392:  Czech Silent Cinema

Archival Spaces 392 Czech Silent Film History Uploaded 6 February 2026 Back in Summer 2023 (Blog 326), I wrote about a Czech film playing at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, The Organist at St. Vitus Cathedral (1929), directed by Jan S. Kolár. It is an amazingly atmospheric melodrama, shot mostly in real locations aroundContinue reading “392:  Czech Silent Cinema”

391: People On Sunday

Archival Spaces 391 Monograph: People On Sunday Uploaded 23 January 2026 For years, I have been teaching a German film history course. One of the films I have consistently screened is Robert Siodmak’s Menschen am Sonntag/People on Sunday (1929), not only because it is my favorite film of the late Weimar Republic, but also becauseContinue reading “391: People On Sunday”

390: United States Information Agency

Archival Spaces 390 My Short Government Career Uploaded 9 January 2026 In the Fall of 1987, I received a call from David Paul, a producer at the United States Information Agency, asking if I could compile for them a list of German Academy Award winners. No problem. He followed up with a letter a monthContinue reading “390: United States Information Agency”

389: Saul Bass & Oscar

Archival Spaces 389: Saul Bass wins an Academy Award Uploaded 26 December 2025 Ten years ago, in 2015, I published Saul Bass: Anatomy of Film Design, a University of Kentucky Press book, a French edition arriving seven years later.  Not many people know that George Lucas worked for Saul and accompanied him to the 41stContinue reading “389: Saul Bass & Oscar”