D.W. Griffith movies at the American Cinematheque (image: D.W. Griffith circa 1915) A series of D.W. Griffith movies made at Biograph at the dawn of both the 20th century and the art of moviemaking will be screened at the American Cinematheque next weekend. “Retroformat Presents: D.W. Griffith at Biograph, Part […]

Lillian Gish and her Ku Klux Klan saviors in The Birth of a Nation From 'The Birth of a Nation' to 'Iron Man': The love affair between Hollywood and the Pentagon In TomDispatch.com's excellent March 2008 article “The Golden Age of the Military-Entertainment Complex: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, Pentagon-Style,” […]

'Broken Blossoms': Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess star in D.W. Griffith's 1919 melodrama about doomed interethnic love and dysfunctional family relationships – one of the best movies of the 1910s BEST FILM Broken Blossoms The Hoodlum The Italian Little Pal Old Wives for New A Romance of the Redwoods Sold […]

D.W. Griffith Father of Film, controversial figure. To say that the movies wouldn't be what they are today without D.W. Griffith is probably inaccurate. I mean, someone – or “someones” – would have received credit for turning filmmaking into a major art form. Either way, Griffith, a movie director since […]

Marion Davies in King Vidor's Show People Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which decades ago was the most financially stable of the Hollywood studios, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday. MGM – initially Metro-Goldwyn – was formed through the amalgamation of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions in 1924. Goldwyn, […]

Ann Blyth.   Ann Blyth, who received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the film noir Mildred Pierce (1945), is pictured above during a discussion following a screening of the Joan Crawford classic at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Monday, June 14, 2010. Mildred Pierce was […]

Los Angeles Filmforum will present “D.W. Griffith in California,” on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 pm. at the Echo Park Film Center. At the screening, film scholar Tom Gunning will discuss D.W. Griffith and his early Californian films. Six of those Griffith productions will be screened: Man's Genesis (1912, 17 […]

“A Century Ago: The Films of 1908,” showcasing filmmaking highlights of 1908, will be the next presentation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' series “Monday Nights with Oscar.” The screenings will be held on Monday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy Theater in New York […]

Sold for Marriage (1916) Dir.: Christy Cabanne Scr.: William E. Wing Cast: Lillian Gish, Frank Bennett, Walter Long, Allan Sears, Pearl Elmore, Curt Rehfeld   Though all but completely forgotten today, Christy Cabanne (at times billed as William Christy Cabanne) was a respected name in the 1910s and 1920s. Among […]

Griffith movies: Sally of the Sawdust with Carol Dempster and W.C. Fields. Once D.W. Griffith and Lillian Gish parted ways after Orphans of the Storm (1921), Carol Dempster became the filmmaker's on-screen muse (e.g., Dream Street, America) – and off-screen companion. Dempster, however, was never either as popular or as […]

Way Down East with Richard Barthelmess and Lillian Gish: Griffith Cinema. One of the movies included in Kino's second D.W. Griffith cinema box set, Way Down East was one of the Broken Blossoms and The Birth of a Nation filmmaker's last major hits, as his career went fast downhill in […]

Cabiria 1914: Reconstructed silent epic to be screened in Turin Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria (1914), one of the most influential films ever made, “has been reconstructed from long-lost rushes recently found in a Turin basement,” reports ANSA. Missing only 5 percent of its original footage, the restored Cabiria will have its […]