Соль Сванетии (Salt for Svanetia)

Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
Year: 1930
Run-time: 53 min
Source: Kanopy

Wikipedia

Notable for: It's not the first documentary on the list, but it is the first to adopt many of the conventions we would associate it. Salt for Svanetia is a docudrama not unlike Nanook of the North, not on the list, purporting to describe the culture and history of the Svanetia region of Georgia. Much of it is transparently staged. The eventual aim is to applaud Soviet modernization of an industrious, but backwards and superstitious people. The film ends as Soviet workers build a road bringing the much-needed titular resource to the region.

Verdict: It is a beautiful film with an expressionist style, the drama very reminiscent of Eisenstein. And at least at the beginning, it seems respectful of the region's customs and economy, and it has some historical value. But ultimately, it's exploitative in a way that's much more pernicious than much of the Soviet propaganda of the period, and it's no surprise that its subjects have come out against many of its depictions.

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Le Quai des brumes (Port Of Shadows)

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The Big Sleep

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The Docks of New York

Director: Josef von Sternberg Year: 1928 Run-time: 1 hr 16 min Source: Youtube Silent films were certainly on their way out in 1928, at least if you were an American studio director who's not Chaplin or Keaton, and this was one of those little gems that went largely unseen due to that transition. It feels a bit like both a proto-noir and a proto-gangster film, but neither of those labels quite fit. It's actually an effective, unconventional romance film, something that starts out cynical but ends up very sweet. I enjoyed the film more than I thought I would, but with this entry in the list, I can't help but notice the big American studio system of the mid-century is falling into place, with Keaton now making films like The Cameraman for MGM (a studio which would ultimately ruin his career), and this film released by the newly renamed Paramount Pictures. Along with it, the rough edges are getting smoothed down a little bit. Certainly, the standards in...

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