The Survival of American Silent Feature Films

The Survival of American Silent Feature Films PDF Author: Council on Council on Library and Information Resources and The Library of Congress
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781497595248
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Get Book

Book Description
The era of the American silent feature film lasted from 1912 until 1929. During that time, filmmakers established the language of cinema, and the motion pictures they created reached a height of artistic sophistication. These films, with their recognizable stars and high production values, spread American culture around the world. Silent feature films disappeared from sight soon after the coming of sound, and many vanished from existence. This report focuses on those titles that have managed to survive to the present day and represents the first comprehensive survey of the survival of American silent feature films. The American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films documents 10,919 silent feature films of American origin released through 1930. Treasures from the Film Archives, published by the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), is the primary source of information regarding silent film survival in the archival community. The FIAF information has been enhanced by information from corporations, libraries, and private collectors. We have good documentation on what American silent feature films were produced and released. This study quantifies the "what," "where," and "why" of their survival. The survey was designed to answer five questions:

The Survival of American Silent Feature Films

The Survival of American Silent Feature Films PDF Author: Council on Council on Library and Information Resources and The Library of Congress
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781497595248
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Get Book

Book Description
The era of the American silent feature film lasted from 1912 until 1929. During that time, filmmakers established the language of cinema, and the motion pictures they created reached a height of artistic sophistication. These films, with their recognizable stars and high production values, spread American culture around the world. Silent feature films disappeared from sight soon after the coming of sound, and many vanished from existence. This report focuses on those titles that have managed to survive to the present day and represents the first comprehensive survey of the survival of American silent feature films. The American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films documents 10,919 silent feature films of American origin released through 1930. Treasures from the Film Archives, published by the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), is the primary source of information regarding silent film survival in the archival community. The FIAF information has been enhanced by information from corporations, libraries, and private collectors. We have good documentation on what American silent feature films were produced and released. This study quantifies the "what," "where," and "why" of their survival. The survey was designed to answer five questions:

The Survival of American Silent Feature Films, 1912-1929

The Survival of American Silent Feature Films, 1912-1929 PDF Author: David Pierce
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Motion picture film
Languages : en
Pages : 74

Get Book

Book Description
"Commissioned for and sponsored by the National Film Preservation Board."

Silent Film Adaptations of Novels by British and American Women Writers, 1903-1929

Silent Film Adaptations of Novels by British and American Women Writers, 1903-1929 PDF Author: Jamie Barlowe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040100805
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Get Book

Book Description
Silent Film Adaptations of Novels by British and American Women Writers, 1903–1929 focuses on fifty-three silent film adaptations of the novels of acclaimed authors George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Willa Cather, and Edith Wharton. Many of the films are unknown or dismissed, and most of them are degraded, destroyed, or lost—burned in warehouse fires, spontaneously combusted in storage cans, or quietly turned to dust. Their content and production and distribution details are reconstructed through archival resources as individual narratives that, when considered collectively, constitute a broader narrative of lost knowledge—a fragmented and buried early twentieth-century story now reclaimed and retold for the first time to a twenty-first-century audience. This collective narrative also demonstrates the extent to which the adaptations are intertextually and ideologically entangled with concurrently released early “woman’s films” to re-promote and re-instill the norm of idealized white, married, domesticated womanhood during a time of extraordinary cultural change for women. Retelling this lost narrative also allows for a reassessment of the place and function of the adaptations in the development of the silent film industry and as cinematic precedent for the hundreds of sound adaptations of the literary texts of these eight women writers produced from 1931 to the 2020s.

The Art of Adapting Victorian Literature, 1848-1920

The Art of Adapting Victorian Literature, 1848-1920 PDF Author: Karen E. Laird
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317044495
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book

Book Description
In The Art of Adapting Victorian Literature, 1848-1920, Karen E. Laird alternates between readings of nineteenth-century stage and twentieth-century silent film adaptations to investigate the working practices of the first adapters of Victorian fiction. Laird’s juxtaposition between stage and screen brings to life the dynamic culture of literary adaptation as it developed throughout the long nineteenth-century. Focusing on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, and Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, Laird demonstrates how adaptations performed the valuable cultural work of expanding the original novel’s readership across class and gender divides, exporting the English novel to America, and commemorating the novelists through adaptations that functioned as virtual literary tourism. Bridging the divide between literary criticism, film studies, and theatre history, Laird’s book reveals how the Victorian adapters set the stage for our contemporary film adaptation industry.

The Art of Adapting Victorian Literature, 1848-1920

The Art of Adapting Victorian Literature, 1848-1920 PDF Author: Dr Karen Laird
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1472424395
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book

Book Description
In The Art of Adapting Victorian Literature, 1848–1920, Karen E. Laird alternates between readings of nineteenth-century stage and twentieth-century silent film adaptations to demonstrate the working practices of the first adapters of Victorian fiction. Focusing on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, and Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, Laird charts a new cultural history of literary adaptation as it developed throughout the long nineteenth-century.

A Companion to the Biopic

A Companion to the Biopic PDF Author: Deborah Cartmell
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119554810
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Get Book

Book Description
The most comprehensive reference text of theoretical and historical discourse on the biopic film The biopic, often viewed as the most reviled of all film genres, traces its origins to the early silent era over a century ago. Receiving little critical attention, biopics are regularly dismissed as superficial, formulaic, and disrespectful of history. Film critics, literary scholars and historians tend to believe that biopics should be artistic, yet accurate, true-to-life representations of their subjects. Moviegoing audiences, however, do not seem to hold similar views; biopics continue to be popular, commercially viable films. Even the genre’s most ardent detractors will admit that these films are often very watchable, particularly due to the performance of the lead actor. It is increasingly common for stars of biographical films to garner critical praise and awards, driving a growing interest in scholarship in the genre. A Companion to the Biopic is the first global and authoritative reference on the subject. Offering theoretical, historical, thematic, and performance-based approaches, this unique volume brings together the work of top scholars to discuss the coverage of the lives of authors, politicians, royalty, criminals, and pop stars through the biopic film. Chapters explore evolving attitudes and divergent perspectives on the genre with topics such as the connections between biopics and literary melodramas, the influence financial concerns have on aesthetic, social, or moral principles, the merger of historical narratives with Hollywood biographies, stereotypes and criticisms of the biopic genre, and more. This volume: Provides a systematic, in-depth analysis of the biopic and considers how the choice of historical subject reflects contemporary issues Places emphasis on films that portray race and gender issues Explores the uneven boundaries of the genre by addressing what is and is not a biopic as well as the ways in which films simultaneously embrace and defy historical authenticity Examines the distinction between reality and ‘the real’ in biographical films Offers a chronological survey of biopics from the beginning of the 20th century A Companion to the Biopic is a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, and students of history, film studies, and English literature, as well as those in disciplines that examine interpretations of historical figures

The 9.5mm Vintage Film Encyclopaedia

The 9.5mm Vintage Film Encyclopaedia PDF Author: Patrick Moules
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1838592695
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 1152

Get Book

Book Description
Written in both English and French, The 9.5mm Vintage Film Encyclopaedia provides a single-volume, comprehensive catalogue of all known 9.5mm film releases, including: Films: Comprising 12,460 individual entries, this A-Z reference index provides the main listing for each film and its origin where known, along with additional information including cast and crew, and cross references to other relevant material. People: This index of all known actors and film crew, comprising over 12,000 names, provides a listing which is cross referenced to the main entry for each original film they worked on. Numbers: Pathé-Baby/Pathéscope and other distributors’ catalogue numbers, film length, release dates (where known) and the series in which the films were organised, are set out in detail. With a foreword from eminent film historian and filmmaker, Keith Brownlow, this extensively researched text explains the importance of the 9.5mm film, from its beginnings in the early 1920s to becoming synonymous with Home Cinema throughout Europe. Readers will also find a brief technical explanation on how 9.5mm films were produced, along with relevant images.

Hollywood Vault

Hollywood Vault PDF Author: Eric Hoyt
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520282647
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book

Book Description
Hollywood Vault is the story of how the business of film libraries emerged and evolved, spanning the silent era to the sale of feature libraries to television. Eric Hoyt argues that film libraries became valuable not because of the introduction of new technologies but because of the emergence and growth of new markets, and suggests that studying the history of film libraries leads to insights about their role in the contemporary digital marketplace. The history begins in the mid-1910s, when the star system and other developments enabled a market for old films that featured current stars. After the transition to films with sound, the reissue market declined but the studios used their libraries for the production of remakes and other derivatives. The turning point in the history of studio libraries occurred during the mid to late 1940s, when changes in American culture and an industry-wide recession convinced the studios to employ their libraries as profit centers through the use of theatrical reissues. In the 1950s, intermediary distributors used the growing market of television to harness libraries aggressively as foundations for cross-media expansion, a trend that continues today. By the late 1960s, the television marketplace and the exploitation of film libraries became so lucrative that they prompted conglomerates to acquire the studios. The first book to discuss film libraries as an important and often underestimated part of Hollywood history, Hollywood Vault presents a fascinating trajectory that incorporates cultural, legal, and industrial history.

Barbara La Marr

Barbara La Marr PDF Author: Sherri Snyder
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813174279
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Get Book

Book Description
Barbara La Marr's (1896--1926) publicist once confessed: "There was no reason to lie about Barbara La Marr. Everything she said, everything she did was colored with news-value." When La Marr was sixteen, her older half-sister and a male companion reportedly kidnapped her, causing a sensation in the media. One year later, her behavior in Los Angeles nightclubs caused law enforcement to declare her "too beautiful" to be on her own in the city, and she was ordered to leave. When La Marr returned to Hollywood years later, her loveliness and raw talent caught the attention of producers and catapulted her to movie stardom. In the first full-length biography of the woman known as the "girl who was too beautiful," Sherri Snyder presents a complete portrait of one of the silent era's most infamous screen sirens. In five short years, La Marr appeared in twenty-six films, including The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), Trifling Women (1922), The Eternal City (1923), The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1924), and Thy Name Is Woman (1924). Yet by 1925 -- finding herself beset by numerous scandals, several failed marriages, a hidden pregnancy, and personal prejudice based on her onscreen persona -- she fell out of public favor. When she was diagnosed with a fatal lung condition, she continued to work, undeterred, until she collapsed on set. She died at the age of twenty-nine. Few stars have burned as brightly and as briefly as Barbara La Marr, and her extraordinary life story is one of tempestuous passions as well as perseverance in the face of adversity. Drawing on never-before-released diary entries, correspondence, and creative works, Snyder's biography offers a valuable perspective on her contributions to silent-era Hollywood and the cinematic arts.

The Public Domain

The Public Domain PDF Author: Stephen Fishman
Publisher: Nolo
ISBN: 1413330797
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Get Book

Book Description
The top resource for writers, musicians, artists, filmmakers, website creators, software and app developers, and anyone who needs creative content for free. Can save you thousands in permission fees!