1913 E5 - Paul Gagliardi

Paul Gagliardi, Teaching Associate Professor of English at Marquette University, selects almost entirely comedy shorts for his 1913 highlights, although they connect with his proto-expressionist feature pick in that they all contain morbid underbellies. And diving into the comic commentary of these works, intended or not, reflects a few things about audience reception to movies and politics of the time. Paul is the author of All Play and No Work: The Comic Plays of the Federal Theatre Project. His website is paul-gagliardi.com. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1913! Films and resources mentioned: A House Divided (1913) - Alice Guy-Blaché The Student of Prague (1913) - Stellan Rye Fatty Joins the Force (1913) - George Nichols Cohen Saves the Flag (1913) - Mack Sennett Mabel’s Dramatic Career (1913) - Mack Sennett The Brutalist (2024) - Brady Corbet The Jazz Singer (1927) - Alan Crosland Sherlock Jr. (1924) - Buster Keaton The Battle of Gettysburg (1913) - Charles Giblyn and Thomas Ince My Dinner with Andre (1981) - Louis Malle By the Sea (1915) - Charlie Chaplin The Cook (1918) - Roscoe Arbuckle Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco (1915) - Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand The Round-Up (1920) - George Melford Nosferatu (1922) - F.W. Murnau Faust (1926) - F.W. Murnau Grease (1978) - Randal Kleiser The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup - Jonathan Wilson