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The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Tristan Ettleman
The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever features experts and enthusiasts and, well, their favorite films of every year ever. Host Tristan Ettleman sits down with a new guest every week to dive into the history and beauty of some of the best movies to ever come out of the cinematic medium.
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- 5 days ago4 min
1915 E1 - The White-Hooded Elephant in the Room
To borrow a phrase from an upcoming guest of this season, Jeremy Mathews: 1915 has a white-hooded elephant in the room. D.W. Griffith’s racist epic The Birth of a Nation has to be mentioned when discussing film in this year, and although (spoiler) it was only selected by one guest, its shadow is cast somewhere into each of the conversations and diverse picks to come, addressing both its good and bad influence.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1915!Media mentioned:The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith
- 1 weeks ago4 min
1914 E7 - Wartime Modernity
While the 1914 season introduction promised the omnipresence of “The Great War,” World War I, if still at least mentioned in every episode, didn’t dominate the conversations. Even still, its representation of sudden disruption, evolution, and modernity is still thematically connected to the aesthetic and industrial developments in film of the year.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to see the list of every submitted film!Mentioned media:Cabiria (1914) - Giovanni PastroneTillie’s Punctured Romance (1914) - Mack SennettFantômas (1914) - Louis FeuilladeDaisy Doodad’s Dial (1914) - Florence TurnerGertie the Dinosaur (1914) - Winsor McCayKid Auto Races at Venice (1914) - Henry LehrmanCaught in the Rain (1914) - Charlie ChaplinMaking a Living (1914) - Henry LehrmanThe Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) - J. Farrell MacDonald
- 2 weeks ago52 min
1914 E6 - Brett Wood
Whether he had a hand in their restoration or not, Bret Wood, filmmaker, author, and SVP and Producer of Archival Releases at Kino Lorber, selects five films that hold some personal connections for him. While they shift back and forth from epic drama and short comedy, these picks also highlight some representative traits of American film in 1914.Among the many projects Bret has worked on at Kino are Pioneers of African-American Cinema and Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers. His films include Hell's Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films and he is the author of Tod Browning: une vie avec les freaks.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914!Media mentioned:Bill Joins the W.W.W.’s (1914) - Edward DillonThe Death Mask (1914) - Thomas InceThe Professional Scapegoat (1914) - Sidney DrewThe Avenging Conscience (1914) - D.W. GriffithJudith of Bethulia (1914) - D.W. GriffithQueen Kelly (1929) - Erich von StroheimThe Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. PorterHome, Sweet Home (1914) - D.W. GriffithThe Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. GriffithIntolerance (1916) - D.W. GriffithThe King of Kings (1927) - Cecil B. DeMilleA Corner in Wheat (1909) - D.W. GriffithThe Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - D.W. GriffithL’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Adolfo PadovanCabiria (1914) - Giovanni PastronePhantom of the Paradise (1974) - Brian De PalmaDeath’s Marathon (1913) - D.W. GriffithThe Devil’s Needle (1916) - Chester WitheyCurb Your Enthusiasm (1999-2024)Freaks (1932) - Tod BrowningThe Unholy Three (1925) - Tod BrowningThe Devil-Doll (1936) - Tod BrowningAlien (1979) - Ridley Scott<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLiI138SjkE" target="_blank" rel="no
- 3 weeks ago52 min
1914 E5 - Beja Margitházi
The selections from Beja Margitházi, assistant professor at Eötvös Loránd University's Department of Film Studies, begin in Canada and move eastward. They also jump between genres and culminate in an early directorial effort from Michael Curtiz and a representation of the cinema of her native Hungary.Beja is editor of the film theory and history journal Metropolis. She is also the author of The Cinema of the Face: Close-up and Film Style and co-editor of the anthology Visual Communication.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914!Media mentioned:The Undesirable (1914) - Michael CurtizBlue Blood (1914) - Nino OxiliaFantômas (1914) - Louis FeuilladeDaisy Doodad’s Dial (1914) - Florence TurnerIn the Land of the Head Hunters (1914) - Edward S. CurtisThe Student of Prague (1913) - Stellan RyeAtlantis (1913) - August BlomIngeborg Holm (1913) - Victor SjöströmCabiria (1914) - Giovanni PastroneNanook of the North (1922) - Robert J. FlahertyFred Ott’s Sneeze (1894) - William K.L. DicksonThe Kiss (1896) - William HeisePhotographing a Female Crook (1904) - Wallace McCutcheonThe Abyss (1910) - Urban Gad
- Aug 19, 202650 min
1914 E4 - Brian Darr
Library professional Brian Darr once maintained a blog about the San Francisco Bay Area screening scene called Hell On Frisco Bay, an alias he still uses on Bluesky and Letterboxd. So some aspect of the theatrical experience, whether he caught a screening or not, comes into the conversation about each of his five picks (all from a different country!) in addition to their aesthetic recommendations.Brian has written on media history for outlets like Senses of Cinema, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, SFGate, Screen Slate, the Independent Lens blog and The Maine Playweek. He's performed several audiovisual presentations at San Francisco's Other Cinema showcase and elsewhere on media history subjects from blacklisted directors to experimental music label Opus One.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914!Films and resources mentioned:The Masquerader (1914) - Charlie ChaplinDaisy Doodad’s Dial (1914) - Florence TurnerChild of the Big City (1914) - Yevgeni BauerFantômas (1914) - Louis FeuilladeCabiria (1914) - Giovanni PastroneL’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De LiguoroIntolerance (1916) - D.W. GriffithMetropolis (1927) - Fritz LangMaciste in Hell (1925) - Guido BrignoneThe Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. GriffithLes Vampires (1915) - Louis FeuilladeJudex (1916) - Louis FeuilladeTih Minh (1918) - Louis FeuilladeFantômas (1920) - Edward SedgwickThe Cameraman (1928) - Edward Sedgwick and Buster KeatonSpite Marriage (1929) - Edward Sedgwick and Buster KeatonMan with a Movie Camera (1929) - Dziga VertovWhere the Winds Blow (1910) - Laurence TrimbleThe Tramp (1915) - Charlie ChaplinHis Trysting Place (1914) - Charlie ChaplinThe Face on the Bar Room Floor (1914) - Charlie ChaplinHollywood Babylon - Kenneth AngerKino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film - Jay Leyda
- Aug 12, 202659 min
1914 E3 - Elyse Singer
Elyse Singer, Lecturer in the Department of Theater at Dartmouth College, selects a wide range of forms and genres for her five picks of 1914, from short comedy to serial action to epic tales (one historically dramatic and the other perhaps the first feature comedy). At least two relate to her recent research in female madness in film and the agency of women in serials of the time.Elyse has also taught at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at CUNY and NYU Tisch. Her work has been published in Cinematic Explorations of the Mind, The Routledge Companion to Performance and Science, Faces on Screen, Feminist Media Histories, and Domitor’s Crafts, Trades, and Techniques of Early Cinema.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914!Films and resources mentioned:Cabiria (1914) - Giovanni PastroneTillie’s Punctured Romance (1914) - Mack SennettFantômas (1914) - Louis FeuilladeThe Perils of Pauline (1914) - Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzieDaisy Doodad’s Dial (1914) - Florence TurnerTrouble in Paradise (1932) - Ernst LubitschPhotographing a Female Crook (1904) - Wallace McCutcheonLaughing Gas (1907) - Edwin S. PorterBlack Panther (2018) - Ryan CooglerWoman Warrior White Rose (1929) - Zhang HuiminLes Vampires (1915) - Louis FeuilladeThe Violin (1908) - Louis FeuilladeTih Minh (1918) - Louis FeuilladeMetropolis (1927) - Fritz LangLillian Gish: The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me - Lillian GishSpecters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes - Maggie Hennefeld“In Your Face: Physiognomy, Photography, and the Gnostic Mission of Early Film” - Tom Gunning
- Aug 5, 202652 min
1914 E2 - Susan Potter
Susan Potter, Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Communication and English at the University of Sydney, wrote the book Queer Timing: The Emergence of Lesbian Sexuality in Early Cinema. While its scope is broader than any one year, and just one of Susan’s 1914 selections is referenced within it, she also mostly highlights female agency and subversion before and behind the screen with her picks.Susan’s research investigates the relation of cinema as modern mass medium to the intensification of sexuality since the late nineteenth century and audiovisual media's role in queer identity and culture formation. Their essay on Filibus (1915) is forthcoming in The Silent Film Companion: A Recovered and Expanded History, edited by (former guests!) Martin Johnson and Liz Clarke.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914!Films and resources mentioned:The Perils of Pauline (1914) - Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzieFantômas (1914) - Louis FeuilladeA Florida Enchantment (1914) - Sidney DrewMabel’s Strange Predicament (1914) - Mabel NormandKid Auto Races at Venice (1914) - Henry LehrmanPandora’s Box (1929) - G.W. PabstFilibus (1915) - Mario RoncoroniShoulder Arms (1918) - Charlie ChaplinThe Tramp (1915) - Charlie ChaplinFantômas (1913) - Louis FeuilladeOne A.M. (1916) - Charlie ChaplinMabel’s Dramatic Career (1913) - Mack SennettMädchen in Uniform (1931) - Leontine SaganGilda (1946) - Charles VidorThe Hazards of Helen (1914) - J.P. McGowan and J. Gunnis DavisScreening Europe in Australasia: Transnational Silent Film Before and After the Rise of Hollywood - Julie K. AllenZones of Anxiety: Movement, Musidora, and the Crime Serials of Louis Feuillade - Vicki CallahanHokum! The Early Sound Slapstick Short and Depression-Era Mass Culture - Rob King<a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/a-feminist-reader-
- Jul 29, 20264 min
1914 E1 - The Great War Begins
The event that has been foreshadowed the past few seasons comes to pass in 1914: the Great War, or World War I. And while not every facet of the conversations this season relates back to the disruption of the film industry that ensued (to say nothing of the disruption of every other aspect of life), it certainly looms large and provides context for filmmaking language and industrial developments in this year and to come through at least the end of the decade.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914!Films mentioned:Life’s Shop Window (1914) - J. Gordon EdwardsMaking a Living (1914) - Henry LehrmanKid Auto Races at Venice (1914) - Henry LehrmanThe Squaw Man (1914) - Cecil B. DeMilleJudith of Bethulia (1914) - D.W. GriffithThe Merchant of Venice (1914) - Lois Weber and Phillips SmalleyTillie’s Punctured Romance (1914) - Mack SennettCabiria (1914) - Giovanni Pastrone
About The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever
The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever features experts and enthusiasts and, well, their favorite films of every year ever. Host Tristan Ettleman sits down with a new guest every week to dive into the history and beauty of some of the best movies to ever come out of the cinematic medium.
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