In this Book
- Cinema Muto
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: Southern Illinois University Press
- Series: Crab Orchard Series in Poetry
In Cinema Muto, Jesse Lee Kercheval examines the enduring themes of time, mortality, and love as revealed through the power of silent film. Following the ten days of the annual Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Italy, this collection of ekphrastic poems are love letters to the evocative power of silent cinema. Kercheval’s poems elegantly capture the allure of these rare films, which compel hundreds of pilgrims from around the world—from scholars and archivists, to artists and connoisseurs—to flock to Italy each autumn. Cinema Muto celebrates the flickering tales of madness and adventure, drama and love, which are all too often left to decay within forgotten vaults. As reels of Mosjoukine and D. W. Griffith float throughout the collection, a portrait also emerges of the simple beauty of Italy in October and of two lovers who are drawn together by their mutual passion for an extinct art. Together they revel in recapturing “the black and white gestures of a lost world.”
Cinema Muto is a tender tribute to the brief yet unforgettable reign of silent film. Brimming with stirring images of dreams, desire, and the ghosts of cinema legends gone by, Kercheval’s verse is a testament to the mute beauty and timeless lessons that may still be discovered in a fragile roll of celluloid.
Table of Contents
- Book Title
- p. iii
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Act I
- Saving Silence
- p. 3
- The Adventures of Billy
- pp. 5-6
- silent night
- p. 7
- The Dark That Is Not Sleeping
- pp. 15-16
- Familiarity, My Husband
- pp. 17-18
- Voyage Autour D’Une Etoile
- pp. 19-20
- Kohitsuji: The Lamb
- p. 21
- Italy, October
- p. 22
- Ein Werktag
- pp. 23-24
- Act II
- Mosjoukine in Exile
- pp. 33-46
- Act III
- Before the Movie
- p. 49
- Le Canard, c. 1925?
- p. 55
- L’Hirondelle et la Mesange
- pp. 60-61
- Visage D’Enfants
- p. 63
- D. W. Griffith, December, 1911
- pp. 65-66
- film history as train wreck
- pp. 69-70
- Imagine God as a Camera
- pp. 71-73
- Goodnight Silents
- pp. 74-76
- Keeper of Light
- p. 77
- Film Upon Film
- pp. 78-79
- The Projector
- p. 82
- Back Cover
- p. bc
Additional Information
Copyright
2009