A Pair of Beautiful Blogs

Silent Beauties – just fantastic, I don’t know how they manage to find so many rare, lost and abandoned little films, let alone how they then find time to upload them! Though the focus is on the more obscure films that are not represented elsewhere, this is one of the most active blogs on my blogroll, there’s always something new, well actually it’s usually something old, of course…

It is astonishing that this is a privately administrated site run by enthusiasts, it appears more like a ‘National Archive’ of some specialist museum or university, except that the content is of international interest and value. The majority of the content is, as the name suggests, silent movies and early documentary films and being without sound these easily bridge the language barriers. This is a huge resource and one of the most valuable media blogs on the www – really useful for teachers and cultural historians and just really interesting for personal perusal… check it out for some ‘quiet time’.

If you prefer your media with sound, why not try:

Cathode RayTube – another site that fills me with awe and admiration at the sheer volume and quality of the content that regularly uploads. This is the blog of the erudite Frank Collins, a long established ‘critic’ and general fount of knowledge for cult TV and genre cinema, particularly British SF and Horror, but he also casts his roving eye over comedy and classics.

This blog will evoke nostalgic pangs in many readers, of a certain age, but can snap them out of it with content that brings them bang up to date with what is happening in cult media today. The writing is intelligent and perceptive and will approach popular programmes, and overlooked classics, with the same sort of critical respect usually reserved for those high-brow ‘arty’ films… if you are studying media make sure you have a read of this before you tackle any of your essays. The main thing that makes this a most rewarding read is not its clear and flowing style (which is abundant), but that it enhances enjoyment – for example, try watching an episode of Doctor Who, then read the review and watch it again. You will see what I mean…