The Lost World (1925)

(In theaters, March 2006) Yes, it’s silent, black-and-white and older that most of your grandparents. Get past that and have a look at what, at the time, must have been a pretty amazing film. The special effect are crude, but it’s fun to imagine how they must have been perceived at the time. Before even the original King Kong, this was the state-of-the-art of effects cinema. Even today, some of the crude character details is textbook stuff for Special Effects artists. What’s heartening, once you dismiss the threadbare plot (read the novel for a more enjoyable experience) is the realization that years before Godzilla madness, there was a healthy appetite for monsters wreaking havoc in big cities. Not an essential film, but a significant piece of cinematic history. (Semi-privately screened.)