August 2022 Favorite Watches & Supercut Recap
That month I became enamored with silent films
[posted to IG September 2, 2022]
August Recap:
Anytime I’m feeling a bit wonky I like to go in the way way back machine and watch movies chronologically by year. The structure does a hard reset on my brain, and the more film history I learn, the more rewarding the content gets. It’s a win-win. This time was especially entertaining because I went all the way back, and with how rudimentary the medium was at the start of the 20th century, even the slightest technical developments and experimentation turned me into the Leo pointing meme. And once filmmakers started breaking out tracking shots in the mid-1910s, I was legitimately yelling at my tv. Like, just strings of joyous expletives. It’s fun to get excited about little things.
The standout director this go around was Lois Weber, an essential figure in the silent era. In 1914, she became the first American woman to direct a feature-length film; in 1916, she became the first American woman to direct a blockbuster; and in 1917, she became the first American woman to own her own film studio. She kicked down every door - what happened between then and the 21st century that we had so few female studio directors? I do not know. What I do know is that Weber wasn’t just a benchmark for female filmmakers though, she outclassed EVERYONE. Her visionary, empathetic, brilliantly creative, and occasionally subversive artistry helped advance the medium like few other directors of her time. So if you like movies, pour one out for Lois Webs. We owe her a fucking statue or something.
Supercut song credit goes to the super dope electro-psychedelia duo Erasers for their song “Recall the Words.” Their album Constant Connection made my favorite listens of May, and it’s still in the rotation.
The standout director this go around was Lois Weber, an essential figure in the silent era. In 1914, she became the first American woman to direct a feature-length film; in 1916, she became the first American woman to direct a blockbuster; and in 1917, she became the first American woman to own her own film studio. She kicked down every door - what happened between then and the 21st century that we had so few female studio directors? I do not know. What I do know is that Weber wasn’t just a benchmark for female filmmakers though, she outclassed EVERYONE. Her visionary, empathetic, brilliantly creative, and occasionally subversive artistry helped advance the medium like few other directors of her time. So if you like movies, pour one out for Lois Webs. We owe her a fucking statue or something.
Supercut song credit goes to the super dope electro-psychedelia duo Erasers for their song “Recall the Words.” Their album Constant Connection made my favorite listens of May, and it’s still in the rotation.
Louis Feuillade’s novelistic film series boasts gripping cat-and-mouse thrills, and Musidora’s Irma Vep is darkly magnetic.
Powerful in its story and shockingly brutal in its depictions of war, silent film legend Cecil B. DeMille turned Joan of Arc’s inspirational tale into epic propaganda for the English during WWI.
This significant short film from Lois Weber - an indispensable pioneer of early cinema - brilliantly displays her remarkably advanced film grammar.
Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante delivers a haunting political allegory in La Llorona - an exceptionally crafted piece of slow-burning arthouse horror that’s admittedly more smart than scary.
An early sci-fi blockbuster about an engineer attempting to build an undersea railroad connecting North America with Europe. The second act contains a nightmarish mining explosion and a worker’s revolt that will be seared into my brain forever.
Transcendently beautiful, the climax of this sophomore feature from the Daniels duo seized me in nonstop fits of tears and laughter.
The ending of this Western lives up to its title when red-tinted infernal fires swallow an entire town that’s descended into violent, frenzied madness.
Capitalizing on the opportunity to become the first woman to direct a blockbuster, Lois Weber demonstrated her talents as one of the most profoundly inspired artists of the silent era with this epic tale of revolution.
They fly a train into the Sun’s mouth and the sun makes an icky face and then explodes. Absurdism ran rampant in these early, EARLY shorts, and that energy speaks directly to my soul.
A simple tragedy about the small things we take for granted. Masterfully shot, Weber exemplifies that history’s greatest filmmakers - as flawed as some of them have been - have always possessed a deep emotional intelligence that bleeds into their work.
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