Соль Сванетии (Salt for Svanetia)

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

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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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Fétiche Mascotte (The Mascot)

Director: Ladislas Starevich Year: 1933 Run-time: 26 min Source: Youtube Notable For : The second animated short on the list from 1933 is this stop-motion piece from the Polish-Russian film-maker Ladislas Starevich. Stop-motion is almost as old as cinema itself (Starevich had been innovating since 1912). The craft here is as good as any modern film, and Starevich's twisted imagination is on full display, with dolls and household objects coming to life in a dark version of Toy Story. For animation fans, it almost goes without saying that Starevich was an influence on Jan Svankmajer's work much later. Verdict : Every frame is a bizarre delight. There didn't seem to be an overarching plan to this work (indeed, it's possible that The Mascot is an amalgamation of several shorter films featuring the same dog character), and so the film veers from one strange scene to the next, with much of the second half taking place in some kind of tchotchke hell governe...

The Killers

The Killers uses up every noir cliche that had developed by this time - the detective story with flashbacks from Laura , the insurance investigator from Double Indemnity, the seductive femme fatale from Gilda - but somehow manages to feel wholly original. I thought that I'd grow weary of noirs by this point, but they are getting better, and there's no doubt that it's a fun genre, if there's not always much going under the pristine surface. There's some tremendous acting, and I unabashedly love the opening scene with the titular killers - the only part that seems to have been actually adapted from the Hemingway short story (Ernest himself was nevertheless a fan) - but the ending doesn't really work. It's a bit easier to follow than The Big Sleep, but it has a few too many twists for what is ultimately a pretty straightforward story without any real morals. Still, I have to recommend it, and it would definitely be up there in my list of best noirs.

Suspense

Director: Lois Weber (with Phillips Smalley) Year: 1913 Runtime: 0:10 Source: Youtube Lois Weber is a fascinating, largely forgotten figure in the history of cinema. Not only is she an early female filmmaker, with an unusual auteur-level control over her works, but for a short few years she held a surprising amount of sway in the burgeoning industry. In 1916, she was Universal Studio's highest paid director, period. During her heyday she made 10 movies a year, but the vast majority of her films are lost. Unfortunately, this brief short is likely her only appearance on the list, but it highlights her technical innovations. Weber probably didn't invent the split screen, but she used it extremely effectively in this tight little domestic thriller. The real highlight is a triangular three-way split, in which we see a distressed wife, played by Weber herself, calling her husband at work, while a burglar is about to cut the phone line with a knife. A...

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