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One hundred years ago, the American studio system rapidly expanded and consolidated, generating hundreds of classical Hollywood genre films annually. MGM and Columbia Pictures were both formed that year, joining Warner, Fox, and Universal, and Walt Disney moved west too with his Alice cartoons. Key Hollywood movies of 1924 include comedies by Buster Keaton (Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator) and Harold Lloyd (Girl Shy), but also important movies by Ernst Lubitsch, Erich von Stroheim, Raoul Walsh, and John Ford.

By 1924, both France and Germany had recovered from World War I and boasted strong commercial cinemas of their own, but they also made room for experimentation inspired by Expressionism, Impressionism, and Dada. During 1924, France released avant-garde films by René Clair (Entr’acte) and Fernand Léger (The Mechanical Ballet), and spectacular features including L’Inhumaine (The Inhuman Woman) and Le Miracle des loups (Miracle of the Wolves). Germany produced Fritz Lang’s mammoth Die Nibelungen, F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh, animation by Walter Ruttmann, and Paul Leni's Waxworks that year. Sweden and the Soviets had big years, too. This roundtable will assess the strengths of both the Hollywood system and European art cinema to remind us how fascinating 1920s silent cinema really was.

Panelists include Emory University's Matthew H. Bernstein (Film & Media) and UGA's Berna Gueneli (Germanic and Slavic Studies), Alex Sager (Germanic and Slavic Studies), Christopher Sieving (Film Studies), and moderator Richard Neupert (Film Studies). The roundtable is free and open to the public and the audience will be invited to ask questions and join the conversation.

Following the roundtable, the public is invited to a reception at Ciné in honor of Richard Neupert, who retired from UGA in August after 30 years at the university, where he led the film studies program from its founding in 1999.

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  • Genevieve Guzman
  • Berna Gueneli
  • Hanul Choe

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