Let us once again resist the temptation to run straight toward ghosts, demons, stage tricks, and visible monsters. The Avenging Conscience, directed by D. W. Griffith, brings us the horror of the human mind. Released in 1914, the film is often described as a moral drama, almost a Christian parable about crime and punishment. But it is also something more unsettling...

Produced by Ambrosio Film and directed by Luigi Maggi, Una partita a scacchi (1912) is a short film of only 8 minutes that exemplifies how Italian silent cinema was already exploring psychological suspense and the figure of the "madman" as a driver of fear.

What happened to Mary is considered the first American serial. Charles Dwyer, editor of The Ladies World magazine, and Horace G. Plimpton, then manager of the Edison Company, came up with the idea for what may have been one of the first multimedia actions in history, combining the publication of the serial story in The Ladies World, the episodes on cinema screens, and later, a stage play in addition to a book release.

In our sixth journey through the art of cinema posters, we reach 1916, bringing more illustrations and artworks worthy of admiration, starting from war propaganda and moving through important names such as Hans Zoozmann, Karl Petau, and Curt Wolfram Kiesslich.

Fantômas was a character created in 1911 by authors Marcel Allain (1885-1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874-1914). His stories appear in more than 30 publications co-authored by both, and in 11 further publications written solely by Allain after Souvestre's death. Fantômas has been translated into more than twenty languages.

In modern cinema, we take for granted that a good story can be told in 90 minutes... maybe 2 hours... perhaps 50 short minutes, with complex characters, drama, and effects. But back in the beginning... the camera was still a novelty. Audiences marveled at simple movement —as I have mentioned in previous articles. Every narrative had to be expressed through pure image, gesture, and minimal editing.