Author Jonathan Mackris

Three factors stand in the way of any appreciation of John M. Stahl. First, there is the fact that so many of his films are relatively unavailable. A contemporary of D.W. Griffith, his first 15 years as a filmm...

The release of Víctor Erice-Abbas Kiarostami Correspondences (2007) arrived at a key juncture in the lives of both filmmakers. It represents the exact mid-point in the more than 30-year gap between Víctor Erice...

It’s worth mentioning, as a place to begin, that Il Generale Della Rovere (Roberto Rossellini, 1959) is based a true story. There was indeed a jailed man purported to be resistance leader General Della Rovere, ...

First, a bit of news from the front. Those who have been following some of the local drama outlined in my last dispatch from the San Francisco Silent Film Festival know that this year’s edition is the first in ...

Some background The only way to begin responsibly is with some facts about the status of the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, the long-time home of the Silent Film Festival up to and including this year’s edit...

The critic Chris Fujiwara once described Nicholas Ray’s Wind Across the Everglades (1958) as a “litmus test” of the auteur theory. Fujiwara intended the term to describe the fate of that film, mutilated in the ...

Two topics have come up every time I’ve discussed the 2022 San Francisco Silent Film Festival: One: This is the first edition of the festival after two consecutive cancellations in 2020 and 2021, leading fes...