The life of a vampire
The first biography of Max Schreck, cadaverous star of F.W. Murnau’s Dracula-inspired Nosferatu (1922) is being written by Stefan Eickhoff. Entitled Max Schreck – Gespenstertheater (Ghost theatre), it will be published later this year. Learn more.
Bardelys at Pordenone
The recently re-discovered King Vidor film, Bardelys the Magnificent (1926), will be unveiled at the Pordenone silent film festival in October. Other highlights announced include French comedies, the films of W.C. Fields, the films of W.K.L. Dickson, and ‘lost’ films of Sessue Hayakawa. Learn more.
Divas dolorosa
A new book has been published on the ever-suffering diva actresses of Italian silent film, such as Francesca Bertini and Lyda Borelli. Angela Dalle Vacche’s Diva: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema is published by the University of Texas Press and is accompanied by the DVD Diva Dolorosa made by silent found footage auteur Peter Delpeut. Learn more.
Sentiments past
Lea Jacobs’ new book is The Decline of Sentiment: American Film in the 1920s, and “seeks to characterize the radical shifts in taste that transformed American film in the jazz age”, looking at Erich von Stroheim, Charlie Chaplin, Ernst Lubitsch, and Monta Bell, among many others. It’s published by the University of California Press. Learn more.
‘Til next time!
The Bioscope 
Luke: Thank you for pointing out the biography of Max Schreck. I remember when film history books always said “Max Schreck” was an obvious psuedonym for Alfred Abel or some other actor.
Regards,
Joe Thompson ;0)
I must admit to a certain disappointment that Schreck turns out to have been a real person with a real filmography. I saw him recently in a 1929 German children’s film, Der Kampf der Tertia, which was shown at Pordenone. Sure he played the villain, but he was a recognisably human one. I prefer the Shadow of the Vampire theory that he really was a vampire. Makes so much more sense.