Today, when we think of Alfred Hitchcock, the films that come to mind are his taut thrillers and stories of suspense from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. There is Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Spellbound (1945), Rope (1948), Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest...

If you love music and films about music, the one screening not to miss at this year's Sonoma International Film Festival is Boogie Stomp.

It's an up-tempo documentary about boogie woogie, a style of piano-based blues that became popular in the 1930s and 1940s and would influence...

There is a folk tale / fairy tale feel to this month's San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The festival's upcoming winter event, a now annual day-long series of screenings at the Castro Theater, takes place on Saturday, February 16. It includes not-to-be-missed films, live musical accompaniment with each...

For more than a month, film historian and writer Christel Schmidt has been touring the country promoting her new book, Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies. Co-published by the University Press of Kentucky and the Library of Congress, this exceptional new volume brings together a distinguished group of contributors, including...

This should be a big year for the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont. In addition to the annual Charlie Chaplin Days and Broncho Billy Film Festival held later in the year, Niles Essanay will mark the 100th anniversary of the building of the Essanay Film Studio....

Despite those who proclaim the death of the book as well as death of film, it has been a great year for books about movies.

Four of our smartest film critics released thought provoking new books which take a look at the big picture. They are The Big Screen:...

Few realize there was a time nearly a century ago when the San Francisco Bay Area almost become a second Hollywood. Then, the Bay Area's best hope in rivaling the film colony only just developing in Southern California lay with the California Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC), which was based in...

Mitt Romney's bid for the White House is in trouble.

His earlier flip flops on issues both great and small (health care reform, gun control, abortion, his support for Ronald Reagan's policies, etc...) have been followed by a series of clumsy verbal gaffes.

The Republican presidential candidate's latest...

The fall promises to be a great season for books about the movies and movie stars. Three of the most insightful critics writing today -- David Thomson, David Denby and Ty Burr -- each have new books coming out, as does one of our most accomplished film historians, Anthony Slide.

The story of Baby Peggy is a Hollywood fairy tale gone wrong.

It's a story of worldwide fame, a fortune stolen, a trust broken, and a childhood lost. It's an epic story of a pint-sized movie star who conquered the world only to lose it all. It's the story of...

Pandora's Box is having a good year.

Largely panned when it debuted in Berlin in 1929, this German-made movie starring Louise Brooks has made a comeback and is now considered one of great films of the silent era. These days, it is shown more often than many of the...

Remy Charlip, an acclaimed children's book author and artist whose accomplishments spanned many fields, forms, audiences and years, passed away last week at the age of 83.

Charlip was best known as the author or illustrator of nearly 40 books, most for children. His most popular works, Fortunately (1964), which...

Is there any silent film star as popular as Louise Brooks? The actress, best known for her bangs and signature black bob, seems to be just about everywhere these days.

On July 14, Pandora's Box (1929), the film for which Brooks is best remembered today, played twice in the...

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival has more going for it than you might realize. Sure, they're showing 15 features and a whole bunch of short films, but this festival is more than just celluloid. There are the special guests, and the attendees, and the musicians, and the...

She appears on, and in, a surprising number of books. The latest, which was just released and is set to be one of the big books of the summer, is Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone. The striking photo on the cover depicts Louise Brooks, the silent film star. Brooks (1906 -...

Twice in the coming two weeks, the Cinéma du Parc in Montreal is screening a movie starring Louise Brooks as part of its 17-film salute to "The Artists" (through June 3).

The two films, both made in Germany and directed by G.W. Pabst at the end of the...

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival has announced the line-up of films for their annual July event at the Castro Theater. And once again, they have put together a varied and interesting program.

The Festival opens with a special presentation of the air war epic, Wings, the first film to...

Louise Brooks made her first big splash in England in 1924, when she became the first person to dance the Charleston in London. That was at the city's famous Cafe de Paris, then only recently opened. Brooks, a precocious dancer and showgirl, was 17 years old at the...

These days, Frank Wedekind is best known as the author of Spring Awakening. His 1891 play about teenage sexuality was turned into a smash-hit by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater. Their long running Broadway musical won eight Tony awards and has been performed all over the world.

Before Spring Awakening,...

Silent films have enjoyed a good deal of attention lately, thanks to the Academy Award-winning efforts of Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) and Martin Scorsese (Hugo). Each took the silent era as the subject of their recent work, and each of their films took home five Oscars. New fans to early...