کال 1920 - 77

Spanish writers and personalities devoted to their hobbies: reading, walking, painting or visiting a museum.

Tropical Nights is a true “scenic.” Putting aside conventional narrative, the film tells its story by following the lights and shadows on a Caribbean island over the course of a diurnal cycle. As day evolves into night and back to dawn, the camera moves from close-up to striking vistas, with color toning accentuating the mood.

A sophisticated puff piece for Phillipine embroidering industry, showing men designing the patterns and hordes of women embroidering the cloth.

A cat abuses his mouse-slave, serenades a girl-cat and devises a mousetrap.

In the heart of the night, a burglar gropes along towards a newspaper kiosk. A nail puller and a flashlight are all it takes for this crime. All of a sudden, the morning paper is delivered… A punchy publicity stunt for the B.L.A., the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, the Berliner newspaper that fills in its readers in real time!

1920 travelogue.

Berlin W. is a 1920 German silent film directed by Manfred Noa.

Summer swimming fun on the Lahn River. Men in swimming trunks jump one after the other from a wooden jetty into the Lahn. From the second half onwards, the recording runs backwards. The film ends with a close-up of Günther Leitz (1914-1969), the youngest son of Ernst Leitz II, then sole shareholder of the optical company Leitz in Wetzlar.

San Remo is a silent travelogue of unknown production, dated circa 1920, preserved in a tinted 35mm nitrate print (3'25", 75 m at 20 fps) with French intertitles, held by CNC – Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée in Bois d’Arcy. As noted by Renato Venturelli in the 44th Pordenone Silent Film Festival catalogue, the film offers a visual journey through Sanremo, led by a young woman in a headscarf. She ascends the narrow streets of the old town, gathers flowers among palm trees and prickly pears, and reaches the shrine of Nostra Signora della Costa. The tone then shifts from devotional to sensual, culminating in her playful gestures at the monument. An intertitle reads, “It’s never wrong to be flirtatious,” as she adorns herself and enjoys food and scenery. The final scenes depict her barefoot on a cliff and fishermen at sea. Though incomplete, the surviving footage is of good quality. The intertitles use the historical spelling “San Remo,” referencing Saint Romulus.

This animated film is an advertisement for the Danish weekly magazine ‘Hjemmet’, which is still published today. ‘Hjemmet’, meaning ‘Home’, was originally called ‘Damernes Blad’ (‘The Ladies’ Magazine’) but changed its name in 1904, a few years after it was acquired by the publishing company Egmont. The advertisement was drawn by the much beloved Danish multi-talent Robert Storm Petersen, popularly known as Storm P., whose many accomplishments included being behind some of Denmark’s earliest animated films. This ad also includes a few seconds of live-action footage showing Storm P. himself smoking a pipe and reading an issue of ‘Hjemmet’. (Stumfilm. dk)

An animated film exploring what it might take to communicate with Mars, using mirrors, huge flashing electric lights or gigantic strips of black cloth set out in the desert.

Carter Spencer, although coming from a religious and socially prominent family, has a wild streak and likes "playing the field", gambling and drinking. He loves Clarice Penlow, a singer in a local choir, who loves him, too, but is put off by his "wild" lifestyle. When Prohibition takes effect, Clarice wants Carter to become a Prohibition agent, thinking that having to enforce the laws that he spent much of his life breaking will change his outlook. He accedes to her wishes out of his love for her--but complications ensue.

Japanese horror movie from 1920.

Images from Sundsvall and Mariefred.

The "Chester Outings" series takes us to Switzerland.

A Krazy Kat short.

A train ride to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc

This short botanical documentary uses timelapse and microscope photography to showcase various seeds and their modes of dispersal in all their splendor.

A Judge Rummy cartoon.

Boris the Third of Bulgaria reviews his troops.