène Scribe
Produced by Carl Laemmle
Directed by Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley
The...
- 3/10/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Some movies attempted to change social attitudes from the very beginning, and director Lois Weber made that goal her specialty, with a great many enormously popular films of the ‘teens and ‘twenties. Milestone’s disc of a Dutch restoration of this 1916 gem is a major find in terms of film culture: it helps write women filmmakers back into the historical record.
Shoes
Blu-ray
The Milestone Cinematheque
1916 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Ap / 60 min. / Street Date February 6, 2018
Starring: Mary MacLaren, Harry Griffith, Mrs. A.E. Witting, Jessie Arnold, William V. Mong.
Cinematography: King D. Gray, Stephen S. Norton , Allen G. Siegler
New Music: Donald Sosin, Mimi Rabson.
Written by Lois Weber from a story by Stella Wynne Herron, from a book by Jane Addams
Produced by Phillips Smalley, Lois Weber
Directed by Lois Weber
One of the last discoveries in film school was finding out that all silent films didn’t use exaggerated expressionistic acting.
Shoes
Blu-ray
The Milestone Cinematheque
1916 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Ap / 60 min. / Street Date February 6, 2018
Starring: Mary MacLaren, Harry Griffith, Mrs. A.E. Witting, Jessie Arnold, William V. Mong.
Cinematography: King D. Gray, Stephen S. Norton , Allen G. Siegler
New Music: Donald Sosin, Mimi Rabson.
Written by Lois Weber from a story by Stella Wynne Herron, from a book by Jane Addams
Produced by Phillips Smalley, Lois Weber
Directed by Lois Weber
One of the last discoveries in film school was finding out that all silent films didn’t use exaggerated expressionistic acting.
- 2/24/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Star Wars Dialogue is a 5-part dialog between Mike Thorn, Isiah Medina, Chelsea Phillips-Carr, Isaac Goes, and Neil Bahadur about George Lucas's first six films in the Star Wars franchise.Mike Thorn: Considering the influence of silent cinema on the Star Wars films, how might we read Lucas’s series as it relates to D.W. Griffith’s work? I’m thinking very broadly here about some of the formal echoes between the climatic finale of The Birth of a Nation (1915) and that of A New Hope. Isiah Medina: In principle, there is nothing that cannot be reversed, there is no cinematic tactic or strategy that cannot be re-appropriated. Or, as Lucas would have it, there’s nothing that cannot be revised for and with future technological breaks. Okay, let’s say we have a Birth of a Nation ending mixed in with a Triumph of the Will (1935) award ceremony in A New Hope.
- 1/17/2018
- MUBI
Brilliant cinematographer and photographer Svetlana Cvetko has made her directorial debut with Yours Sincerely, Lois Weber. Produced by Elizabeth Banks, Lois Weber is a sweet, nostalgic look back at a...
- 11/29/2017
- by Sasha Stone
- AwardsDaily.com
Editor’s note: The following is an exclusive excerpt from “Film Censorship in America: A State-by-State History” by Jeremy Geltzer. The book, which follows Geltzer’s previous effort “Dirty Words & Filthy Pictures: Film and the First Amendment,” will be released on December 19. In this excerpt, Geltzer explores the forgotten legacy of pioneering female filmmaker Nell Shipman.
Far from the soundstages of Hollywood, Nell Shipman ventured into the wild to produce movies that celebrated independent women in exciting scenarios. Although Shipman’s name may no longer be familiar, she deserves to be remembered as one of cinema’s important female pioneers.
Nell Shipman was born in British Columbia and arrived in Southern California by 1912. She found success as a writer—winning both first and second prize in a scriptwriting contest. In the early days of Hollywood before corporate structure was set in place, several women were able to develop behind-the-scenes power.
Far from the soundstages of Hollywood, Nell Shipman ventured into the wild to produce movies that celebrated independent women in exciting scenarios. Although Shipman’s name may no longer be familiar, she deserves to be remembered as one of cinema’s important female pioneers.
Nell Shipman was born in British Columbia and arrived in Southern California by 1912. She found success as a writer—winning both first and second prize in a scriptwriting contest. In the early days of Hollywood before corporate structure was set in place, several women were able to develop behind-the-scenes power.
- 11/8/2017
- by Indiewire Staff
- Indiewire
“In my young days gentlemen did not smoke while conversing with ladies and they removed their hats!”
The Blot (1921) screens Sunday, Nov. 12th at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The silent film will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Also shown will be the 6-minute short Yours Sincerely, Lois Weber by Svetlana Cvetko. Ticket information can be found Here
The pioneering Lois Weber was one of the first women to direct films, and Sliff honors the filmmaker by screening a recent restoration of her silent “The Blot,” which addresses the all-too-relevant issue of income inequality. The local Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra has created an original score for the film and will perform it live. In the film, Professor Griggs teaches the unmotivated sons of the rich and powerful, but he fails to make a living wage.
The Blot (1921) screens Sunday, Nov. 12th at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The silent film will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Also shown will be the 6-minute short Yours Sincerely, Lois Weber by Svetlana Cvetko. Ticket information can be found Here
The pioneering Lois Weber was one of the first women to direct films, and Sliff honors the filmmaker by screening a recent restoration of her silent “The Blot,” which addresses the all-too-relevant issue of income inequality. The local Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra has created an original score for the film and will perform it live. In the film, Professor Griggs teaches the unmotivated sons of the rich and powerful, but he fails to make a living wage.
- 11/2/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
'The Doll' with Ossi Oswalda and Hermann Thimig: Early Ernst Lubitsch satirical fantasy starring 'the German Mary Pickford' has similar premise to that of the 1925 Buster Keaton comedy 'Seven Chances.' 'The Doll': San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented fast-paced Ernst Lubitsch comedy starring the German Mary Pickford – Ossi Oswalda Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (So This Is Paris, The Wedding March), the 2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival presentation The Doll / Die Puppe (1919) has one of the most amusing mise-en-scènes ever recorded. The set is created by cut-out figures that gradually come to life; then even more cleverly, they commence the fast-paced action. It all begins when a shy, confirmed bachelor, Lancelot (Hermann Thimig), is ordered by his rich uncle (Max Kronert), the Baron von Chanterelle, to marry for a large sum of money. As to be expected, mayhem ensues. Lancelot is forced to flee from the hordes of eligible maidens, eventually...
- 6/28/2017
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
'Amazing Tales from the Archives': Pioneering female documentarian Aloha Wanderwell Baker remembered at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival – along with the largely forgotten sound-on-cylinder technology and the Jean Desmet Collection. 'Amazing Tales from the Archives': San Francisco Silent Film Festival & the 'sound-on-cylinder' system Fans of the earliest sound films would have enjoyed the first presentation at the 2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, held June 1–4: “Amazing Tales from the Archives,” during which Library of Congress' Nitrate Film Vault Manager George Willeman used a wealth of enjoyable film clips to examine the Thomas Edison Kinetophone process. In the years 1913–1914, long before The Jazz Singer and Warner Bros.' sound-on-disc technology, the sound-on-cylinder system invaded the nascent film industry with a collection of “talkies.” The sound was scratchy and muffled, but “recognizable.” Notably, this system focused on dialogue, rather than music or sound effects. As with the making of other recordings at the time, the...
- 6/28/2017
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Mia Hansen-Løve’s portrait of the travails of a middle-aged philosophy teacher is a plum acting vehicle for Isabelle Huppert It steers clear of crazy, extraordinary events to instead offer insights into how real people live and cope. The professor must dip into her subject matter to make sense of her life, and comes up sane. Folks expecting a feel-good satire about ‘goofy’ women can make do with Sally Field in Hello, My Name is Doris. Mia and Isabelle do well here.
Things to Come (2016)
Blu-ray
Mpi Media Group
2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 102 min. / L’avenir / Street Date May 9, 2017 / 19.08
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob, Sarah Le Picard, Solal Forte, Elise Lhomeau, Lionel Dray-Rabotnik.
Cinematography: Denis Lenoir
Film Editor: Marion Monnier
Produced by Charles Gillibert
Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
French actress Isabelle Huppert had a great year in 2016, what with her Oscar nomination for Elle, a...
Things to Come (2016)
Blu-ray
Mpi Media Group
2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 102 min. / L’avenir / Street Date May 9, 2017 / 19.08
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob, Sarah Le Picard, Solal Forte, Elise Lhomeau, Lionel Dray-Rabotnik.
Cinematography: Denis Lenoir
Film Editor: Marion Monnier
Produced by Charles Gillibert
Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
French actress Isabelle Huppert had a great year in 2016, what with her Oscar nomination for Elle, a...
- 5/23/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.