A Silent Feast

Summer/Fall 2007

As the Seattle International Film Festival concludes its annual cinematic extravaganza of excess, a summer of well known favorites await Northwest enthusiasts of silent era film, and what has become the nation's foremost celebration of the silents, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, takes place in a few short weeks.

Appetizers …

Sunrise (1927)
Wednesday, June 27, 7:00 & 9:00 p.m., Metro Cinemas, Seattle


Landmark Theaters has announced the revival of its long lamented repertory film program. This current incarnation, Wednesday Night Classics at The Metro, offers a march through film history one decade per week, beginning with F. W. Murnau’s masterpiece of visual seduction, Sunrise (1927). Without regard for specifics (they pale in importance), any opportunity to see this film on a big screen is a treasured event.

The Black Pirate (1926)
Thursday, July 5, 3:30 & 7:00 p.m., The Lynwood Theater, Bainbridge Island


Bainbridge Island’s beloved Lynwood Theater celebrates its seventy-first anniversary with the original action/adventure star Douglas Fairbanks, in The Black Pirate (1926). Don’t miss a chance to see Doug buckle his swash in this rare two-strip Technicolor silent film, with live accompaniment performed by the incomparable Dennis James. Also on the evening’s bill: Buster Keaton launches his family into nautical nonsense aboard his semi-buoyant and aptly named homemade creation the Damfino (dam-fi-no) in The Boat (1921).

Main Course …

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, July 13 – 15

The elegant Castro Theater hosts America’s ultimate indulgence in silent era cinema with eight feature films, special guest appearances, and a gang of stellar musicians performing live accompaniment.

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)
Friday, July 13, 7:00 p.m.

The twelfth annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival opens with one of the best, from the very best, MGM’s exquisite 1927 production of The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer sparkle in this poetic fable of doomed romance from the silent era’s greatest year and it’s finest studio. Musical accompaniment for the evening will be performed by Dennis James on the Castro’s 4/21 Wurlitzer.

Saturday’s schedule begins with a selection of shorts from the legendary laugh factory of Hal Roach, introduced by Leonard Maltin. Featured performers include Our Gang, Arthur Stone, Max Davidson and Charlie Chase.
Day two continues with afternoon films: The Valley of the Giants (1927) from First National Pictures and Italy’s popular strongman Maciste (1915), starring Bartolomeo Pagano in his second of twenty-six appearances as Fulvius Axilla’s heroic slave from Caberia (1914). Pianist Donald Sosin will perform musical accompaniment for Maciste.

Camille (1921)
Saturday, July 14, 5:45 p.m.

Dumas’ popular tale of the privileged young man and the "Daughter of Chance," La Dame aux camélias, has seen a score of film adaptations. None of them capture the moody feline sexuality (Greta who?) found in Alla Nazimova’s flamboyant performance opposite Rudolph Valentino.

Beggars of Life (1928)
Saturday, July 14, 8:45 p.m.

Louise Brooks abandoned a meteoric Hollywood career after starring opposite Richard Arlen and Wallace Beery in this gritty tale of hobos sleeping in haystacks and hopping freight trains. Beggars of Life will be introduced by the director’s son William Wellman Jr. and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra will provide accompaniment.

Day three kicks off with a return to last years fascinating exploration of archival preservation and restoration, Amazing Tales from the Archives, hosted by Associate Curator of the UCLA Film and Television Archive Rob Stone and George Eastman House curator of motion pictures Patrick Loughney.

Sunday's afternoon program includes: Retour de Flamme (Saved From the Flames), a collection of French rarities presented by film historian Serge Bromberg, who will also perform live piano accompaniment.

Miss Lulu Bett (1921)
Sunday, July 15, 3:35 p.m.

A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929)
Sunday, July 15, 6:00 p.m.

The Godless Girl (1929)
Sunday, July 15, 8:45 p.m.

The SFSFF concludes with British noir and a pair from the Brothers DeMille. Miss Lulu Bett, directed by William DeMille, is the story of a painfully shy girl who becomes her sister's servant. Unrequited love turns into deranged obsession in A Cottage On Dartmoor. C. B. DeMille’s potboiler The Godless Girl is an exposé of rebellious youth and institutional abuse, presented with the pure theatrical excess that was his stock-in-trade. Noir Czar Eddie Muller is scheduled to introduce Dartmoor with pianist Stephen Horne providing accompaniment, and festival opener Dennis James will close the series accompanying The Godless Girl.

Uno Henning in A Cottage on Dartmoor

Dessert …

Silent Movie Mondays: Charlie Chaplin Triple Play
September 10 – October 1

Seattle Theater Group and the Paramount Theater revisit familiar ground when their ongoing series, Silent Movie Mondays resumes in September with the films of Charles Chaplin.
Unaware of his sudden and immense popularity, Chaplin was inundated by thousands of adoring fans as his train traveled east from California in February 1916. The success of his work with Essanay and Keystone put him in an enviable position. His brother Sydney was busily fielding contract offers in New York from a host of film companies vying for Charlie's services. The end result was a twelve picture deal with Mutual Film Corporation which gave Chaplin unprecedented creative control, his own studio and more money than any film actor had ever been offered. In his autobiography Chaplin referred to the Mutual films as "… the happiest period of my career." From these twelve two-reel photoplays, produced at a rate of roughly one per month during 1916 and 1917, Chaplin created the essence of his surviving caricature in modern world culture. With his family of technicians and performers, including Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell and cameraman Rollie Totheroh, Chaplin built a lexicon of motion picture comedy and the most profoundly successful work prior to feature films.

The Chaplin Triple Play presents the entire Mutual catalog on four consecutive Monday nights, with live accompaniment performed by Dennis James on the Paramount’s Publix 1, 4/20 Wurlitzer.

Olympia's Washington Center for the performing arts will include three nights of silent film in its Fall 2007 schedule. Live Musical accompaniment for all three films will be performed by Dennis James.

Beyond the Rocks (1922)
Thursday, October 4, 7:00 p.m.

Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino star in this recently discovered Sam Wood melodrama, no more than a bit of Hollywood fluff, but with the uncommon pairing of two film legends who appear to be having a delightful time.

It (1927)
Thursday, October 25, 7:00 p.m.

Clara Bow, the quintessential jazz-age flapper, joined Hollywood’s ‘A’ list after starring in this film adaptation of Elinor Glyn’s silly and wildly popular study of contemporary sex appeal.

Piccadilly (1929)
Thursday, November 15, 7:00 p.m.

A sultry nightclub dancer becomes the object of jeaulosy and revenge in this British melodrama, directed by E. A. Dupont. Anna May Wong’s torrid performance is light years from her childlike role as Tiger Lily in Paramount’s Peter Pan only five years earlier.