The Roaring Twenties in Film, Part II

August 24, 2022 in Collections

Jazz music was all the rage and musicians like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Louis Armstrong, Paul Whiteman, and Jelly Roll Morton were in high demand. And no other entertainment medium was having as strong an effect on the public like movies were. Audiences flocked to their local movie theater to watch their favorite stars on the big screen. It can’t be underestimated the level of celebrity enjoyed by movie icons like Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. Everything came to a halt when the October 1929 stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression.

The Roaring Twenties in Film, Part I

August 22, 2022 in Collections

The generations that followed would look back at the Roaring Twenties as a carefree time, but not one without its own set of challenges including gangster violence, police corruption, and racism. Many films about this era have been over the years. Let’s take a look at some of these 1920s-themed period pieces that are available to rent on DVD Netflix.

A Cinematic Tour of the 1920s

January 09, 2019 in Collections

The silent era of cinema isn’t always the easiest sell to casual movie fans. There’s a nasty rumor that silent film equals boring film, and that’s just a notion born through a lack of exposure. Alfred Hitchcock called silent films the “purest form of cinema” and everything thereafter “pictures of people talking.”

I won’t discount, however, the perceived barrier to entry. There’s truth in the notion that viewing a silent film requires more active participation on the part of the viewer. Silents absolutely require your attention. They require you to put away your small screens (not a bad thing, you know) and devote 90-some minutes to flickering images. Once you submit yourself to the experience, you’ll be duly rewarded with a new understanding of the earliest building blocks of cinema and a fresh respect for film as a visual art form.

Notable Academy Award Winners of the 1920s

January 08, 2019 in Collections

Identifying notable Academy Award winners from the 1920s is a very easy task. That’s because the first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the end of the decade, and it only honored movies released from August 1, 1927 to August 1, 1928. The first slate contained just 12 categories, while today, there are more than 20. The International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences organized the event, held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May 16, 1929. It was only attended by 270 people who each paid $5 admittance. The winners had been announced three months prior.

Films of the 1920s

January 08, 2019 in Collections

Any dip of the toes into the 1920s has to include some of the greatest films and stars of all time. This is the decade which started with silent films, where sound was introduced, and where, by the end of the decade, all the studios were rushing to make movies with sound. There was also a lot of experimentation with multiple images, special effects, camera movement and angles, and more. If you’ve watched movies from the 1910s you will easily notice the field quickly becoming more artistic as well as technically proficient in the 1920s. The Hays Code (censorship) had yet to be introduced, so the artists were not restricted by limitations that were enforced beginning in 1934 and would last into the 1960s.

Silence is Golden: A Look at the Silent Film Era

January 07, 2019 in Collections

It’s true that the silent era was never really silent. Going to the movies in the 1920s was quite the experience. News reels, shorts, small vaudeville acts, and live music accompaniment were all on the bill. With today’s high-tech options and multi-million dollar budgets, it’s amazing to look back at the early days of cinema and see how much they did with just a little creativity, ingenuity, and just a dash of daring.

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