ABSTRACT
During the silent fi lm period, fi lm seriality was present not in just one single form, not only in the well-known American two-reel serial, but in a range of heterogeneous forms of various lengths and uses. If one looks closely this can be seen in America, but it is especially in Europe that a varied palette of seriality existed on a large scale. However, as many fi lms have been lost over time, sometimes only a few episodes are left, or it is the adjusted version that remains, many fi lm serials have been forgotten or only appreciated as a feature. Overall in fi lm history, silent serials have for a long time not been the object of study, as they were often seen as overly long peculiarities that were artistically not interesting. Only in recent years, when serials have been shown at fi lm festivals, has interest grown as the silent serials that were shown defi ed these generalizing views.1 Knowledge of the history of the serial and its heterogeneous forms is essential to fully understand important aspects of fi lm history.
