What started out as a lark, or a novelty, has blossomed into an event of real significance: National Silent Film Day. Some participants are celebrating this Saturday, the 28th, and some on Sunday, the 29th.
I could easily watch a silent film every day of the week but for people who have to be cajoled (or possibly shanghaied into) the process I understand the usefulness of making it An Event. Time and time again I have seen newbies—especially kids—be wowed by the potency of silent movies on a big screen. Until you’ve heard children laughing out loud at Chaplin, Keaton, or Laurel and Hardy you just haven’t lived.
The folks at Kino Lorber tell me that they are servicing more than 25 screenings in various cities this weekend, many of them accompanied by live music. Matt Barry says the list is growing year by year (I have pasted it below for your reference).) Such perennials as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis and Nosferatu are especially popular given that Halloween is just around the corner.
sign this photo for me in 1964
New York City’s Film Forum shows silents on a regular basis, so we can’t hold them to a calendar contrivance…but starting October 7 you can spend Monday evenings with Clara Bow. Yes, the actress who inspired a song of the same name by Taylor Swift! The series opens with her signature movie It (1927), paired with the just-discovered short subject The Pill Pounder (1923) and continues into the talkie era with The Saturday Night Kid, Call Her Savage, et al. She is so good in Hoop-la (1933) that it’s hard to believe it was her swan song. Steve Sterner will offer piano accompaniment for the silents, and Clara’s biographer David Stenn will introduce a number of the screenings downtown.
At the upper end of Manhattan the former Loew’s 175th Street movie palace, now known as United Palace, is screening three great silent comedies on Sunday: Charlie Chaplin’s The Adventurer (1917), Buster Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr. (1924), and Laurel and Hardy’s The Battle of the Century (1927). Playing off the notoriety of the latter film’s pie-throwing finale, the theater has concocted a “live” tie-in which you can see for yourself in THIS VIDEO.
On a more serious—or should I say, momentous—note, CEO Mike Fitelson hopes to offer a demonstration of the theater’s legendary Morton Wonder Organ, one of only five such instruments that were designed for Loew’s showcase theaters in the New York area. It’s 95 years old and work is nearly finished on the organ chamber; a newer console organ will fill in this weekend. Tickets are priced at $25 and will be put toward the organ fundraising campaign.
Another initiative is called Silents Synced, a new “shared experience” matching up silent films with classic indie rock albums. The program is specifically designed for independent movie theaters and kicks off nationally on October 4th with Radiohead (Kid A and Amnesiac) paired with Nosferatu and is expected to be in at least 200 theaters across the U.S. and Canada. Silents Synced is the brainchild of Josh Frank, founder of Blue Starlite, an independent boutique drive-in cinema founded in Austin in 2009. This series of screenings will be distributed via a partnership with CineLife Entertainment®, a division of Spotlight Cinema Networks. Already set for 2025 will be the pairing of R.E.M. to Buster Keaton’s classic, Sherlock Jr., followed by more films synced up to choice albums from They Might Be Giants, Pixies and Amon Tobin.
I am wary of this endeavor, only because I had the misfortune of watching F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise (1927) some years ago at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival with a horrendous electric guitar score that all but ruined the picture. But I will try to keep an open mind, and you can sample the trailer for Nosferatu HERE.
If you’re not already aware of San Francisco Silent Film Festival or other events that occur on a regular basis, or if you don’t know about the steady stream of releases from such distributors as Flicker Alley and Undercrank Productions, find them on Google and make your life that much richer. And if you want to participate in the granddaddy of such events, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy, you can sign up to take part on a virtual basis. The festival runs from October 5-12. More info HERE.
Kino Lorber silent film bookings:
9/28 Metropolis, Palm Theater, San Luis Obispo, CA
9/28 Metropolis, Sioux Falls State Theater, Sioux Falls, SD
9/28 Symbol Of The Unconquered, Denver Film Society, Denver, CO
9/29 The General, The State, Modesto, CA
9/29 The General, Gateway, Columbus, OH
9/29 Metropolis, Vidiots, Los Angeles, CA
9/29 Metropolis, Cary Theater, Cary, NC
9/29 Metropolis, Revue Cinema, Toronto, ON
9/29 Metropolis, Coral Gables, Coral Gables, FL
9/29 Within Our Gates, a/perture cinema, Winston-Salem, NC
9/29 Filibus, MFA Houston, Houston, TX
9/29 One Week, Varsity, Des Moines, IA
9/29 Sherlock Jr, Varsity, Des Moines, IA
9/29 Sherlock Jr United Palace, New York, NY
9/29 Sherlock Jr, Arthouse Billings, Billings, MT
9/29 Sherlock Jr, Hi-Pointe, Saint Louis
9/29 Clash Of The Wolves, Hi-Pointe, Saint Louis
9/29 Clash Of The Wolves, Grail Moviehouse, Asheville, NC
9/29 The Last Laugh, Arthouse Billings, Billings, MT
9/29 The Last Laugh, Grand Illusion, Seattle, WA
9/29 The Dragon Painter, National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC
9/29 Carmen, Cleveland Cinematheque, Cleveland, OH
9/29 The Epic Of Everest, Dairy Arts Center, Boulder, CO
9/29 Siren Of The Tropics, Array, Los Angeles, CA
9/29 Michael, Ragtag Cinema, Columbia, MO
9/29 Early Silent Shorts (various), Denver Film Society, Denver, CO