Robert J. Flaherty, 1922. Nanook builds an entire igloo (with an ice-window) in 30 minutes. He hunts seals with spears. He has two wives who sleep naked with him under a giant bear skin. And he starved to death shortly after filming. These all are things Flaherty would like you to believe, but most of them were unfortunately staged or fabricated. Oh well. That’s what happens when you spend two years shooting a documentary only to have your cigarette ignite 30,000 feet of film and compel you to start from scratch.
Tag: film
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Dr. Mabuse the Gambler
Fritz Lang, 1922. Dr. Mabuse is a cheating card shark, master of disguise, criminal mastermind, and diabolical hypnotist. Despite all the excitement of this pioneering crime thriller, I kept nodding in and out of consciousness convincing myself Dr. Mabuse had an undoubted influence on Hitler’s hysterically intense persona. Lots to think about during a four-and-a-half hour silent film.
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Broken Blossoms
D.W. Griffith, 1919. What is it about deranged, axe-wielding men demolishing locked doors protecting terrified women? Turns out Sjöström was not the first to do it either. It was instead Griffith, who seems to be the first to do a lot of things – including making a film about interracial romance between an English waif and a Chinese opium addict.
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The Phantom Carriage
Victor Sjöström, 1922. This scene of Sjöström breaking down the door with an axe was clearly paid homage to in Kubrick’s “The Shining”. Whether it’s the similarity of Dr. Caligari to Penguin in “Batman Returns”, or “Goodfellas” gunshot at the camera à la “The Great Train Robbery”, almost every early film I’ve watched has revealed its influence. The use of light to create such gloomy shadows contributes to this legitimately scary and beautifully photographed film.
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Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages
Benjamin Christensen, 1922. This dramatized documentary is elaborately-designed and oddly fascinating. Scenes include a woman giving birth to demons, Satan bending over to get his ass kissed, witches harvesting human organs, and Satan operating a butter churn.