According to archival reports, some 1560 titles from 1916 are known to exist (plus the usual unknown number of unreported cases). Of these, some thirty titles are being screened in 2016 at the Cinema Ritrovato. If you wonder about the other 1530 films and the many more that no long seem to exist, some reading will help. Title lists, contemporary reviews and sales catalogues from production companies are all fascinating, and without actually seeing the films you get vivid impressions. Some film titles are simply perfect, like Shooting at Random or Starved to Death in a Restaurant (both from the Heinie and Louie series).
And do not mourn too much about all that has been lost; not every old film was a good film. To quote from 1916 reviews: “Dull drama”, “A work that has nothing to say”, “Childish allegory”, “Just a plain stupid subject”, “A thousand wasted meters”, “Stale subject, poorly executed”, “Ridiculous. Shoddy actors”… and so on ad infinitum (Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano 1916, 1992). Hopefully, the 1916 screenings haven’t left you starving in a restaurant, and there is still room for a bit of pudding. Non fiction films from 1916 (Staalfabrieken Krupp and Hawaii) can be as magical as the breathtakingly beautiful Lumière movies from twenty years earlier (Dechargement du Coke; Panorama de l’arrivée du train de Perrache prise du train). And who needs drama when you can have comedy?

Mariann Lewinsky