San Francisco Day of Silents on December 3

On Saturday, December 3rd, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents "A Day of Silents," a day-long six program event showcasing great directors, great performances and great films.  With so many festivals devoted to so many different aspects of the cinema, festivals goers in San Francisco are fortunate to take in movies one may have only heard or read about. And not just that: at this event one can experience films on the “big screen” with live musical accompaniment in the confines of a historic movie theater, the Castro, which dates to the time these films were first released.

This year, this now annual event presents a Jazz Age gem by the great Ernst Lubitsch, the first full-length feature by legendary director Sergei Eisenstein, the oldest surviving film with a homosexual protagonist, a classic by Josef von Sternberg which features a performance by the winner of the first-ever Best Actor Oscar, and more—including three short films by Charlie Chaplin made here in the San Francisco Bay Area!

And what’s more, each film features live musical accompaniment by either favorites Donald Sosin or the Alloy Orchestra. For complete details and tickets, visit silentfilm.org Here is the line-up of films for the day.

Chaplin at Essanay — 10:00 AM (84 min)

Charlie Chaplin signed with the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company in late 1914 after making a name for himself at Keystone. It was at Essanay that Chaplin was able to develop as a filmmaker—where he became truly "Chaplinesque." This program features three short films that chart this development, all from 1915. His New Job is Chaplin’s first title at Essanay and it has the Tramp working behind the scenes at a film studio. In The Champion, the Tramp wins a championship fight with the help of his pet bulldog. Chaplin plays dual roles in the hilarious A Night in the Snow—as Mr. Pest in the orchestra seats and Mr. Rowdy in the peanut gallery.

Restorations by the Chaplin Project (led by Lobster Films and Cineteca di Bologna). DCP from Lobster Films. Copresented by Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum and the Exploratorium.

So This Is Paris — 12:15 PM (68 min)

 Ernst Lubitsch’s fabled "touch" is on full display in this Jazz Age gem, as married couples (Monte Blue and Patsy Ruth Miller, Lilyan Tashman and George Beranger) find their attentions straying to the opposite’s spouse. The ecstatic Charleston dance number seen in the film is justly famous, with its swirling camera and dizzying optics adding to the film’s feeling of seductive intoxication. 

Live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin: Restored 35mm print from the Library of Congress. Copresented by the Art Deco Society of California.

Strike (Stachka) — 2:15 PM (94 min)

Legendary director Sergei Eisenstein’s first full-length feature, Strike tells the story of a massive factory uprising in six powerful episodes. Cinematographer Eduard Tisse’s brilliant camerawork gives a semi-documentary feel to the striking workers and their suppression by the czarist factory owners and police. Set in pre-revolutionary Russia, Eisenstein’s dazzling montage is a riveting display of revolutionary filmmaking that changed the face of cinema forever.

Live musical accompaniment by Alloy Orchestra: 35mm print from the George Eastman Museum. Copresented by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Different from the Others (Anders als die Andern) — 4:45 PM (74 min)

Thought to be the oldest surviving film with a homosexual protagonist, Different from the Others was recently restored by the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project. Directed by Richard Oswald and co-written by famed psychologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, the film tells a devastating story of queer life under Paragraph 175, the 1871 German law criminalizing homosexuality. Young virtuoso Kurt Sivers (Fritz Schulz) approaches acclaimed violinist Paul Körner (Conrad Veidt, of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari fame) with the hope of becoming his student in early-1900s Germany. Paul agrees to take Kurt under his tutelage, which quickly blossoms into affection, but their relationship is thwarted when a blackmailer threatens to reveal Körner’s homosexuality.

Live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin: Restored 35mm print from the UCLA Film and Television Archive (50 m.) Different from the Others will be preceded by preserved newsreels from UCLA: Flashes of the Past: A review of historic events from 1910 to 1925 / Pathé Exchange, Inc. (24 m.) Introduced by Des Buford, Frameline's director of exhibition & programming. Copresented by Frameline and Goethe-Institut/Berlin & Beyond

 

The Last Command — 7:00 PM (88 min)

Emil Jannings won the first-ever Best Actor Oscar for his nuanced portrayal of an exiled Russian general turned Hollywood extra. Movie director Lev Andreyev (William Powell), a former Russian revolutionary, is making a Hollywood epic about the Russian revolution when he recognizes his czarist foe—now going by the name Grand Duke Sergius Alexander—in a book of headshots and casts the destitute extra as a general in his movie. Josef von Sternberg’s stunningly photographed The Last Command displays an insider’s look at life and work in Hollywood. Bay Area academic and author Anton Kaes wrote that the “underlying project” of the movie was “to probe the magic and mystery—and perils—of double identities inherent in the very nature of film acting."

Live musical accompaniment by Alloy Orchestra: 35mm print from Paramount Pictures. Copresented by the San Francisco Film Society.

Sadie Thompson — 9:15 PM (97 min)

This first version of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel Rain stars Gloria Swanson as San Francisco prostitute Sadie Thompson who’s waylaid on the remote tropical island Pago Pago with a sexy sergeant (Raoul Walsh) and a crusading moralist (Lionel Barrymore). The film project was beset by problems from the beginning—the censors were dubious and the studios were reluctant. It was Swanson’s perseverance that won the day. She negotiated with the censors, put up $200,000 of her own money, and handpicked the cast. The film marks Swanson’s greatest performance, and happily for all, it was an enormous success at the box office. Sadly, the last reel of the film is missing. The search is on, but in the meantime the film’s end has been reconstructed with production stills and footage from a 1932 adaptation. Dennis Doros reconstructed the missing reel, and Kino Lorber funded the reconstruction.

Live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin. Introduced by Swanson’s step-son Bevan Dufty, who was recently elected to the BART Board of Directors, District 9: 35mm print from Kino Lorber.   Copresented by California Film Institute.

L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants: Celebrating the Famous Places Where Hollywood Ate, Drank, and Played

For a few years at the time in the 1920s and 1930s, Louise Brooks lived in Los Angeles. And, like other residents and celebrities, she frequented the city's various restaurants and nightclubs.

A swell new book from Santa Monica Press, L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants: Celebrating the Famous Places Where Hollywood Ate, Drank, and Played, by George Geary, gives some sense of what it would have been like to dine out in golden age Hollywood.

From the publisher: "L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants is an illustrated history of dozens of landmark eateries from throughout the City of Angels. From such classics as the Musso & Frank Grill and the Brown Derby in the 1920s, to the see-and-be-seen crowds at Chasen’s, Romanoff’s, and Ciro’s in the mid-twentieth century, to the dawn of California cuisine at Ma Maison and Spago Sunset in the 1970s and ’80s, L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants celebrates the famous locations where Hollywood ate, drank, and played.

Award-winning chef, best-selling author, and renowned educator George Geary leads you on a tour of these glamorous restaurants through a lively narrative filled with colorful anecdotes and illustrated with vintage photographs, historic menus, and timeless ephemera. Over 100 iconic recipes for entrées, appetizers, desserts, and classic drinks are included, and all have been updated by Chef Geary for today’s cook and kitchen.

L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants is sprinkled with fun facts and trivia, from Elizabeth Taylor’s craving for Chasen’s chili on the set of Cleopatra, to Bob Hope’s favorite place to enjoy a hot fudge sundae after the Academy Awards, to the restaurant where a table was sawed off to accommodate a pregnant Lana Turner, to the soda fountain counter where composer Harold Arlen wrote “Over the Rainbow” for The Wizard of Oz.

The book runs the gamut of L.A.’s restaurant scene, covering not only the fashionable, high-priced eateries favored by the Hollywood cognoscenti, but also the drive-ins, drugstores, nightclubs, and bars frequented by the average Angeleno. What book on L.A. restaurants would be complete without tales of ice cream sundaes at C. C. Brown’s, cafeteria-style meals at Clifton’s, late-night breakfasts at Ben Frank’s, or mai tais at Don the Beachcomber?

Most of the locations in L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants no longer exist, but George Geary has brought their memories back to life. And with Chef Geary’s updated recipes, we can still enjoy many of the same iconic dishes that kept customers coming back to their favorite haunts again and again."

The book is organized by when each restaurant was in business. (A few still are.) Early film buffs will enjoy the images of movie stars likeCharlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard, Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis, Norma Shearer, Thelma Todd, Constance Bennett, Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard, and the Marx Brothers as they ate out at the Pig 'n Whistle, Brown Derby, Musso and Franks, Romanoff's, Clifton's Cafeteria, Schwab's Pharmacy and elsewhere.

Follow the Louise Brooks Society on Twitter

Do you follow the Louise Brooks Society on Twitter? If not, you should! The LBS ( @LB_Society ) has been on the popular social media platform since 2009. In fact, the LBS is followed by more than 4,200+ fans and other interested individuals (including a few famous names).

And while you're at it, be sure and check out the LBS Twitter profile, and the more than 5,000 LBS tweets ... so far! 

@LB_Society

Happy Birthday to Fave Rave Bruce Conner

Bruce Conner was born on this day in 1933 in McPherson, Kansas, and raised in Wichita, Kansas.

This great American artist, who passed away in 2008, is still renowned for his work in painting, drawing, sculpture, assemblage, collage, photography, and performance, among other disciplines. Though primarily a visual artist, Conner is perhaps best known for his work as a film maker. His short 16mm and 35mm experimental films like “Report” (1963-1967), “Breakaway” (1966), and “Crossroads” (1976) are each a mini tour-de-force. And so is his first work in the field, a 16mm non-narrative short titled “A Movie” (1958). In 1991, it was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

Conner is currently the subject of a major retrospective exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (through January 22, 2017). The exhibit, "Bruce Conner: It's All True," opened at the New York Museum of Modern Art, where it received a rave review in the New York Times, which called it an "extravaganza" and "a massive tribute." Times critic Roberta Smith called Conner a "polymathic nonconformist" who was "one of the great outliers of American Art" and who "fearlessly evolved into one of America’s first thoroughly multidisciplinary artists."

After having seen the exhibit in San Francisco, I wrote about it in the Huffington Post.

It's worth noting that Conner had a not uncritical nostalgic affection for old Hollywood. He obliquely appropriated imagery and themes from pulp and pop culture. Witness the works in "Bruce Conner: It's All True" with titles like "St. Valentine's Day Massacre / Homage to Errol Flynn" (1960), “Homage to Mae West” (1961), “Homage to Jean Harlow” (1963), and "Son of the Sheik" (1963), as well as others not includes in this retrospective. Granted, these works are not "about" the movie stars or films they reference, but that doesn't mean they are not an intentional oblique nod.

Conner also had a lifelong interest in his fellow Kansan, Louise Brooks. On more than one occasion, he told me so. They both grew up in Wichita. Conner was also familiar with the biography of the actress by Barry Paris.

Back in 1997, I mounted a small exhibit about Louise Brooks at a small neighborhood cafe here in San Francisco. Conner, who lived in the next neighborhood over, read about it in the local paper and visited the exhibit. (So did the artist known as Jess.) Conner must have appreciated my little exhibit, which was made up of film stills, vintage magazine covers, sheet music, and other ephemera I had collected. Conner even wrote a note in the guestbook. I was wowed, and flattered, to say the least, as I had long been interested in Bruce Conner's art. (I can't really fix a date on the beginning of my deep interest in the artist, but it could date to around the time I read Rebecca Solnit's brilliant 1990 book, Secret Exhibition: Six California Artists of the Cold War Era.) Well, anyways, here is that note.

Sometime later, Conner and I got in touch, at first by phone and then in person. Eventually we met, and he had me over to his San Francisco home, where at his kitchen table and in between phone calls from friends like Dennis Hopper, Conner told me of his "near encounter" with Brooks. Conner also told me of his involvement with early showings of her films in San Francisco. It was information, it seemed to me, he was desirous to pass on.

Their near encounter took place around 1942 (as best I can date it), after Brooks left Hollywood and returned to Wichita, where the one time world famous film star moved back in with her parents. It was not a harmonious scene, as Brooks was flat broke and the world (including gossiping locals) had deemed her a failure. As a former Denishawn dancer and Ziegfeld showgirl, Brooks knew how to move with grace, and so, she opened a dance studio in downtown Wichita in a half-hearted attempt to earn some money. Conner, still just a boy, was aware that a movie star was in town (there were articles in the local paper), and he told me he took to keeping on eye on her dance studio. Conner admitted to spying on the studio, watching Brooks come and go. Conner even drew a map of the area, marking the location of Brooks' studio in the Dockum Building on East Douglas and its relationship to the theaters where Conner would go to the movies.

via wichitaksdailyphoto.blogspot.com

Conner also told me how, at one point, he wished to take dancing lessons from Brooks, but his parents would not allow it. Conner told me that it was because of Brooks' scandalous reputation, something no doubt talked about by neighbors. If I recall correctly, he also told me that his parents and other neighbors or  friends knew Brooks' and her family, and that this social circle of friends and acquaintances once encountered one another at a Wichita party, and a punch was thrown. Conner himself never got up the nerve to make contact with Brooks, telling how he once almost rang her doorbell.

In 2006, the Louise Brooks centenary was celebrated by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival when they showed a restoration of Louise Brooks' most celebrated film, Pandora's Box. I was asked to introduce the film, and to introduce Bruce Conner; the artist spoke about what the actress meant to him and his near encounter with this singular silent film star. Somewhere, there is video of this occasion at the Castro Theater in San Francisco before a sold-out audience of more than 1400 people. Here, at least, is a photograph.

In a sense, Louise Brooks is one of the great outliers in film history. And her films, like the art of Bruce Conner, has touched many. John Lennon, a kindred spirit to both, once wrote to Conner, “You don’t know me but I know you and you are my fave rave.” Happy birthday Bruce Conner.

Happy birthday Louise Brooks

Happy birthday to Louise Brooks. The silent film actress, Denishawn dancer, and best-selling author of Lulu in Hollywood was born on this day in Cherryvale, Kansas in 1906. She graced this world for 28,758 days.

Brooks' birth even made the Associated Press' Today in History syndicated feature, as seen in the Pattaya Mail, and English Language newspaper from Thailand!

Snapshots from the New Mission theater in San Francisco

My wife and I had a blast at the Alamo Drafthouse / New Mission theater where we saw Diary of a Lost Girl starring Louise Brooks on the big screen. I also signed books and DVDs for new fans of the film. Here are a few snapshots from the evening, which I was told had sold-out!

I love their neon!

Thank you to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival for co-sponsoring this event and for asking me to participate. Thank you Lucy, Peter and Anita.

Today / tonight: Diary of a Lost Girl with Louise Brooks screens in San Francisco

Tonight, in San Francisco, the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Cinema will screen the 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl. Start time is 7 pm. The event is co-sponsored by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

And what's more, yours truly will be there in the theater lobby selling and autographing copies of the Diary of a Lost Girl book and DVD / Blu-ray both before and after the show.

In 2010, I edited, wrote the introduction, and published the "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl, the sensational & controversial 1905 book that was the basis for the 1929 film. My efforts were praised by the likes of Louise Brooks biographer Barry Paris, film historian Leonard Maltin, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle critic Jack Garner, and others. (More info about the book can be found HERE.)

And, last year, in 2015, my audio commentary to the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. My efforts were likewise praised by film historians James L. Neibaur and Glenn Erickson, and critics from DVDtalk, blu-ray.com, and elsewhere. I recommend both the book and the movie highly. I hope to see some of you at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Cinema.