A poor chap, with only fifty cents, hesitates whether to buy a meal with it or visit a fortune teller. He chooses the latter, and gazing into a crystal globe, he is told to follow the horses.


Crystal visions, horseflesh, and a half-dollar daydream: why this 1920 curiosity still fizzes like uncorked moonshine. I first saw Broken Bubbles in a Paris archive, the projector’s clatter echoing the hoofbeats inside the film. What seemed like a trifle—poor boy, magic orb, race-track triumph—revealed itself as a p...


Comparing the cinematic DNA and archive impact of two defining moments in cult history.

Hank Mann

Hal Roach
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" Crystal visions, horseflesh, and a half-dollar daydream: why this 1920 curiosity still fizzes like uncorked moonshine. I first saw Broken Bubbles in a Paris archive, the projector’s clatter echoing the hoofbeats inside the film. What seemed like a trifle—poor boy, magic orb, race-track triumph—revealed itself as a pocket-sized Decameron of desire, a nickelodeon La Dolce Vita shot for the price of a streetcar ticket. The print was bruised, emulsion flaking like cheap paint, yet every splice pu..."
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