2015 marks the 120th anniversary of sf cinema. This is the second part of a year-by-year list of films I’d recommend (not always for the same reasons), and there are a few years where there is little to recommend for any reason.
Part one, 1895-1914
1915
Les vampires (Louis Feuillade)
1916
Verdens Undergang/The End of the World (August Blom)
20,000 Leagues under the Sea (Stuart Paton)
1917
Ever Been Had (Dudley Buxton)
1918
Himmelskibet/A Trip to Mars (Holger-Madsen)
1919
Die puppe/The Doll (Ernst Lubitsch)
Die Spinnen/The Spiders (Fritz Lang)
1920
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (John S. Robertson)
One Week (Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton)
Der Golem: Wie Er in die Welt Kam/The Golem (Paul Wegener and Carl Boese)
1921
L’Atlantide/Queen of Atlantis (Jacques Feyder)
1922
The Electric House (Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton)
1923
Paris Qui Dort/The Crazy Ray (René Clair)
1924
Aelita (Jakov Protazanov)
1925
Orlacs Haende/The Hands of Orlac (Robert Wiene)
The Lost World (Harry O. Hoyt)
1926
The Magician (Rex Ingram)
1927
Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
Sur un Air de Charleston/Charleston (Jean Renoir)
1928
Spione/Spies (Fritz Lang)
Alraune (Heinrich Galeen)
1929
Frau im Mond/Woman in the Moon (Fritz Lang)
The Mysterious Island (Lucien Hubbard)
High Treason (Maurice Elvey) – silent and talkie versions on pay per view at BFI player
1930
Just Imagine (David Butler)
1931
Frankenstein (James Whale)
A Connecticut Yankee (David Butler)
1932
Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton)
Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian)
F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht/F.P.1 Doesn’t Answer (Karl Hartl)
1933
King Kong (Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper)
The Invisible Man (James Whale)
Das Testament des Dr Mabuse (Fritz Lang)
Der Tunnel (Curtis Bernhardt) – French version
1934
Gold (Karl Hartl)
Part three, 1935-54
and so anyway it turns out that the best thing about Paul Wegener’s Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920) is not the stunning 4K restoration, which makes it look like a completely different film to the one that’s only been available in shitty prints and ropey transfers for decades, nor is it sniggering at the subtitle, which I am told by a German friend would nowadays mean ‘and how he ejaculated into the world’ , no, the very best thing about this film about a creature fashioned from clay and brought to life through mystical powers, is the way it it loses all credibility the moment Fabian (Lothar Muthel, below right, shirt-cocking, full-Winnie-the-Pooh) starts to express an interst in, well, girls…
Mark Bould 