The Felix: My Oscars before there were Oscars - 1913 to 1917

1913-14

Cabiria  (April 1914 – Director: Giovanni Pastrone)

Nominees: Traffic in Souls (Nov 1913), Twilight of a Woman's Soul (Nov 1913), The Student of Prague (Aug 1913), Ingeborg Holm (Oct 1913), Sangue Bleu (July 1914), Germinal (Oct 1913)

Set during the second Punic War (aka the Hannibal war of 218-201 BC) Cabiria might have too many characters and too many plot-lines to keep track of, and too many intertitles trying to explain it all. But it’s also a dizzying epic, with resplendent costumes, sets, and props so huge they caught the eye and inspired directors like C.B. DeMille and D.W. Griffith. (Martin Scorsese stated that director Giovanni Pastrone invented the historical epic).

The sprawling adventure is thankfully anchored by the young Cabiria and the first cinematic appearance of the strongman Maciste - who helps rescue the girl from being sacrificed to the God Moloch, by order of a cruel Carthaginian king.

This ambitious undertaking moves at a good clip and never gets tiresome. In total - Cabiria is an entertaining and important piece of film history and innovation. I didn't see a feature to match it this season.

That's not to say my nominees were slouches - Germinal could be Albert Capellani's crowning achievement (I've not seen Les Misérables), and as the reviewer at Silents, Please! notes, Nino Oxilia's Sangue Bleu is lifted by a solid lead performance, and eye catching composition, lighting, mise en scène, and costume design.

Acting? This blogger pens a spot-on write-up of S1, while singing the praises of my top female performer... ithankyou.com. Nielsen also won the prize for her screwball antics in Engelein (Little Angel). As an Asta fan, I'm thrilled to make her my first 'best actress'.

Best Actor: René Navarre, Fantômas
Honorable Mentions:
Henry Krauss, Germinal
Henry B. Walthall, Judith of Bethulia

Best Actress: Asta Nielsen, S1 and Engelein
Honorable Mentions:
Sylvie, Germinal
Hilda Borgström, Ingeborg Holm
Francesca Bertini, Sangue Bleu & Pierrot the Prodigal
Bessie Eyton, The Spoilers
Nina Chernova, Twilight of a Woman’s Soul

1914-15

The Italian (Jan 1915 – Director: Reginald Barker)

Nominees: The Bargain (Dec 1914), The Captive (April 1915), Hypocrites (Jan 1915)

Birth of a Nation (Feb 1915) is brilliant for its cinematic achievements and awful for its content  - and I’m not speaking of a director chronicling an evil, but advocating it. There’s a difference between a movie that focuses its lens on a racist, and Birth, which in its second half comes off like KKK propaganda... which made me sick to my stomach. Despite its technical importance, I can't in all good conscience name it as my Best Picture.

I elected instead to go with The Italian. It too had its unfortunate stereotypes, but it at least respected its central figure and showed sympathy for the plight of the immigrant.  The movie tells of a Gondolier named Beppo who comes to America to make something of himself so that he can marry his sweetheart. The film touches on themes and plot points that will become staples in future immigrant tales. There’s all manner of hardships, injustice, and corruption. But there’s also some warmth, and a little kindness (as when a stranger helps Annette when she first steps off the boat and can’t find her intended.)

The story centers on a terrible loss, and a plan of revenge (an idea that will be explored in Victor Sjöström’s A Man There Was). It offers no easy solution, no pat moral conclusion. Life is hard and unfair and we can only hope this couple's love can endure.

Reginald Barker and his cinematographer Joseph H August make this an exceptional looking picture - compositionally impressive and featuring a close-up shot that is one for the ages: It zeroes in on Beppo after he is robbed. The camera shakes around him as tears flow and anger builds. It’s a knockout shot.

Actor George Beban does a lot of the heavy lifting and shows himself as adept at comedy (the bit with the flowers cracked me up) as he is with tragedy. His heartbreak was shatteringly real and honest.  And while there are a few iffy bits (the medical absolutes seem far-fetched and contrived for one). Overall it’s an important and moving film.

One of my nominations (The Bargain) was also from Director Barker and Producer William Ince and acted as the feature film debut of William S. Hart. The others, an underrated picture from CB DeMille, that's boosted by the efforts of my top actress, and my first feature nomination from a woman director, Lois Weber.

Also of note: Max Sennett released the first full-length comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance (Dec 1914)

Best Actor: George Beban, The Italian
Honorable Mentions:
Sessue Hayakawa, The Typhoon
Henry B. Walthall, The Avenging Conscience

Best Actress: Blanche Sweet, The Captive
Honorable Mentions:
Marie Dressler, Tillie’s Punctured Romance
Beatriz Michelena, Salomy Jane

1915-16

The Cheat (Dec 1915 – Director: Cecil B. DeMille)

Nominees: Hell's Hinges (March 1916), Les Vampires (Nov 1915), After Death (Dec 1915), Il fuoco (April 1916)

Louis Feuillade's 7-hour serial Les Vampires is considered by many, the cream of the crop for this season. And while thrilling and humorous, like most serials the repetition can get to be a chore. The knotty tale centers on a secret criminal society and is boosted by the star-making performance by Musidora as Irma Vep. However, the camera work is rather static and lingers on scenes a bit too long. It’s a goodie but one that can test the endurance, even when viewed over the course of 4 days.

Other nominees include Yevgeni Bauer's After Death . A psychological melodrama about a man obsessed with a woman who killed herself over him. It features virtuoso camera work, especially in a 3-minute party scene where Bauer utilizes pans and zooms that were not common for the era. I was also taken with W.S. Hart's moralistic and explosive Hell's Hinges, which is considered one of the great westerns of the silent era. It's noteworthy for its sincere acting and assertive direction.

And above those C.B. DeMille's The Cheat,  which concerns a woman who embezzles $10,000 and in desperation, turns to a Burmese ivory trader who will replace the stolen money, if she agrees to sleep with him. The suave Sessue Hayakawa is a standout as the trader. He lights up the screen with his reserved, yet menacing performance and acts as a welcome counter to the exaggerated gestures seen in the other actors. While DeMille's best known for his full-blown spectacles, I was hooked by this more intimate, urgent melodrama, And I was impressed by the costumes, Alvin Wyckoff's photography, the edits and lighting (all notably represented in a sequence filmed in silhouette, through a shoji screen, which is suddenly marked with blood. And this is just one of several brilliant shots found in this feature). Yes, it can be lurid and flamboyant, but it held my attention to the end.

Best Actor: Sessue Hayakawa, The Cheat
Honorable Mentions:
William S. Hart, Hell's Hinges * Douglas Fairbanks, The Half-Breed & The Good Bad Man * Tyrone Power Sr., Where Are My Children?

Best Actress: Musidora, Les vampires
Honorable Mentions:
Viola Dana, Children of Eve * Francesca Bertini, Assunta Spina * Anna Q. Nilsson, Regeneration * Pina Menichelli, Il fuoco

1916-17

A Man There Was (Jan 1917 – Director: Victor Sjöström)

Nominees: The Dying Swan (Jan 1917), Intolerance (Aug 1916), Judex (Dec 1916), Maciste the Warrior (Dec 1916), Il Fauno (June 1917)

D.W. Griffith's Intolerance was an ambitious undertaking, and an attempt to make amends after critics slammed him for the racist overtones in his film Birth of a Nation. While the production values are incredible, for me it is not as complete success dramatically as it can get too soapy (the Dear One) or broad (The Mountain Girl). Also, some tales and characters are not as interesting as others. But when it’s on, it’s thoroughly engaging and its message resonates just as soundly today as it did in 1916. The American story is the most fully realized, the one set in Babylon the most visually spectacular.  

A more intimate and raw look at man’s inhumanity to man was had in A Man There Was. This dark, gut-wrenching story was based on Henrik Ibsen's ‘Terje Vigen’ and was directed and performed by one of the early masters of Swedish cinema Victor Sjöström

It‘s about a sailor who, during times of war, attempts to sneak past British blockades in order to bring back supplies for his starving family. He is captured and sent to prison and when he returns he finds they have died. Later on, he is afforded the opportunity to avenge their deaths, but will he do so?

This thing just tore the breath from my lungs, and while it might not have the epic scale of Griffith’s classic, it still looks incredible (it was the most expensive film made in Sweden at the time), and was even more effective in relaying its message and making me feel the aching loss and desperation in its characters. Told in flashbacks, against Julius Jaenzon's beautifully filmed raging seas (with the memorable image of a half-mad Terje on its shores), it is as powerfully acted as it is directed, and the emotion feels earned, not forcefully wrung out of me as it does with Intolerance.

Best Actress: Marguerite Clark, Snow White
Honorable Mentions: Norma Talmadge, The Devil’s Needle * Mary Pickford, Pride of the Clan * Doris Kenyon, A Girl's Folly and The Ocean Waif * Vera Karalli, The Dying Swan * Florence La Badie, Woman in White * Nietta Mordeglia, Il Fauno

Best Actor: Victor Sjöstrom, A Man There Was (pictured above)
Honorable Mentions: 

Elliott Dexter, A Romance of the Redwoods * Febo Mari, Il Fauno 

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