silent film

May put you off Chaplin for ever: The Real Charlie Chaplin reviewed

19 February 2022 9:00 am

Charlie Chaplin is one of the most famous movie stars ever and is certainly the most famous movie star with…

Riveting – and disgusting: BFI's 'Dogs v Cats' and 'Eating In' collections reviewed

9 May 2020 9:00 am

This week I’d like to point you in the direction of the British Film Institute and its free online archive…

Two members of the Glasgow Humane Society on the River Clyde. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

The story of the River Clyde

16 February 2019 9:00 am

It sounds like something out of Dickens or a novel by Thackeray, a classic case of high-minded Victorian philanthropy, but…

Divine comedy: Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel and John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy

The best tribute possible to the greatest comics ever: Stan & Ollie reviewed

12 January 2019 9:00 am

You mess with Laurel and Hardy at your peril. Their fan base is essentially the entire world. Samuel Beckett adored…

Louise Brooks is sensational in Pabst's silent classic Pandora's Box (Credit: BFI)

Ninety years old and still feels as fresh as a daisy: G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box reviewed

2 June 2018 9:00 am

Two films this week, one that has stood the test of time, dazzlingly — it still feels as fresh as…

Reducing the lead to an demented rape victim is just what ballet needs: The Wind reviewed

18 November 2017 9:00 am

A kindly cowboy, an East Coast bride, adultery, murder and madness. The Wind, Dorothy Scarborough’s 1925 Texas gothic novel (and…

Richard Strauss (image: Getty)

Salon Strauss

21 October 2017 9:00 am

An opera without singers, a Strauss orchestra of just 16, and an early music ensemble playing Mahler: welcome to the…

Judy Garland as Esther Smith in Meet Me in St Louis (1944)

How Technicolor conquered cinema

14 November 2015 9:00 am

Peter Hoskin celebrates Technicolor’s 100th birthday