Explore every episode of the podcast The History of Film
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 37- Abel Gance, and the Prelude to the Post-War | 26 Feb 2026 | 00:24:53 | |
An episode about Gance, covering his life and movies from birth to just before of the release of his monumental film J'accuse. | |||
| 36- Women's Pictures, Staring Women, that Women Were Watching | 25 Jul 2025 | 00:31:18 | |
An episode all about proper (or not explicitly patriotic) melodrama as it was developing in France during the war. Who were these movies made for? What were they about? Well, let's find out. If you would like to email me you can do so at historyoffilmpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 28- Drawings That Can Dance | 25 Nov 2021 | 00:32:16 | |
The long promised day is finally here! We dive into the world of animation, examine ancient Iranian pottery, and meet animators named Charles-Emile Reynaud and James Stewart Blackton, as we begin our journey though a whole other kind of cinema. | |||
| 27- The Fall of Babylon, The Fall of Griffith | 06 Nov 2021 | 00:34:41 | |
In this episode we take a look at Griffith's second most famous movie, Intolerance, and examine its production, structure, and impact. We also (finally) finish the long arc of Griffith's story, and bring his career, and his time here on the podcast, to a close. | |||
| 26- The Birth of a Nation: Part III | 27 Oct 2021 | 00:55:26 | |
This is the last of it. In this episode, we dig into how and why The Birth of a Nation was so influential, and who was influenced by it. I am happy to say that next week we will be moving on from here. So three cheers for that. | |||
| 25- The Birth of a Nation: Part II | 29 Sep 2021 | 00:33:46 | |
When I write these, I never know just how long they will be. As it turns out, talking about a film that has had a huge impact on the development of film history, and made the world so much worse, is taking a lot of words. So, this is the second of what I hope to be three episodes of The Birth of a Nation. In this episode, we describe the plot of the movie in detail (though I still skipped a couple of things here and there for the sake of brevity, believe it or not), and talk about how the ideas present in the story interact with each other. The clip I play toward the end is from the 1993 Documentary D. W. Griffith: The Father of Film, directed by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. You can contact me at historyoffilmpodcast@gmail.com, and you can visit the show's website: historyoffilmpodcast.com to view resources for each episode. | |||
| 24- The Birth of a Nation: Part I | 23 Sep 2021 | 00:26:28 | |
Well, where it is. The Birth of a Nation is an extremely important movie. It would be hard to overstate it. In this episode, we cover the original novel the film was based on, and the film-making process for the movie. | |||
| Bonus: Film as Cultural Artifacts | 06 Sep 2021 | 00:15:04 | |
This is the first of (hopefully) a recurring series of episodes on film critical theory. Today, with special guest Melissa Favara, we cover the idea of cultural production. This is kind of the broadest way of looking at movies, as a product of a culture rather only the work of an individual or group of filmmakers. This is a lens with witch to look at movies, and a tool for building context for the movies we will encounter throughout this series. I hope you enjoy it! | |||
| 23- D. W. Griffith | 05 Sep 2021 | 00:33:01 | |
Here it is! Its an episode and a subject that has been a long time coming, and it's one that is less important then people used to think, though perhaps a little more important than some people say it is now. | |||
| 22- Italian Futurism and Everything Else | 26 Aug 2021 | 00:42:00 | |
Hello and welcome back! This is everything about early Italian films that we didn’t cover in the last two episodes. That means we talk a little about how Italian studios were run throughout the 1910s, Important actors not playing Maciste, influential directors (including another of the most prolific women of early film), and a film movement: Futurism. We talk about the movement’s origin, and its only surviving film – Thaïs – and how it, and the whole Italian film industry, entered a decline throughout the 1920s. | |||
| Announcement: Updates on "The History of Film" Going Forward | 03 Aug 2021 | 00:03:46 | |
A few words on exciting changes that are coming to "The History of film in very near future. | |||
| 21- Astonishing Super Spectacles | 27 Jul 2021 | 00:32:43 | |
This week it's all about two movies Quo Vadis? from 1912 or 1913 and Cabiria from 1914. | |||
| 35- French Patriotic Melodrama | 15 Dec 2024 | 00:31:37 | |
This episode is a little smaller in scope than usual. But like one my great podcasting heroes, my ambition for this show is to tell the history of film without any gaps. We cover two examples of an important, though ultimately short lived, sub-genre: The Patriotic Melodrama. We discuss and analyze the 1916 film Alsace, directed by Henri Pouctal, and the 1917 Mothers of Frances, directed by René Hervi . | |||
| 20- Rise of the Roman Film Empire | 06 Jul 2021 | 00:22:40 | |
This is the first of a planned three-episode series about Italian film from before the 1920's and the rise of fascism in Italy. In this very first episode, we cover the earliest origins of Italian film, though much more briefly than we did French film, mostly because there isn't as much written about it. We also go into some detail about the astonishing 1911 special effects wonderland The Inferno directed by a bunch of Italian guys whose names I struggle with. | |||
| 19- Murderers, Vamps and Deviants: The Work of Louis Feuillade | 11 Jun 2021 | 00:34:59 | |
It is a little late, but it is also long! This is one I have been researching and working on for a long time. | |||
| 18- Heroines and Villains Every Week! Early U.S. Serial Film | 01 Jun 2021 | 00:22:36 | |
Forget movies that are a mere five reels long, how about three hundred!? In the United States during the "nickelodeon era" of film history, movies got longer in more ways than the ones we have been covering recently. Some became the first film series with continuing stories! We cover that transition and its greatest star in today's episode! | |||
| 17- Film D'art | 24 May 2021 | 00:18:56 | |
Just as promised in episode 15, this week we begin our journey through the early influences of feature-length movies that will eventually take us into the studio era of the U. S. film industry and D. W. Griffith. Film D'art is more important for what it inspired than what it accomplished, and funnily enough, is skipped over entirely in a book I have on the History of French film, but is still worth discussing. It represents the last holdouts from the Edison/Black Maria style of filmmaking. This "un-cinematic" style of filmmaking will, happily, be in the rearview mirror (unless you count some of the crummy movies I tried to make as a freshman in high school). | |||
| 16a- Florence Lawrence | 18 May 2021 | 00:09:23 | |
This episode is actually a bonus episode, rather than the other “bonus” episode I’ve released, which was 30 minutes long and took weeks to make. This episode gets a little heavy, but suicide is a heavy subject. If you, or someone you know, is having suicidal thoughts, know that there is help. In the United States, you can visit https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org to make contact with people who are here to help you right now. You can also call them on the phone, just dial 800-273-8255. I'm a great admirer of the writer and philanthropist, John Green, who put it excellently when he said “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” People struggling with suicidal thoughts make it through them, and you, or the people you know, can too. I'm sorry that I don't have the information here of other countries, but this kind of help is available in many places across the world. I also really recommend This Was Hollywood by Carla Valderama. It's entertaining and packed full of information that I used for both this episode and episode 16. If you would like to contact me you can email me at historyoffilmpodcast@gmail.com, and you can visit the show's website, historyoffilmpodcast.com. Jake. | |||
| 16- The Stars are Born | 18 May 2021 | 00:17:41 | |
16- The Stars are Born | |||
| 15- Feature Presentations | 11 May 2021 | 00:19:23 | |
This is actually the first of a two-part episode that I was originally going to call "Trustbusters." This week, we cover the early events of Carl Laemmle's life and see the feature film become the dominant form of cinematic presentation in the United States. Next week it is the star system and the exodus to California, where the center of film production has stayed (in the U.S. at least) ever since. | |||
| 14a- Inside the Nickelodeon | 01 May 2021 | 00:29:51 | |
This was a wonderful episode to produce, even if it was tricky. If you would like to learn all of the things that I didn't get to in this episode, like some of the wonderful names nickelodeon’s had, I really can't recommend At The Picture Show: Small-Town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture by Kathryn Fuller enough. I wish there was an audiobook for it (but I feel that way about every book). | |||
| 14- Growing Audiences and Consolidating Power | 12 Apr 2021 | 00:28:45 | |
The reason my voice sounds just a little off is because I have been pretty sick for more than a week now. This is far and away the best I have sounded in a while though, so I went into the makeshift recoding booth and gave you my best! | |||
| 13- Edwin S. Porter and the Revolution of the Shot | 23 Mar 2021 | 00:30:29 | |
It’s a big one again this week! We complete our second and Gil episode focused on filmmaker Edwin S. Porter, and discuss how his movies relate to film history. This includes technical innovations, genre development, and early examples of voyeurism in film. There are several movie clips used in the show, but one of them is unusual for this program. It’s an excerpt from an IGN video review. The link for you to watch the whole review yourself is this here: https://youtu.be/_ee8aFnRvgY If you would like to contact me, email me at historyoffilmpodcast@gmail.com. You can visit the show's website at historyoffilmpodcast.com. I will have the episode 13 webpage up in a day or two. -Jake, 23 March 2021 | |||
| 34- American Invasion, Sessue Hayakawa, and "The Cheat" | 18 Nov 2024 | 00:56:47 | |
In this episode we cover just how, exactly, American cinema came to dominate Europe in the wake of WW1. We take a look at the economic practices that facilitated the "invasion" of American cinema onto French screens. We also examine one picture in particular, The Cheat, which exemplifies the technical sophistication of U.S. national cinema, and that film's reception by the City of Lights. | |||
| 12- Edwin S. Porter and Parallel Editing | 14 Mar 2021 | 00:30:06 | |
Edwin S. Porter and some of his early films and achievements are highlighted here, as well as some achievements that he did not... well, achieve. | |||
| 11a- The Movies of Alice Guy | 25 Feb 2021 | 00:29:51 | |
It's the second part of episode 11, in which we cover Alice Guy's movies. Movies, after all, are just as much a part of film history as the people who made them (more actually). | |||
| 11- Titans of French Film 2: Leon Gaumont and Alice Guy | 12 Feb 2021 | 00:34:28 | |
A longer episode this week, and we aren't even done yet! In this exciting episode, we cover the early career of Leon Gaumont and his first star director Alice Guy, the first female filmmaker. It was worth the wait, and I will see you next week! | |||
| 10- The Life and Work of Max Linder | 19 Jan 2021 | 00:22:42 | |
CORRECTION: Okay, it turns out Max Linder is much more remembered than I thought he was. Not only is he featured, albeit briefly, in many of the texts I didn't initially find him in, but he is even mentioned in the 2009 film Inglorious Bastards directed by Quinten Tarantino. The reason I thought he wasn't in many film history books were: | |||
| 9- Titans of Early French Film 1: Pathé | 05 Jan 2021 | 00:16:20 | |
We cover the life and accomplishments of Charles Pathé! This is actually the first in a series of at least two episodes, as I hope to upload one about Leon Gaumont and Alice Guy within two weeks. Thank you all for staying with me through my December 2020 hiatus. Look forward to exciting shows this upcoming year! Also, I accidentally said that my email was historyoffilm@...com (I wish) it is actually historyoffilmpodcast@gmail.com. Thank you for listening! | |||
| 8- George Albert Smith and the Brighton School | 17 Nov 2020 | 00:29:37 | |
It was a big episode this time, and it took me a long time to write. But here it is! As I said at the end of the episode, a huge thanks to Stephen Herbert and Luke McKernan, whose work has proved to be the single most referenced resource I have used in making the show so far. You can their website here: https://www.victorian-cinema.net | |||
| 7- Georges Méliès and the Magic of Editing | 22 Oct 2020 | 00:26:37 | |
In the most dramatic and magical episode of the show so far, we cover the life and achievements of cinemas first great magician, Georges Méliès. The only movie clip is from the 2011 film Hugo, which touches on subjects of film history and Méliès specifically. I cover the origins of edition, and the first special effects, called "in camera effects." As of 21 October, 2020, the website still isn't up yet, but I am working on it, I promise! you need to see Georges Méliès' movies to understand just how special they are, and I hope within a few weeks to make that possible through the shows website again. | |||
| 6- Lumiere "Firsts" and Advancements in Film Before Georges Méliès | 23 Sep 2020 | 00:15:49 | |
This week we look at some of the "firsts" in film history as they occurred in the Lumiere's early projections. We also describe a few advancements in film technology, including the Latham Loop, and the Geneva Drive. | |||
| 5- The Lumiere Brothers and Projected Cinema | 29 Aug 2020 | 00:19:37 | |
This episode we cover an exciting, but ultimately unfruitful, film made in the Black Maria, and voyage to Europe to meet the Lumiere family, and their incredible contributions to cinema. | |||
| 4- Edison, Dixon and The Black Maria | 10 Aug 2020 | 00:21:46 | |
Let's all go to the movies! Sorry, I am two days late. Today we discuss the kinetograph, and the movies made on it, including Fred Ott's Sneeze, Comic Boxing, Serpentine Dance, and more. | |||
| 33- War on Film, Film at War | 03 Nov 2024 | 00:22:16 | |
This week we cover the effect of The War on the French film Industry. While The Conflict's Titanic needs did a real number on French production, it did also help develop a new kind of documentary filmmaking: The Newsreel, which was then put to work in service to the Republic. | |||
| 3- The Birth of Cinema | 18 Jul 2020 | 00:19:29 | |
Kodak, Edison, and Dixon are introduced, as are their first roles in the story of film history. Next week we cover movies they made. | |||
| 2- Cinema's Artistic Antecedents | 07 Jul 2020 | 00:19:28 | |
Cinema was not born of void. Earlier inventions, including, but not limited to, the magic lantern, diorama theater, the photograph, and vaudeville contributed to what went on in front of the camera in the earliest days of film history. Visit the show's website, historyoffilmpodcast.com for show notes, and contact me at historyoffilmpodcast@gmail.com. Enjoy the show! | |||
| 1- Cinema's Earliest Prehistory | 19 Jun 2020 | 00:25:36 | |
The foundations of cinema from cave paintings to the invention of the chronophotographic gun. Visit the show's website at historyoffilmpodcast.com. If you want to get in touch, I would love to hear from you! My email is, predictably, historyoffilmpodcast@gmail.com. Audio from movies are used here as transitions, to spice up the show and to remind us where the show is going; clips are from Casablanca (1942), The Maltese Falcon (1941), and Rushmore (1999). | |||
| 32- Foundation of Death, Foundation of Light | 16 Feb 2024 | 00:25:25 | |
This episode reexamines some topics we have already looked at, but this time as context for one of history's greatest butcheries, rather than as pure film history. The development of cinema is intertwined with the forces that defined the 20th century. Today we explore how the First World War and the movies are cut from the same fabric, as we set the stage for some of the screen's greatest epochs -- German Expressionism, French Impressionism, Soviet Montage, and the Golden Age of American Silent Film. All that is tied up in The War, so let's start our journey facing it head-on. | |||
| Announcement – Plans and Reasons | 11 Aug 2023 | 00:04:55 | |
The History of Film Podcast has been on Haitus since May of 2022. This announcement officially ends that. Let's get back to it! | |||
| 31- Gertie: The First Animated Character | 15 May 2022 | 00:31:04 | |
In this episode we finish up our series on early animation by covering Gertie the Dinosaur and The Sinking of the Lusitania, both animated by Winsor McCay. Next time it's back to Europe, where we will cover the the effect of the First World War on European film! | |||
| 30- Animation Before the Dinosaur | 27 Feb 2022 | 00:26:23 | |
This is the first of two episodes (only two, I promise) about the great animator Winsor McCay. We cover his life before he became a filmmaker, and his two first movies: Little Nemo (1911) and How a Mosquito Operates (1912). | |||
| 29- Phantasmagoria | 19 Jan 2022 | 00:24:06 | |
It's a new year, and the History of Film is back! In this episode, we cover the life and achievements of French animator Emile Cohl, as he creates the first paper film animation, and brings fluidity and grace to a medium he helped invent! | |||
| A New Translation of a Master Filmmaker: Dr. Anne McKnight on Long Take | 27 Mar 2026 | 00:50:32 | |
An interview with Japanese media scholar Anne McNight about her new book Long Take. Long Take is a collection of interviews and other material by or about Akira Kurosawa, one of most famous and influential filmmakers in world history. These are being translated and published into English for the first time. You can find Dr. McKnight's new translation here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517903299/long-take/ | |||