The San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) presents the one-day event A DAY OF SILENTS. The six programs of live cinema (silent-era films with live musical accompaniment) include star turns by Anna May Wong, Rudolph Valentino, and Pola Negri; a centennial celebration of Harold Lloyd's SAFETY LAST; a brilliant collection of animated shorts by Dave and Max Fleischer, Walt Disney, and other geniuses of the form; and a proto-noir featuring pre- Thin Man William Powell. Like SFSFF's annual festival, the holiday-season A DAY OF SILENTS showcases a variety of superb titles from the silent era, all set to superb live musical accompaniment by the likes of Wayne Barker and Nicholas White, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and the Sascha Jacobsen Ensemble.
THE PROGRAM:
* 10am - OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS)
A collection of animated shorts, 1908-1928
$18 general / $16 member / Children under 12, free
Some of the most creative films from the silent era came out of an inkwell! Our collection includes animated shorts from 1908-1928, films that outshine much of what followed. For sheer audacity and pure joy, these films by cartoon masters Including the Fleischer brothers, Pat Sullivan, and Walt Disney, can't be beat!
Fantasmagorie (1908, d. Émile Cohl)
How a Mosquito Operates (1912, d. Winsor McKay)
Adam Raises Cain (1922, d. Tony Sarg)
Amateur Night on the Ark (1923, d. Paul Terry)
Bed Time (1923, d. Dave and Max Fleischer)
Felix Grabs His Grub (1923, d. Pat Sullivan)
A Trip to Mars (1924, d. Dave and Max Fleischer)
Vacation (1924, d. Dave and Max Fleisher)
Alice's Balloon Race (1926, d. Walt Disney)
Felix the Cat in Sure Locked Homes (1928, d. Pat Sullivan)
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY WAYNE BARKER AND NICHOLAS WHITE
* 12noon - THE WILDCAT (Die Bergkatze)
1921, d. Ernst Lubitsch
Pola Negri, Victor Janson, Paul Heidemann
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Before director Ernst Lubitsch left Germany to ply his famous 'Touch' in Hollywood, he made a series of comedies that gave hints at what was to come. The Wildcat is his last German comedy and his most riotously zany. Subtitled 'A Grotesque in Four Acts,' Wildcat makes use of extravagant set design and eccentric frame shapes that lend a surrealistic edge to its antic energy. Pola Negri's Rischka leads a gang of mountain bandits who ambush Lieutenant Alexis (Paul Heidemann) on his way to the local fortress, leaving him pant-less (and smitten) on the ice. Film writer John Gillett called the film "both an anti-militarist satire and a wonderful fairy tale."
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA
* 2:15pm - THE EAGLE
1925, d. Clarence Brown
Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Banky, Louise Dresser
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Clarence Brown's rousing film displays a perfect blend of elements--romance, swashbuckling, a modicum of humor, and the great Rudolph Valentino! Not to mention the splendid production design by William Cameron Menzies and gorgeous camerawork by George Barnes. After Valentino's Russian lieutenant rejects the amorous attentions of Catherine the Great (Louise Dresser), she orders him arrested. Instead, he flees and becomes a masked avenger intent on righting the wrongs visited upon his father and his countrymen by loutish nobleman KryillaTrouekouroff (James A. Marcus). But the nobleman has a beautiful daughter (Vilma Banky)...
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY WAYNE BARKER
* 4:15pm - PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY (Großstadtschmetterling)
DE/GB 1928/1929, d. Richard Eichberg
Gaston Jacquet, Anna May Wong
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Luminous Anna May Wong goes from a fan-dancing carnival act to an artist garret and finally to the French Riviera where she accompanies a wealthy art patron around Monte Carlo, draped in haute couture. Wong left Hollywood in search of roles more fitting her talents than the racially-circumscribed ones at home. This Weimar title showcases her magnetism--when Wong is onscreen, you can't look away.
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE
* 7pm - SAFETY LAST!
1923, d. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis
$25 general / $23 member / Children under 12, free
Harold Lloyd's bumpkin salesclerk comes up with a publicity stunt that will bring attention to his department store and earn him the money to marry his sweetheart--scale the 12-story building like a human fly! Shot in downtown Los Angeles, the stunt has given us one of the most iconic images of the silent era--Lloyd precariously hanging over the city street, dangling from a broken clock. James Agee wrote: "Each new floor is like a new stanza in a poem; and the higher and more horrifying it gets, the funnier it gets."
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA
* 9pm - FORGOTTEN FACES
1928, d. Victor Schwertzinger
Clive Brook, William Powell, Olga Baclanova
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Heliotrope Harry (Clive Brook) and Froggy (William Powell) are partners in crime--genteel armed robbery--at least until the cuckolded Harry commits an even bigger offense. Before Harry goes to prison, he leaves his baby girl on the doorstep of a wealthy couple to keep her out of the clutches of his no-good wife Lilly (Olga Baclanova) and tasks Froggy with keeping close tabs. But Froggy is no match for Lilly...
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE
~~~~~~~~~~
MUSICIANS
WAYNE BARKER has garnered acclaim both for his original compositions and live performances in the theater, including a Tony nomination for best original score for Peter and the Starcatcher. Barker will accompany OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS) with Nicholas White on sound effects at 10am and THE EAGLE at 2:15pm.
Reviving the tradition of silent-film orchestras, MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA culls historic libraries of music for live musical accompaniment. Rodney Sauer, Britt Swenson, David Short, Brian Collins, and Dawn Kramer have recorded and toured widely, creating vibrant and historically appropriate musical scores. Mont Alto will accompany THE WILD CAT at 12noon and SAFETY LAST! at 7pm.
Composer/bassist Sascha Jacobsen draws on a variety of musical styles from classical to jazz and Argentine Tango. He has performed with Kronos Quartet, theatrical greats Rita Moreno, Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone, musicians Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and Raul Jaurena, among many others. A dedicated teacher, Jacobsen has coached students at numerous arts and music schools in the Bay Area, as well as being the founder of the Musical Art Quintet which performs his original compositions. For A Day of Silents, Jacobsen has assembled two different groups under the title THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE. For PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY (4:15pm), Jacobsen will be joined by pianist Seth Asamow, saxophonist Masaru Koga, and violinist Michele Walther. For FORGOTTEN FACES (9pm), he will be joined by pianist Seth Asamow, clarinetist Sheldon Brown, and percussionist Aaron Kierbel.
Chicago-based musician NICHOLAS WHITE has amassed the largest number of antique traps (whistles, blocks, bells, ratchets, anvils, and all manner of delightfully specific noisemakers to perform sound effects for silent movies) in the world, along the way researching exactly how they were put to use. White demonstrates the often neglected history of silent sound effects in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, which includes a segment re-creating a live-radio drama from the 1930s. White joins Wayne Barker at the 10am show of OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS).
show less
THE PROGRAM:
* 10am - OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS)
A collection of animated shorts, 1908-1928
$18 general / $16 member / Children under 12, free
Some of the most creative films from the silent era came out of an inkwell! Our collection includes animated shorts from 1908-1928, films that outshine much of what followed. For sheer audacity and pure joy, these films by cartoon masters Including the Fleischer brothers, Pat Sullivan, and Walt Disney, can't be beat!
Fantasmagorie (1908, d. Émile Cohl)
How a Mosquito Operates (1912, d. Winsor McKay)
Adam Raises Cain (1922, d. Tony Sarg)
Amateur Night on the Ark (1923, d. Paul Terry)
Bed Time (1923, d. Dave and Max Fleischer)
Felix Grabs His Grub (1923, d. Pat Sullivan)
A Trip to Mars (1924, d. Dave and Max Fleischer)
Vacation (1924, d. Dave and Max Fleisher)
Alice's Balloon Race (1926, d. Walt Disney)
Felix the Cat in Sure Locked Homes (1928, d. Pat Sullivan)
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY WAYNE BARKER AND NICHOLAS WHITE
* 12noon - THE WILDCAT (Die Bergkatze)
1921, d. Ernst Lubitsch
Pola Negri, Victor Janson, Paul Heidemann
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Before director Ernst Lubitsch left Germany to ply his famous 'Touch' in Hollywood, he made a series of comedies that gave hints at what was to come. The Wildcat is his last German comedy and his most riotously zany. Subtitled 'A Grotesque in Four Acts,' Wildcat makes use of extravagant set design and eccentric frame shapes that lend a surrealistic edge to its antic energy. Pola Negri's Rischka leads a gang of mountain bandits who ambush Lieutenant Alexis (Paul Heidemann) on his way to the local fortress, leaving him pant-less (and smitten) on the ice. Film writer John Gillett called the film "both an anti-militarist satire and a wonderful fairy tale."
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA
* 2:15pm - THE EAGLE
1925, d. Clarence Brown
Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Banky, Louise Dresser
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Clarence Brown's rousing film displays a perfect blend of elements--romance, swashbuckling, a modicum of humor, and the great Rudolph Valentino! Not to mention the splendid production design by William Cameron Menzies and gorgeous camerawork by George Barnes. After Valentino's Russian lieutenant rejects the amorous attentions of Catherine the Great (Louise Dresser), she orders him arrested. Instead, he flees and becomes a masked avenger intent on righting the wrongs visited upon his father and his countrymen by loutish nobleman KryillaTrouekouroff (James A. Marcus). But the nobleman has a beautiful daughter (Vilma Banky)...
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY WAYNE BARKER
* 4:15pm - PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY (Großstadtschmetterling)
DE/GB 1928/1929, d. Richard Eichberg
Gaston Jacquet, Anna May Wong
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Luminous Anna May Wong goes from a fan-dancing carnival act to an artist garret and finally to the French Riviera where she accompanies a wealthy art patron around Monte Carlo, draped in haute couture. Wong left Hollywood in search of roles more fitting her talents than the racially-circumscribed ones at home. This Weimar title showcases her magnetism--when Wong is onscreen, you can't look away.
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE
* 7pm - SAFETY LAST!
1923, d. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis
$25 general / $23 member / Children under 12, free
Harold Lloyd's bumpkin salesclerk comes up with a publicity stunt that will bring attention to his department store and earn him the money to marry his sweetheart--scale the 12-story building like a human fly! Shot in downtown Los Angeles, the stunt has given us one of the most iconic images of the silent era--Lloyd precariously hanging over the city street, dangling from a broken clock. James Agee wrote: "Each new floor is like a new stanza in a poem; and the higher and more horrifying it gets, the funnier it gets."
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA
* 9pm - FORGOTTEN FACES
1928, d. Victor Schwertzinger
Clive Brook, William Powell, Olga Baclanova
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Heliotrope Harry (Clive Brook) and Froggy (William Powell) are partners in crime--genteel armed robbery--at least until the cuckolded Harry commits an even bigger offense. Before Harry goes to prison, he leaves his baby girl on the doorstep of a wealthy couple to keep her out of the clutches of his no-good wife Lilly (Olga Baclanova) and tasks Froggy with keeping close tabs. But Froggy is no match for Lilly...
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE
~~~~~~~~~~
MUSICIANS
WAYNE BARKER has garnered acclaim both for his original compositions and live performances in the theater, including a Tony nomination for best original score for Peter and the Starcatcher. Barker will accompany OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS) with Nicholas White on sound effects at 10am and THE EAGLE at 2:15pm.
Reviving the tradition of silent-film orchestras, MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA culls historic libraries of music for live musical accompaniment. Rodney Sauer, Britt Swenson, David Short, Brian Collins, and Dawn Kramer have recorded and toured widely, creating vibrant and historically appropriate musical scores. Mont Alto will accompany THE WILD CAT at 12noon and SAFETY LAST! at 7pm.
Composer/bassist Sascha Jacobsen draws on a variety of musical styles from classical to jazz and Argentine Tango. He has performed with Kronos Quartet, theatrical greats Rita Moreno, Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone, musicians Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and Raul Jaurena, among many others. A dedicated teacher, Jacobsen has coached students at numerous arts and music schools in the Bay Area, as well as being the founder of the Musical Art Quintet which performs his original compositions. For A Day of Silents, Jacobsen has assembled two different groups under the title THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE. For PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY (4:15pm), Jacobsen will be joined by pianist Seth Asamow, saxophonist Masaru Koga, and violinist Michele Walther. For FORGOTTEN FACES (9pm), he will be joined by pianist Seth Asamow, clarinetist Sheldon Brown, and percussionist Aaron Kierbel.
Chicago-based musician NICHOLAS WHITE has amassed the largest number of antique traps (whistles, blocks, bells, ratchets, anvils, and all manner of delightfully specific noisemakers to perform sound effects for silent movies) in the world, along the way researching exactly how they were put to use. White demonstrates the often neglected history of silent sound effects in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, which includes a segment re-creating a live-radio drama from the 1930s. White joins Wayne Barker at the 10am show of OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS).
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) presents the one-day event A DAY OF SILENTS. The six programs of live cinema (silent-era films with live musical accompaniment) include star turns by Anna May Wong, Rudolph Valentino, and Pola Negri; a centennial celebration of Harold Lloyd's SAFETY LAST; a brilliant collection of animated shorts by Dave and Max Fleischer, Walt Disney, and other geniuses of the form; and a proto-noir featuring pre- Thin Man William Powell. Like SFSFF's annual festival, the holiday-season A DAY OF SILENTS showcases a variety of superb titles from the silent era, all set to superb live musical accompaniment by the likes of Wayne Barker and Nicholas White, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and the Sascha Jacobsen Ensemble.
THE PROGRAM:
* 10am - OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS)
A collection of animated shorts, 1908-1928
$18 general / $16 member / Children under 12, free
Some of the most creative films from the silent era came out of an inkwell! Our collection includes animated shorts from 1908-1928, films that outshine much of what followed. For sheer audacity and pure joy, these films by cartoon masters Including the Fleischer brothers, Pat Sullivan, and Walt Disney, can't be beat!
Fantasmagorie (1908, d. Émile Cohl)
How a Mosquito Operates (1912, d. Winsor McKay)
Adam Raises Cain (1922, d. Tony Sarg)
Amateur Night on the Ark (1923, d. Paul Terry)
Bed Time (1923, d. Dave and Max Fleischer)
Felix Grabs His Grub (1923, d. Pat Sullivan)
A Trip to Mars (1924, d. Dave and Max Fleischer)
Vacation (1924, d. Dave and Max Fleisher)
Alice's Balloon Race (1926, d. Walt Disney)
Felix the Cat in Sure Locked Homes (1928, d. Pat Sullivan)
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY WAYNE BARKER AND NICHOLAS WHITE
* 12noon - THE WILDCAT (Die Bergkatze)
1921, d. Ernst Lubitsch
Pola Negri, Victor Janson, Paul Heidemann
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Before director Ernst Lubitsch left Germany to ply his famous 'Touch' in Hollywood, he made a series of comedies that gave hints at what was to come. The Wildcat is his last German comedy and his most riotously zany. Subtitled 'A Grotesque in Four Acts,' Wildcat makes use of extravagant set design and eccentric frame shapes that lend a surrealistic edge to its antic energy. Pola Negri's Rischka leads a gang of mountain bandits who ambush Lieutenant Alexis (Paul Heidemann) on his way to the local fortress, leaving him pant-less (and smitten) on the ice. Film writer John Gillett called the film "both an anti-militarist satire and a wonderful fairy tale."
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA
* 2:15pm - THE EAGLE
1925, d. Clarence Brown
Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Banky, Louise Dresser
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Clarence Brown's rousing film displays a perfect blend of elements--romance, swashbuckling, a modicum of humor, and the great Rudolph Valentino! Not to mention the splendid production design by William Cameron Menzies and gorgeous camerawork by George Barnes. After Valentino's Russian lieutenant rejects the amorous attentions of Catherine the Great (Louise Dresser), she orders him arrested. Instead, he flees and becomes a masked avenger intent on righting the wrongs visited upon his father and his countrymen by loutish nobleman KryillaTrouekouroff (James A. Marcus). But the nobleman has a beautiful daughter (Vilma Banky)...
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY WAYNE BARKER
* 4:15pm - PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY (Großstadtschmetterling)
DE/GB 1928/1929, d. Richard Eichberg
Gaston Jacquet, Anna May Wong
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Luminous Anna May Wong goes from a fan-dancing carnival act to an artist garret and finally to the French Riviera where she accompanies a wealthy art patron around Monte Carlo, draped in haute couture. Wong left Hollywood in search of roles more fitting her talents than the racially-circumscribed ones at home. This Weimar title showcases her magnetism--when Wong is onscreen, you can't look away.
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE
* 7pm - SAFETY LAST!
1923, d. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis
$25 general / $23 member / Children under 12, free
Harold Lloyd's bumpkin salesclerk comes up with a publicity stunt that will bring attention to his department store and earn him the money to marry his sweetheart--scale the 12-story building like a human fly! Shot in downtown Los Angeles, the stunt has given us one of the most iconic images of the silent era--Lloyd precariously hanging over the city street, dangling from a broken clock. James Agee wrote: "Each new floor is like a new stanza in a poem; and the higher and more horrifying it gets, the funnier it gets."
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA
* 9pm - FORGOTTEN FACES
1928, d. Victor Schwertzinger
Clive Brook, William Powell, Olga Baclanova
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Heliotrope Harry (Clive Brook) and Froggy (William Powell) are partners in crime--genteel armed robbery--at least until the cuckolded Harry commits an even bigger offense. Before Harry goes to prison, he leaves his baby girl on the doorstep of a wealthy couple to keep her out of the clutches of his no-good wife Lilly (Olga Baclanova) and tasks Froggy with keeping close tabs. But Froggy is no match for Lilly...
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE
~~~~~~~~~~
MUSICIANS
WAYNE BARKER has garnered acclaim both for his original compositions and live performances in the theater, including a Tony nomination for best original score for Peter and the Starcatcher. Barker will accompany OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS) with Nicholas White on sound effects at 10am and THE EAGLE at 2:15pm.
Reviving the tradition of silent-film orchestras, MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA culls historic libraries of music for live musical accompaniment. Rodney Sauer, Britt Swenson, David Short, Brian Collins, and Dawn Kramer have recorded and toured widely, creating vibrant and historically appropriate musical scores. Mont Alto will accompany THE WILD CAT at 12noon and SAFETY LAST! at 7pm.
Composer/bassist Sascha Jacobsen draws on a variety of musical styles from classical to jazz and Argentine Tango. He has performed with Kronos Quartet, theatrical greats Rita Moreno, Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone, musicians Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and Raul Jaurena, among many others. A dedicated teacher, Jacobsen has coached students at numerous arts and music schools in the Bay Area, as well as being the founder of the Musical Art Quintet which performs his original compositions. For A Day of Silents, Jacobsen has assembled two different groups under the title THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE. For PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY (4:15pm), Jacobsen will be joined by pianist Seth Asamow, saxophonist Masaru Koga, and violinist Michele Walther. For FORGOTTEN FACES (9pm), he will be joined by pianist Seth Asamow, clarinetist Sheldon Brown, and percussionist Aaron Kierbel.
Chicago-based musician NICHOLAS WHITE has amassed the largest number of antique traps (whistles, blocks, bells, ratchets, anvils, and all manner of delightfully specific noisemakers to perform sound effects for silent movies) in the world, along the way researching exactly how they were put to use. White demonstrates the often neglected history of silent sound effects in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, which includes a segment re-creating a live-radio drama from the 1930s. White joins Wayne Barker at the 10am show of OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS).
read more
THE PROGRAM:
* 10am - OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS)
A collection of animated shorts, 1908-1928
$18 general / $16 member / Children under 12, free
Some of the most creative films from the silent era came out of an inkwell! Our collection includes animated shorts from 1908-1928, films that outshine much of what followed. For sheer audacity and pure joy, these films by cartoon masters Including the Fleischer brothers, Pat Sullivan, and Walt Disney, can't be beat!
Fantasmagorie (1908, d. Émile Cohl)
How a Mosquito Operates (1912, d. Winsor McKay)
Adam Raises Cain (1922, d. Tony Sarg)
Amateur Night on the Ark (1923, d. Paul Terry)
Bed Time (1923, d. Dave and Max Fleischer)
Felix Grabs His Grub (1923, d. Pat Sullivan)
A Trip to Mars (1924, d. Dave and Max Fleischer)
Vacation (1924, d. Dave and Max Fleisher)
Alice's Balloon Race (1926, d. Walt Disney)
Felix the Cat in Sure Locked Homes (1928, d. Pat Sullivan)
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY WAYNE BARKER AND NICHOLAS WHITE
* 12noon - THE WILDCAT (Die Bergkatze)
1921, d. Ernst Lubitsch
Pola Negri, Victor Janson, Paul Heidemann
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Before director Ernst Lubitsch left Germany to ply his famous 'Touch' in Hollywood, he made a series of comedies that gave hints at what was to come. The Wildcat is his last German comedy and his most riotously zany. Subtitled 'A Grotesque in Four Acts,' Wildcat makes use of extravagant set design and eccentric frame shapes that lend a surrealistic edge to its antic energy. Pola Negri's Rischka leads a gang of mountain bandits who ambush Lieutenant Alexis (Paul Heidemann) on his way to the local fortress, leaving him pant-less (and smitten) on the ice. Film writer John Gillett called the film "both an anti-militarist satire and a wonderful fairy tale."
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA
* 2:15pm - THE EAGLE
1925, d. Clarence Brown
Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Banky, Louise Dresser
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Clarence Brown's rousing film displays a perfect blend of elements--romance, swashbuckling, a modicum of humor, and the great Rudolph Valentino! Not to mention the splendid production design by William Cameron Menzies and gorgeous camerawork by George Barnes. After Valentino's Russian lieutenant rejects the amorous attentions of Catherine the Great (Louise Dresser), she orders him arrested. Instead, he flees and becomes a masked avenger intent on righting the wrongs visited upon his father and his countrymen by loutish nobleman KryillaTrouekouroff (James A. Marcus). But the nobleman has a beautiful daughter (Vilma Banky)...
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY WAYNE BARKER
* 4:15pm - PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY (Großstadtschmetterling)
DE/GB 1928/1929, d. Richard Eichberg
Gaston Jacquet, Anna May Wong
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Luminous Anna May Wong goes from a fan-dancing carnival act to an artist garret and finally to the French Riviera where she accompanies a wealthy art patron around Monte Carlo, draped in haute couture. Wong left Hollywood in search of roles more fitting her talents than the racially-circumscribed ones at home. This Weimar title showcases her magnetism--when Wong is onscreen, you can't look away.
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE
* 7pm - SAFETY LAST!
1923, d. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis
$25 general / $23 member / Children under 12, free
Harold Lloyd's bumpkin salesclerk comes up with a publicity stunt that will bring attention to his department store and earn him the money to marry his sweetheart--scale the 12-story building like a human fly! Shot in downtown Los Angeles, the stunt has given us one of the most iconic images of the silent era--Lloyd precariously hanging over the city street, dangling from a broken clock. James Agee wrote: "Each new floor is like a new stanza in a poem; and the higher and more horrifying it gets, the funnier it gets."
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA
* 9pm - FORGOTTEN FACES
1928, d. Victor Schwertzinger
Clive Brook, William Powell, Olga Baclanova
$20 general / $18 member / Children under 12, free
Heliotrope Harry (Clive Brook) and Froggy (William Powell) are partners in crime--genteel armed robbery--at least until the cuckolded Harry commits an even bigger offense. Before Harry goes to prison, he leaves his baby girl on the doorstep of a wealthy couple to keep her out of the clutches of his no-good wife Lilly (Olga Baclanova) and tasks Froggy with keeping close tabs. But Froggy is no match for Lilly...
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE
~~~~~~~~~~
MUSICIANS
WAYNE BARKER has garnered acclaim both for his original compositions and live performances in the theater, including a Tony nomination for best original score for Peter and the Starcatcher. Barker will accompany OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS) with Nicholas White on sound effects at 10am and THE EAGLE at 2:15pm.
Reviving the tradition of silent-film orchestras, MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA culls historic libraries of music for live musical accompaniment. Rodney Sauer, Britt Swenson, David Short, Brian Collins, and Dawn Kramer have recorded and toured widely, creating vibrant and historically appropriate musical scores. Mont Alto will accompany THE WILD CAT at 12noon and SAFETY LAST! at 7pm.
Composer/bassist Sascha Jacobsen draws on a variety of musical styles from classical to jazz and Argentine Tango. He has performed with Kronos Quartet, theatrical greats Rita Moreno, Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone, musicians Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and Raul Jaurena, among many others. A dedicated teacher, Jacobsen has coached students at numerous arts and music schools in the Bay Area, as well as being the founder of the Musical Art Quintet which performs his original compositions. For A Day of Silents, Jacobsen has assembled two different groups under the title THE SASCHA JACOBSEN ENSEMBLE. For PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY (4:15pm), Jacobsen will be joined by pianist Seth Asamow, saxophonist Masaru Koga, and violinist Michele Walther. For FORGOTTEN FACES (9pm), he will be joined by pianist Seth Asamow, clarinetist Sheldon Brown, and percussionist Aaron Kierbel.
Chicago-based musician NICHOLAS WHITE has amassed the largest number of antique traps (whistles, blocks, bells, ratchets, anvils, and all manner of delightfully specific noisemakers to perform sound effects for silent movies) in the world, along the way researching exactly how they were put to use. White demonstrates the often neglected history of silent sound effects in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, which includes a segment re-creating a live-radio drama from the 1930s. White joins Wayne Barker at the 10am show of OF MICE AND MEN (AND CATS AND CLOWNS).
show less
Date/Times:
Castro Theatre
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429 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114
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