Dada Cinema

Dada was a provocative and irreverent art movement, founded in Switzerland in the early twentieth century, in which a seemingly chaotic, spontaneous, and pessimistic aesthetic influenced painting, sculpture, theater, literature, and film. The movement’s name is a willfully nonsensical word, intended to punctuate the meaninglessness artists saw in their contemporaneous worldview. Dada filmmakers such as Hans Richter, Man Ray, and Viking Eggeling were challenged by the developing technology of filmmaking in the 1920s. This confluence of technology and aesthetic experimentation suited the Dadaists’ passion for the machine-made object. The visual disruption created by the Dada filmmakers in the 1920s provided a legacy of aesthetic language for the cinematic experiments of future generations of avant-garde artists. The landmark films in this program—all produced between 1921 and 1928—are also on view within the context of other works in other mediums by the same artists in the Dada exhibition on the sixth floor of the Museum. All films are drawn from MoMA’s collection and are silent. Source MOMA


Happy Birthday Charlie Chaplin!!! Born April 16, 1889

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

Charlies danceCharlie SkatingCharlie globe dancing

Charlie Chaplin, considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular “Little Tramp” character; the man with the toothbrush mustache, bowler hat, bamboo cane, and a funny walk. sourceIMDb


Happy Birthday Lon Chaney Sr. Born this day on April 1, 1883

Lon Chaney Sr.  born Leonidas Frank Chaney, was an American actor during the age of silent films. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. source wiki

Tribute to Lon Chaney Sr. Films!!


Happy Birthday!!!

Lon Chaney birthday



Satan’s Rhapsody-1915-Nino Oxilia Review


Aging is hard and would you give your soul to Satan for youth? Satan’s Rhapsody is a short film by Director Nino Oxilia a masterpiece of style and depth. Contessa Alba d’Oltrevita is the aging aristocrat and Tristano is Satan’s.

IMDb review:

Rapsodia Satanica aka Satan’s Rhapsody (1915) was the last film directed by Nino Oxilia and is undoubtedly one of the finest achievements of the early Italian cinema. In it, Oxilia spins a variation on the Faust myth, embodied here by the diva Lyda Borelli. Typical of extravagant D’Annunzian aestheticism at its height, Rapsodia Satanica was one of the summits of what was later called the “tail coat film.” Diametrically opposed to the “cinema of reality” practiced by Serena, Martoglio and others, “tail coat films” set their melodramatic stories in the salons and villas of the upper middle class and the aristocracy, deploying narrative structures contrived to showcase their actors and especially its actresses. This had the effect of accentuating their physical presence and turning them into stars – probably the first stars in movie history. The success of the “dive” contributed to the development of motion picture grammar in its special use of the close-up.

– Written by Anthony Kobal

Amazing movie. The ending was brilliant!!