The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of Verdun: Looking at History:...

Dir: Donald Crisp

During the Civil War, young widow Rachel Hayne is among those "held by the enemy" when her old family home is within the lines occupied by the Northern troops. Protected by Colonel Prescott from looters and the unwelcome attentions of Surgeon Fielding, Rachel begins to fall in love with the gallant Yankee officer. Their romance is disrupted when Rachel's husband Gordon, long reported dead, is captured as a spy and condemned to death. When Gordon is wounded during an attempted escape, Rachel's loyalty impels her to try to save him by feigning his death. As Gordon's stretcher is carried through the hospital, Fielding demands an examination of the body, charging that Prescott is involved in a plot to smuggle the spy out of the hospital alive. General Stanton lifts the cover from the body, only to find that death has really come, freeing both Rachel and Prescott.

Dir: Jerome Storm

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Paris Green perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Luther Green goes to war in France in 1917. When he comes back to his family home in New Jersey, he has a surprise following him: a beautiful French girl named Nina.

Dir: Kinka Kimura

About the tragic love of a young man from a coastal village for a girl from a small island.

Dir: Martin Zickel

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Shima no onna perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: B.A. Rolfe

In the Roman Coliseum, at the beginning of the Christian era, the Emperor Turnerius, accompanied by his favorite, Nerissa, watches the bestial games in the arena. His son Gordian is asked by Grimaldo the magician to save the life of a Christian girl about to be thrown to the lions. He refuses, whereupon Grimaldo prophesies the fate of the Empire by telling the prince a story of the future: Two thousand years hence, in New York, a parallel situation takes place in which a young man is led to put a stop to the base plans of his father. The prince is so deeply affected by the injustice of the story that he plunges into the arena to save the girl, causing the emperor to die in a fit of rage, thus precipitating the coronation of his son as the new emperor.

Dir: Franklin B. Coates

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Die Prinzessin vom Nil perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Depicts Jesse James' return home to Missouri after the Civil War hoping to live a life of peace, but is falsely accused of robbing a bank. He is forced to take up a life of crime by being branded an outlaw. Crimes are commited and blamed on him, his family is maimed by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, but all the while James is able to perform charitable acts to citizens. James is finally assasinated by Bob Ford. All told in a flashback style by Jesse James Jr. to a eastern baeu asking for his daughters' hand in marrage.

Dir: Rex Ingram

An extended family split up in France and Germany find themselves on opposing sides of the battlefield during World War I.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Madonnas and Men perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Two orphaned sisters are caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution, encountering misery and love along the way.

Dir: Antoni Bednarczyk

The north-eastern Polish province of Vilnius is after WW1 plundered by savage Bolsheviks. The heroic Polish army is bound to stop them.

Dir: Anthony Young

Films shot by newsreel companies and army cameramen are featured to tell the story of what it was like for soldiers during World War I.