There are plenty of film festivals scattered across North America,
including a number devoted to silent film. The Denver Silent Film
Festival, Kansas Silent Film Festival, and Toronto Silent Film Festival
have all made their mark in recent years. None, however, is as eclectic,
long lasting, and well attended as the
San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
The event, which now stretches over five days and draws
tens-of-thousands of people from all over the world, is regarded as the
largest silent film festival in the Western Hemisphere.
If you
have any interest in Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Who, Jazz Age flappers,
world's fairs, or meeting an unique Academy Award winner--then you won't
want to miss this year's Silent Film Festival. There is a little
something for everyone, including fans of Louise Brooks. The annual event, which celebrates its 20th
anniversary, is set to take place May 28th through June 1st. To
celebrate 20 years of showcasing silent film--often times rare or
restored prints and almost always with live musical accompaniment, here
are 20 reasons to attend the 2015 event.
1) SHERLOCK HOLMES: By the time
Sherlock Holmes
(1916) was made, its star William Gillette was long established as the
world's foremost stage interpreter of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous
character. Gillette visually defined Holmes' methods, manner, and look,
especially his signature attire, and his performances were widely
praised, even by Doyle himself. This film, long thought lost, was
recently found and restored and here makes its
North American debut. See where the future Holmeses--John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, Benedict Cumberbatch
and the rest--come
from. [Reportedly, fans are flying in from all over for this special
screening, which is being underwritten by a major Holmes collector. If
you can't make the event,
Flicker Alley announced that they will be releasing the film on DVD in the fall.]
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| Tinted scenes from Sherlock Holmes, courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival |
2) DR. WHO: It's
no surprise the popular time-travelling British television character
enjoys silent cinema, as he likely experienced its glories during his
many adventures in space and time.... Real life British actor
Paul McGann, the actual 8th Doctor and himself a devotee of silent film and Louise Brooks, live narrates a couple of presentations, including
The Ghost Train (1927), a decidedly Whovian film which tells the story of eccentric travelers stranded at a dubiously haunted station.
3) COLLEEN MOORE:
She was as popular as Clara Bow, and had pulchritude not unlike that of Louise
Brooks. Yet, how many can claim to have seen one of her pictures?
Colleen Moore is perfect in
Why Be Good?
(1929), where she plays the aptly-named Pert Kelly, shop girl by day,
flapper by night. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: "I was the spark that lit
up Flaming Youth, Colleen Moore was the torch."
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| Why Be Good?, courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival |
4) LOCAL HISTORY: The Festival screens
When the Earth Trembled (1913), a
newly restored film
that's likely the first feature about the 1906 earthquake. It contains
some nifty special effects and rare footage shot in San Francisco in the
days following the disaster. And, to mark the 100th anniversary of the
Panama Pacific International Exhibition (a world's fair that celebrated The City's recovery), the Festival will also screen short films shot at that historic event.
5) KEVIN BROWNLOW:
Arguably, the above mentioned festivals might not exist without Kevin
Brownlow: author, archivist, documentarian, champion of the silent
cinema, and Louise Brooks' friend--Brownlow's importance to film history cannot be emphasized
enough. His 1968 book,
The Parade's Gone By, inspired a generation of enthusiasts. It's a must read. His 1979 TV series,
Hollywood, set the standard for just about every documentary that followed. In 2010, in recognition for
all he has done,
Brownlow received an Academy Honorary Award, the first time an Oscar
was awarded to a film historian! The British film preservationist will
be in conversation prior to the screening of his restoration of the
Festival's closing film,
Ben Hur (1925).
6) FAN FAVORITES:
This year's films star legendary names like John Gilbert and Greta
Garbo, Ramon Novarro, and Harold Lloyd. But look a little deeper into the credits and
you'll find up-and-comers whose reputations were made in later years,
like Boris Karloff in
The Deadlier Sex (1920), and Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon in TV's Batman, and one of the stars of Brooks' first film,
The Street of Forgotten Men) in
Why Be Good?
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| Gilbert and Garbo in love, courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival |
7) LEGACY: With
the passage of time, the children and grandchildren of silent film
personalities are as close as we may come to their work. In attendance
will be actor
William Wellman Jr., son of the Academy Award winning director William Wellman (whose credits include the 1928 Brooks' film
Beggars of Life) and author of the just released biography
Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel. Also presenting or signing books are Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of Harold Lloyd, and Jessica Niblo, daughter of
Why Be Good? director William Seiter.
8) SPECIAL GUESTS: Well known critics Leonard Maltin and David Thomson will also be on hand, as will authors and film historians
John Bengtson, Cari Beauchamp (
My First Time in Hollywood), Jeff Codori (
Colleen Moore: A Biography of the Silent Film Star), David Pierce (
The Dawn of Technicolor), Weihong Bao (
Fiery Cinema: The Emergence of an Affective Medium in China, 1915-1945), and others, including Thomas Gladysz, editor of the Louise Brooks' edition of
The Diary of a Lost Girl.
9) SPOKEN DIALOGUE: The Donovan Affair
(1929) was Frank Capra's first "100% all-Dialogue Picture." Its
soundtrack, however, has been lost. For this special screening, the
soundtrack will be
recreated with live dialogue by Allen Lewis Rickman (
Boardwalk Empire), Yelena Shmulenson (
A Serious Man,
The Good Shepherd), veteran actor, writer, director
Frank Buxton (who similarly voiced a part in Woody Allen's
What's Up, Tiger Lily?) and others. Not to be missed.
10) MUSIC: Most every film, from the shortest short to the longest epic, is presented with
live musical accompaniment.
Making their Festival debut are the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra from
Massachusetts, and returning are the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra,
Matti Bye Ensemble (winners of the Golden Beetle, Sweden's Oscar), and
musicians Donald Sosin, Stephen Horne, Frank Bockius, Guenter Buchwald,
and others.
11) ASIAN CINEMA: The Asian Cinema
did not start with Kurosawa, martial arts films, or Bollywood. For a
number of years, the Silent Film Festival has included a stellar example
of early movie making from Japan , China or India. This year's film is
Cave of the Spider Women
(1927), a rare example of a magic-spirit film, a popular genre in the
1920s. The film set box-office records in China in 1927, but was
considered lost until its discovery in Europe.
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| Cave of the Spider Women, courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival |
12) LOST LANDMARK: In
1913, a group of African-American performers led by famed entertainer
Bert Williams gathered in New York to make a motion picture. After
shooting more than an hour worth of film, the project was abandoned by
its producers and left forgotten. Its unassembled footage, notably,
represents the
earliest known surviving feature
with a cast of black actors. The Festival will present an hour-long
assemblage of material that includes a two-minute dance sequence and a
cutting-edge display of on-screen affection.
13) THE LAST LAUGH (1924): In
his greatest role, Oscar winner Emil Jannings plays the chief porter at
a prestigious hotel, a position affording him respect and dignity. His
uniform is the emblem of his stature¬--and a source of great personal
pride; thus, his subsequent demotion to washroom attendant is
devastating. The film's pathos is bolstered by its technical
innovation--F.W. Murnau's fluid camera is as beautifully expressive as
Jannings's performance. So much so, the story flows without the need for
intertitles.
The Last Laugh is one of the great films of the Weimar era. Expect to shed a tear, or two, or three.
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| The Last Laugh, courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival |
14) FOREIGN FILMS: Along with
The Last Laugh (a German production) and
The Ghost Train (an English/German co-production directed by a Hungarian), the Festival will also screen French classics
Visages d'enfants (1925) and
The Swallow and the Titmouse (1920), as well as the avant-garde
Ménilmontant (1926), which Pauline Kael named her favorite film. There is also a very modern Swedish work,
Norrtullsligan (1923), and a singular Norwegian effort,
Pan (1922), an adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author Knut Hamsun's famous novel.
15) ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930): We've
all read the book or seen the movie. The Festival will screen the long
lost silent version of the sound film, which some scholars think
superior to the more familiar early talkie; that's a big claim
considering Lewis Milestone's anti-war drama was the first to win
Academy Awards for both Outstanding Production and Best Director. This
opening night presentation features a new score and live sound effects
created especially for the silent version.
16) FREE PROGRAMS:
Every year, the Festival sponsors a free public program on film
preservation. It's pretty interesting, and a sure bet you'll see things
your film-buff friends wish they had seen. Rare, fragile, and once
thought lost films are screened, and noted individuals working in the
field speak: Bryony Dixon, senior curator of silent film at the British
Film Institute, is bringing a treasure trove of footage about the
Lusitania; Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films in Paris will show Maurice
Tourneur's
House of Wax (1914); and local preservationist Rob Byrne will describe reconstructing
Sherlock Holmes.
17) AMAZING CHARLIE BOWERS:
Mix a little slapstick with a little Rube Goldberg and a little Buster
Keaton with a little anything-goes-fantasy and you end up with Charlie
Bowers, a long-forgotten, idiosyncratic, Iowa-born filmmaker once
championed by the French Surrealists, who loved Bower's inventive mix
of live action and puppet animation. Only recently rediscovered, Bower's
surviving shorts have now been beautifully restored. You haven't lived
until you've seen
Now You Tell One (1926), with its scene of elephants marching into the U.S. Capitol.
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| Charlie Bowers, courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival |
18) YOU'LL BE TESTED:
Bruce Goldstein, director of repertory programming at New York's Film
Forum, will host a trivia contest called "So You Think You Know
Silents." Test your knowledge of the era in what promises to be a
spirited quiz. Prizes will be awarded. And what's more, its free.
19) CASTRO THEATER: The Festival takes place within the confines of the historic Castro. Built in 1922, this
grand neighborhood movie theater
is one of the last standing picture palaces in the San Francisco Bay
Area. Early on, Oscar winner Janet Gaynor was an usherette there.
20) AN ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: This
year's event marks 20 years of properly presented 35mm film with live
musical accompaniment, a Festival hallmark. Following the opening night
presentation, experience a festive Weimar-era nightclub--the Kit Kat
Klub, the Festival's version of a 1920s Berlin cabaret. There will be a
chanteuse, music, dancing , food, drink, "relaxed social attitudes", and
a special cocktail--the Voluptuous Panic. Period attire suggested.
The
Silent Film Festival takes place May 28th through June 1st at the
Castro Theater in San Francisco. More information, including a complete
program of films and special guests, can be found at
www.silentfilm.org
