Louise Lagrange

Another version of the old fairytale.

Feuillade's short film on the downfall of the debauched (read "effeminate") Roman Emperor Heliogabalus in 218 is perhaps lacking in historical accuracy with its female senate for ladies fashions and rampaging lions escaped from the circus, but it looks fabulous. (MUBI)

This is a compact telling of the Cinderella fairy tale and the film is elaborately staged. It's more cinematic than a lot of the other films of this time, using some real locations and three-dimensional sets rather than simple painted backdrops. There's an impressive effect where a wall blows in to reveal what is happening elsewhere in the story world. I found the film a little dull overall though due to the overly familiar story.

A soldier during World War 1 wants to be reunited with his family for Christmas.

A mother loses first her son and then her husband in the trenches of France during the First World War. She devotes herself to the French cause and to helping those wounded in the war.

Expressing post-war cultural internationalism, this silent film follows the mysterious Orchid and the man who loves her.