Love In Excess

theloudestvoice: Happy Birthday René Navarre (July 8,...

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 10:19:24 -0400

Happy Birthday René Navarre (July 8, 1877-February 8, 1968)

It is also THIS DUDE’S birthday. LOOK AT HIM. I mean, holy cats he is something else.

Anyway, René Navarre was a French actor most famous today for his role as Fantômas the master thief in Louis Feuillade’s Fantômas series of the 1910s. There were five of these serials in all - each still exists and can be viewed on Fandor.

1. Fantômas (1913)
2. Juve Contre Fantômas (1913)
3. Le Mort Qui Tue (1913)
4. Fantômas contre Fantômas (1914)
5. Le Faux Magistrat (1914)

evdb: In celebration of actually selling things, and because...

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:59:16 -0400

evdb:

In celebration of actually selling things, and because I’ve always wanted to do this I am giving away these two prints and a set of fourteen stickers. All you have to do to get a chance at receiving this package made with love and care is reblog this post in its entirety (◡‿◡♡)

♡ This contest is open worldwide

☁ Do not reblog this post more than three times

☆ Do not remove anything of this post

☀ I will randomly select the winner Monday July 9 at 20:00 CEST (i.e. in ten day’s time)

Until then check out my etsy and tumblr for more things and stuff!

Eline’s art is so amazingggg

This is the sexiest way I ever saw Fritz Rasp smoke a...

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:40:35 -0400

This is the sexiest way I ever saw Fritz Rasp smoke a cigarette. | Jellusic ~ Spione (Fritz Lang, UFA-1928)

I FUCKING LOVE FRITZ RASP YOU GUYS, I don’t know if you knew. JUST LOOK AT HIM. JUST LOOK.

I need to share this moment from Le diable au coeur with you...

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:04:00 -0400

I need to share this moment from Le diable au coeur with you because

Lipstick perfection
LOOK AT THE PRINT ON HER DRESS
In case you can’t tell, she has straight up made her hair ornaments/necklace from crumpled-up balls of tinfoil she has strung together

In conclusion I LOVE EVERY SINGLE THING THAT IS HAPPENING HERE

The vamp’s tendency to posture and her inclination to...

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:05:00 -0400

The vamp’s tendency to posture and her inclination to wear distinctive, vivid makeup combine to render her an excessively produced body. In some sense, she threatens to be out of bounds at any moment, and her body seems always to be in danger of showing. Her laboring efforts help her carry off a kind of masquerade—a false femininity whose veneer is continually slipping. The vamp’s meaning is also strongly articulated by means of costume. Heavily sexualized, her clothing tends to be dark in color or to feature aggressive prints and stripes that serve to mark her sartorial threat. The vamp draws attention to her labors through her costume, and so represents a sharp break with the patriarchal requirement that women’s labor be invisible. Since we are culturally committed to effacing the female laboring body, part of the threat of the vamp is that she presents herself as the evolving site of her own laboring efforts.

- Diane Negra, “Immigrant Stardom in Imperial America: Pola Negri and the Problem of Typology,” from A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema

Everything I’ve read so far from this anthology has been fantastic, but this article made me especially excited, for obvious reasons. (So excited that I’m actually posting on Tumblr again, whoa!)

Pictured: vamp queen Theda Bara.

silentintertitles: From The Fireman of the Folies...

Wed, 09 May 2012 09:04:02 -0400

silentintertitles:

From The Fireman of the Folies Bergère (1928)

Just popping in to say that you can see this film (which was ostensibly a promo for the Folies) on YouTube. It’s 8 minutes of surreal weirdness, featuring Josephine Baker being fabulous (she couldn’t be any other way) and a whole lotta naked girls.

jungfrukallan: Duvidha (Mani Kaul, 1973) I watched this last...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:46:00 -0400

jungfrukallan:

Duvidha (Mani Kaul, 1973)

I watched this last night and it was amazing. I loved everything about it but especially THE COLOURS. I just realized when looking at this still that the colours actually evoke for me the tones of hand-coloured film (aka one of the things I love most). Anyway, if you get a chance, WATCH IT because it is stunning (visually and beyond).

Who claims that there was, in the world, a certain Musidora...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:53:00 -0400

Who claims that there was, in the world, a certain Musidora — haughty, capricious, depraved, as venomous as a scorpion, so malicious that we looked under her skirt to see if she hadn’t a cloven hoof? A Musidora without a soul, without pity, without remorse, who deceived even the lover she chose; a vampire of gold and silver, drinking down the heir’s legacy like a glass of soda water to whet her appetite; a mocking demon, casting over all things her piercing, discordant laughter; an odious courtesan, resurrecting the orgies of ancient days, without even the excuse of Messalina’s ardor? Those who say so are surely mistaken.

- Théophile Gautier, Fortunio (1836)

Fortunio is where Musidora (aka Jeanne Roques) found the name that she would take as her own.

tsarevich: busterness: bustermylove: She wasn’t ugly…just...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:52:40 -0400

tsarevich:

busterness:

bustermylove:

She wasn’t ugly…just evil…

I’m feeling a little frisky this morning, (prolly the post-race/birthday hangover), so maybe I’ll venture into dangerous territory and chime in on the Natalie issue…..

I find it extremely hard to judge someone who never got a chance (or else never wanted the opportunity) to tell their side of the story. Granted, her behavior with regard to BK was puzzling, I’m sure that this is a case of the truth lying somewhere between “his side” (vague) and “her side” (non-existent) of the story. Without the benefit of hearing Natalie’s side of things, we can’t even begin to extrapolate the truth.

The “fangirl” in me always tends to jump to Buster’s immediate defense, but I have to temper my knee-jerk emotions with reason. I can’t bring myself to vilify Natalie Talmadge Keaton because all I can do is guess at what really happened in a strange relationship between two people that happened over 90 years ago.

In short, not enough facts to form an educated opinion, and I’m not inclined to err on the side of hatred.

OH GOD FOR REAL i get so tired of all this ridiculous natalie loathing from buster stans and biographers. i’m done as hell in general with the ~poor put upon husband~ narratives that biographies of old hollywood men are so fucking rife with. it is so lazy and gross and i am so over being asked to believe that nearly every old hollywood dude’s marriage that ended in a divorce was unhappy due to the woman being SOOOO TERRIBLE. OH THE DUDE WAS UNHAPPY AND COMPLAINED ABOUT HER SO CLEARLY SHE SUCKED. if he cheated or behaved shittily? well jeez, she drove him to it! fuck’s sake get out with that shit. the sheer personal vitriol i’ve seen consistently directed at the ex-wives of silent hollywood dudes is disgusting.

natalie talmadge was brought up by a SUPER intense stage mother who basically raised her to believe that the only thing that mattered was getting the fuck out of poverty and as far away from it and as famous as possible. while both of her sisters became two of the HUGEST film stars in america, she was written off as the ugly and untalented duckling (and not implicitly either). she could not get a break in the movies and ended up with basically a pity job doing secretary work at smaller studios. she and buster were basically set up for marriage by her mother who did not think natalie was good for much else than marriage to someone as beneficial as possible, and neither of them seems to have been more than mildly enthusiastic about it.

then a lot of shit happened that involved both of them being less than ideal spouses; natalie behaving in a way that just strikes me as super anxious, trying to acquire the status for herself that she had been drilled for since childhood by trying her hardest to be part of hollywood’s social elite, being super fashionable and lavish, keeping up appearances at all costs. being apparently told by her sisters/mother that she should stop having sex and babies (idek wtf this story is, it has always confused me and every account of it i have read has been way too heavy on the ~poor buster ganged up on by a bunch of stonewalling harpies~, i’d like to know more about why/how even natalie’s freaking sex life was apparently her family’s decision instead of her own). then there was buster spending as recklessly as she was (and if i hear one more outraged squeak about her SPENDING HIS MONEY!!! i will scream, SHE WAS A HOUSEWIFE WHO ELSE’S MONEY DID SHE HAVE), buster being either gone or completely preoccupied with his work basically always, buster drinking a lot and then cheating on natalie all over the place, increasingly indiscreetly.

AND THEN they divorced and natalie was so fucked up by the entire marriage that she wouldn’t even allow her sons to mention buster’s name to her again as long as she LIVED. she basically spent the rest of her life being a depressed alcoholic. nobody harbours resentment that deep and is that thoroughly fucked up for the rest of their lives just for laughs, she was clearly as hurt by their marriage as buster was, not to mention the issues she got from being the insignificant factor in the talmadge clan.

but god forbid anyone do anything less than paint her as a one-dimensional antagonist to buster’s tragic innocence or wtf ever. it’s all pretty familiar sounding shit: she was a golddigger, a prude, a bitch, a cruel and petty nag, at best just a greedy bitch with a stick up her ass. god FORBID you admit that keaton wasn’t a very good spouse to her either and that they were in the end mostly just a really horrible fit as a couple - no, it’s all natalie’s fault. get out with that shit.

PREACH IT TSAR

I just need to put this here because of reasons.

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:32:57 -0400

I just need to put this here because of reasons.

tsarevich: omg and speaking of, check out this awesome photo of...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:16:00 -0400

tsarevich:

omg and speaking of, check out this awesome photo of tsuru aoki i found today

OH THESE TWO. they were so perfect ugh

Maaike somehow I had missed (HOW) that they were actually married for like a hundred years irl and now my heart is exploding and dying because it can’t take it

tsarevich: notime4yourshit: You must forget the Japanese way...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:14:45 -0400

tsarevich:

notime4yourshit:

You must forget the Japanese way of thinking and behave confidently… You might be surprised how frankly American people speak and behave, but once you get used to it, you will feel comfortable….[in Hollywood,] all staff members make their efforts to create the best atmosphere for actors to perform as they want, and vice versa. This harmony, this morality is what you should learn from them. - Sessue Hayakawa

omg this post is so timely, i was getting so sick of having my sessue tracked tag be like ~1 post~ once a week and then having that post be bridge on the river kwai download link spam

WHY ISN’T ALL OF TUMBLR TALKING ABOUT SESSUE HAYAKAWA ALWAYS. i will never understand. esp you classic/silent film folks, DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT A BABE HE WAS (spoilers: he was SUCH A BABE)

ALSO SESSUE HAYAKAWA BECAUSE OMG

glamaliens: Musidora sldjhgfljhsgdfhjag

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:12:07 -0400

glamaliens:

Musidora

sldjhgfljhsgdfhjag

lauramcphee: Musidora c1920s (G. L. Manuel Frères/Alfred...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:11:00 -0400

lauramcphee:

Musidora c1920s (G. L. Manuel Frères/Alfred Noyer)

And of course I can’t talk about Feuillade/Les Vampires without mentioning MUSIDORA, QUEEN OF BADASSERY AND OF MY HEART

heckyeahdwightfrye: What a cutie!!! Yeah I’m gonna have...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:09:00 -0400

heckyeahdwightfrye:

What a cutie!!!

Yeah I’m gonna have to reblog this because I’m rewatching Les Vampires soon and I’m so excited about it. Over the last year I’ve watched Fantomas and Judex with one of my friends—he’s not obsessive about silent film like me, but it all started because he had read a comic or something based on Fantomas and was curious about the film. You guys, if you have the chance, please watch Feuillade’s serials with another interested party. They are the most fun. THE MOST OMG. And it is extra super fun to watch it with someone else so you can be like GASP! IT’S A SNAAAAKE! GASP! SHE’S IN DRAAAAG! GASP! THEY JUST TOSSED THAT BABY OUT OF A THIRD-STORY WINDOW! GASP OMG WTF BBQQQ*

*these moments culled from real life

theyroaredvintage: 1933 roller girls. The cutest outfits. I...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:36:25 -0400

theyroaredvintage:

1933 roller girls. The cutest outfits.

I mean really.

giantpantsofthe30s: “Sorry my pants are so huge!” ...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:34:46 -0400

giantpantsofthe30s:

“Sorry my pants are so huge!”

—Eleanor Powell

This is my new favourite tumblr.

silentintertitles: From The Battle of the Sexes (1928). I know...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:55:00 -0400

silentintertitles:

From The Battle of the Sexes (1928).

I know I’m never around anymore (well, I’m around, I just don’t post) but I’m co-running the Silent Intertitles tumblr now and I’m pretty excited about it.

miss-quitecontrary: This is my new hair. I missed this...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:42:00 -0400

miss-quitecontrary:

This is my new hair.

I missed this originally because I think Tumblr decided to unfollow you for me (*shakes fist*) but I am basically flailing about right now because you and your hair look so perfect. LOVE.

OH MY GOD I’ve never seen this picture of Musidora...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:39:27 -0500

OH MY GOD I’ve never seen this picture of Musidora before!!