Tomorrow's San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a mixed bag.
And that's perfectly okay, because the event's eclectic programming
makes for a good point.
The popular perception of movies of the
Teens and Twenties being either stagey costume drama, silly slapstick,
or something to do with flappers betrays the rich tapestry of
film-making during the pre-sound era. Sure, there were plenty of
historical romances, damsels in distress, and pie fights -- but there
were also the glories of German Expressionism, moving dramas of everyday
life (think King Vidor's
The Crowd), exciting crime stories, riveting documentaries, and epic war films (including
Wings, the first movie to win the Academy Award for best picture).
Still
remembered unique personalities like Mary Pickford and Clara Bow and
Louise Brooks lit up screens everywhere. And, remarkably, the era was
leavened by the simultaneous work of arguably the three greatest
comedians, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. No wonder
audiences were spellbound in darkness.
Now in its 19th year, The
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
has shifted its annual Winter event to the Fall. "Silent Autumn," as it
has been rechristened, takes place Saturday, September 20th at the
historic Castro Theater in San Francisco. It's an all day affair
featuring five varied programs.
ANOTHER FINE MESS: SILENT LAUREL AND HARDY SHORTS (1928-1929)
(Produced by Hal Roach, total running time approximately 70 minutes)
11:00 AM
Depending on your age, Laurel and Hardy may be something you remember from having seen on television (their
Babes in Toyland
from 1934 is a holiday classic), or perhaps they were one of your
Father's or Grandfather's favorites. Whatever the case, they are one of
finest comedy teams in film history. Stan Laurel (the thin Briton with
the elastic face) and Oliver Hardy (the rotund American with the
baby-face) were each successful comedians early on, but once this odd
couple joined together, they were legend.
The opening program includes two of their early shorts,
Two Tars (1928) and
Big Business (1929), and a promised surprise or two. Live musical accompaniment by
Donald Sosin.
THE SON OF THE SHEIK (1926)
(Directed by George Fitzmaurice, 81 minutes)
1:00 PM
The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921), which the Silent Film Festival screened in May, made Rudolph Valentino a star.
The Sheik,
released the same year, made him a superstar. Handsome, sexy,
swarthy--Valentino was the original Latin lover. He was both sex symbol
and pop icon, and until then, few had enjoyed such acclaim. Five years
later, this Leonardo DiCaprio + Johnny Depp + George Clooney rolled into
one was dead at age 31. Women around the world mourned; there
were reported suicides, and an estimated 100,000 people lined the
streets of New York City to pay their respects. Among those who attended his funeral in NYC was Louise Brooks.
The Son of the Sheik
(1926), released shortly before his death, continues the story of what
was the actor's biggest hit, if not his finest film. This desert
romance, being presented in a new restoration by Ken Winokur and Jane
Gillooly from excellent 35mm negative material, will be introduced by
San Francisco resident and leading Valentino authority
Donna Hill. Live musical accompaniment by the
Alloy Orchestra, who will premiere their new score (heard in the video clip below).
A NIGHT AT THE CINEMA IN 1914 (1914)
(1914, 85 minutes)
3:30 PM
To mark the beginning of World War I, the British Film
Institute has put together an eclectic program of comedies, adventure
films, travelogues, and newsreels which recreate a typical night at the
cinema in 1914. With full length feature films still rare, an evening's
entertainment 100 years ago was largely an ever-changing line-up of
short films with live musical accompaniment.
Among the highlights of this special program is an episode of the sensational American serial
The Perils of Pauline,
scenes of suffragettes protesting at Buckingham Palace, footage of
early aviation, a quirky piece about a face-pulling competition, and
Allied troops celebrating Christmas at the Front. There is also an
animated anti-German short, and an early appearance by one of the
above-mentioned three greatest comedians. Live musical accompaniment by
Donald Sosin.
THE GENERAL (1926)
(Directed by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, 75 minutes)
7:00 PM
What motion picture did Orson Welles call "the greatest
comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the
greatest film ever made"? The answer is Buster Keaton's
The General
(1926), a film largely unsung in its day but heaped with critical
acclaim since. In the film, Keaton plays Johnnie Gray, whose two loves
are his fiancée Annabelle Lee and his locomotive, named "The General."
The General
is a tour-de-force and one of the most expensive films of its time, and
as Roger Ebert described it, "an epic of silent comedy."
The film will be introduced by Bay Area resident and leading Keaton authority
John Bengtson. Live musical accompaniment by
Alloy Orchestra.
 |
Buster Keaton, about who Louise Brooks said:
"Since childhood I have thought Buster Keaton's the most beautiful face of any man I have ever seen."
|
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)
(Directed by Robert Wiene, 75 minutes)
9:00 PM
When the German Expressionist film
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(1920) first played in the United States, it overturned the applecart
of American cinema. No one had seen anything like it. In fact, both the
film world and the general public didn't know what to make of its
bizarre story of Dr. Caligari, a hypnotist, and his somnambulist Césare.
The movie, which some have deemed a horror film, employed stylized
sets, with jagged shadows painted on unrealistic buildings which make up
an unreal city. To add to the strange visual style, the actors used
expressive movements and gestures. In fact, some even thought the film
so weird as to be necessarily immoral.
In 1922, writer Upton Sinclair penned
They Call Me Carpenter,
a novel in which a crowd of people try to keep Americans from seeing
Caligari because it's story of a madman didn't serve the purpose of art.
Saturday's Silent Film Festival presentation marks the United States
premiere of the restoration of this Expressionist masterpiece--restored
using the original camera negative resulting in a print quality worthy
of its classic status. Not to be missed, with live musical accompaniment
by
Donald Sosin.
