The 7x7 Link Awards!

Flick Chick, author of the excellent A Person in the Dark blog has very kindly given me the 7x7 Link Award. It's great to be *read* and it's always nice to be recognised - good to know that we're none of us alone in the dark!

The 7 x 7 Link Award rules are as follows:
1. Tell everyone 7 facts that no one else may know about you
2. Link to one of 7 posts that you feel best fits the following categories: Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, and Most Pride-Worthy Piece
3. Pass this award to 7 other bloggers

Hmm... not like Fight Club rules then?

So 7 things you may or may not know or want to know:
1. I work in marketing for a media company (sounds bad I know)
2. I started this blog just so I could follow a friend's blog...only then did I think about what I should write!
3. Pandora's Box was the first silent DVD I bought, in a second hand record shop in Bristol, 2003...it knocked me sideways and I've haven't looked back
4. It's *all* about Brooksie
5. I complained to Bryony Dixon that her - totally essential - "100 Silent Films" book was costing me a fortune: it is and I love it!
6. My friend's great aunt - Sybil Rhoda - was in Alfred Hitchcock's Downhill - I look forward to seeing the restored version!
7. I made my teenage daughter watch large swathes of Greed - she's paying me back with her Friends box set...

Blushingly, I turn to the 7 posts that meet the following categories...

Most Beautiful Piece - this is a tricky one to kick off with... film is all about beauty after all but are any of my posts "beautiful"? Certainly one of the most affecting films I've seen was The First Born with Steven Hornes' superbly emotional score. I've seen this twice now and hope it gets a DVD release. The post was: The sounds of silents...

Most Helpful Piece - hmm, this implies that people actually gain utility from my ramblings... I suppose flagging upcoming events and helping spread the word counts in which case my trumpeting of the Dodge Brothers, Neil Brand and Beggars of Life may be tops. Seeing them all again at the Barbican on 29th April!

Most Popular Piece - easy one this, it's "...there is only Louise Brooks..." written after a screening of Pandora's Box at the Prince Charles Cinema in London. Just me gushing, but I mean it.

Most Controversial Piece - controversial with me at least... Ecstacy...Hedy good... bad pun aside, this seems to attract a lot of attention from search engines merely for the use of the words "Hedy", "Lamarr" and "nude"... Oops, there I go again! It is an interesting film and for all the right reasons!

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece - I shouldn't have been surprised but the greatest French actress of her generation in 80's Aussie indy classic... was very popular! Isabelle Huppert in Cactus (1986)

Most Underrated Piece - this is a recent one, French war poetry… J’Accuse (1919)... I think this film is quite exceptional and can't wait to see Napoleon in cinema. Is Abel Gance the ultimate cult director?

Most Pride-Worthy Piece - I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants here but I do take a lot of satisfaction in rediscovering performers who may get overlooked and I was particularly impressed with the multiple talents of prima ballerina and actress Jenny Hasselqvist - all acting, all dancing. She's great in Stiller's Johan, Sumurun and Gosta Berling. When will they release Victor Sjöström's Vem dömer on DVD!?

My recommendations for blogs you should read?

1. Sir Gawain's World ...a hand-crafted blog from a proper wordsmith! Also wields a sword and rides a powerful horse.

2. She Blogged by Night - sorry Stacia, I know you have issues with these bloggy chain-letters but I think your site is great: especially your championing of Marie Prevost!

3. 100 Years of Movies - a lot of years to cover and a lot of expert commentary - I even agreed on Green Lantern!

4. Silent Beauties - the hardest-working blog on silents? No one uncovers more silent treats than miwi!

5. Leopard and Lipstick - Johnny Cash, Serge Gainsbourg...and "a place to ponder on how much leopard print a girl can wear at once?"

6. Flapper Flickers and Silent Stanzas - "A modern look at the 1920s and 30s" and a lot of Clara Bow!

7. Time Machine to the Twenties - great title for a blog and wouldn't we all want one!

Apologies to anyone I missed out. So much sincere thought, passion and self-expression...