Year: 2023
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No not that one, the other one
NAPOLEON, ABEL GANCE, GAUMONT, 1927, 330 MINUTES. — I’m publishing the occasional post from my newsletter about the history of film here on the blog. This one concerns the biggest…
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Hollywood Babylon – a two-part aside
Crime, sex, addiction, murder and suicide – the golden age of the movies — Cinema is a mature form. Cinema is also, of course, the least mature form there’s ever…
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Dudes in the woods
Robin Hood is a Mediaeval superhero. He doesn’t care much about emancipation, but he loves to skip through the trees. — Gross is every year’s top-grossing movie, since 1913, reviewed.…
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Learning from old movies
GROSS is my first Substack thing. It’s film reviews, which I hope are funny and interesting and unpretentious. — It’s also my personal low-effort way to learn about the whole…
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Chaps in trouble
We’ve got to 1919. The officer class over-reaches itself and gets stuck on the ice. It’s a disaster but it all works out in the end. — Every year’s top-grossing…
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A 1918 double bill: pathos and perfect slapstick followed by a mind-expanding account of the Russian revolution
Mabel Normand and Vladimir Lenin, together at last — I’m watching every year’s top-grossing movie, since 1913. You can get these chronological reviews in your inbox over here. — MICKEY,…
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A fairytale, a comedy, a fantasy – and a Disney princess 20 years before Snow White
Mary Pickford was famed for playing childlike parts, flighty young women with spirit. In 1917’s The Poor Little Rich Girl, she broke new ground by playing an actual child. —…
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This review turned into a disquisition on underwater storytelling
This adaptation of Jules Verne’s great submarine romance was the top-grossing film of 1916 – and it wasn’t even the first movie version — 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, STUART…
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Technofeudalism, neofeudalism, political capitalism and old-fashioned capitalism
It is possible for geniuses to explain things in ways that non-geniuses can understand but sometimes they need to switch formats to do it. — Microverses: Observations from a Shattered…