| |
 |
|
|
Movies Forum Index » Silent Movies Forum » The Connection: Wise Guys Coming To Arlington...
Page 1 of 1
|
| Author |
Message |
| Bruce Calvert... |
 Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:55 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
http://beta.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=316834&paper=85&cat=215
Wise Guys Coming To Arlington
A silent film festival featuring Three Stooges films comes to
Arlington.
By David Schultz/The Connection
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
FOR THE SIXTH YEAR in a row, the Slapsticon Film Festival is coming to
Arlington.
The festival, which is being held later this month at the Rosslyn
Spectrum, is a four-day extravaganza of comedy films from the early
20th century. The festival focuses on rare and obscure films, many of
which had been lost and hadn’t been shown for decades.
This year, the festival will be holding screenings of dozens of rare
Three Stooges films, including TV clips, home movies and, according to
the festival’s Web site, “other Stooges ephemera.”
Slapsticon coordinator Robert Farr talked about what the festival is,
who it appeals to and why the legacy of Three Stooges continues to
grow.
What is Slapsticon?
It’s four days devoted to silent comedy and early sound comedy. We
concentrate on the comedians that most folks haven’t heard of because
we feel like we really want to get their work out there. There was
some great work being done by people other than Charlie Chaplin,
Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. We have relationships with a lot of
the archives so we get stuff from the Library of Congress and UCLA.
And we have relationships with the studios so we get stuff from
Columbia Pictures and Universal. Private collectors make up the rest
of it.
People come from all over the country. They love this stuff. We also
get folks walking in the door for the first time being introduced to
this stuff. It’s from nine in the morning until one in the morning,
wall-to-wall comedy from what we think is the golden age of comedy.
Who is the main audience for Slapsticon? Who are the die-hards who
come every year?
A lot of them are collectors. They are serious researchers and
writers. But for the most part, the die-hards, the ones who will show
up in the morning and won’t leave their seats until one in the
morning, are people who could talk about Lupino Lane or Larry Seaman
or Monty Banks or these obscure names that for the most part have been
forgotten. They talk about them like they’re old friends. They can’t
get enough of this stuff.
So the theme this year is the Three Stooges?
For the opening, we’re showing a lot of obscure, oddball clips from
Stooges stuff that hasn’t been out there on the market like some
television shows they made in the 1950’s, commercials they made,
newsreels. The guy who’s putting this together has found stuff that
even the most diehard of Stooge fans haven’t seen yet.
Is there a lot of stuff out there that’s lost that we don’t know
about?
The stuff that everybody knows are the Columbia comedies. That’s the
stuff that everybody grew up on. What people aren’t as aware of is
that during the 1950’s and 60’s they were constantly on television.
Because of the state of preservation of old time television, a lot of
that stuff has been lost. Collectors are now finding this stuff.
Why are the Stooges so popular? Where does their staying power come
from?
I wonder about that myself. They weren’t as great artists as say
Chaplin or Keaton but they’re really beloved. Curly really appeals to
the children because he was just a big, overgrown child. Most people
discover the Stooges when they’re kids and immediately they understand
Curly. Curley is pure id.
Why has Slapsticon really thrived in Arlington? Is there something
about this region that really lends itself to the showing of obscure
silent comedies?
I’m not sure. If you’re going to pick a good place on the map to do
this I’m not sure the Washington area would be the first place you’d
pick to do this. But there are a lot of people here who appreciate
cultural history and are not necessarily turned off by seeing a black
and white film that was made 80 years ago. We’re a good film town
because we’ve always had the American Film Institute, the National
Gallery screenings, the Library of Congress screenings. And so there
is an audience here that is used to seeing classic silent films.
But really, the only reason it’s here is because Arlington County has
been generous enough to give us the Rosslyn Spectrum theatre for four
days. I’m not sure we’d even be able to financially survive if we had
to pay rent for that.
For the sixth year in a row, the Slapsticon Film Festival is coming to
Arlington.
Slapsticon 2008
What: A four-day silent film comedy festival showing over 60 rare and
obscure films.
Where: The Rosslyn Spectrum, located at 1611 North Kent Street in
Arlington. (Parking free after 6 p.m.)
When: July 17-20. Screenings will be shown all four days from 9 a.m.
to 1 a.m. with breaks for meals.
Cost: $99 for a four-day festival pass; $30 for a single all-day
admission; $16 for a half-day admission
Tickets: Contact Maggie Gaffen at 703-228-1841 or visit the Slapsticon
Web site at www.slapsticon.org.
Bruce Calvert
--
Visit the Silent Film Still Archive
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| |
|
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:47 am
|
|