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| Bruce Calvert... |
 Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:58 am |
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/04/PK1811F1G0.DTL
SILENT FILM FESTIVAL RESURRECTS HISTORY
Delfín Vigil
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The first time Stephen Salmons saw a silent film, his reaction was
particularly appropriate.
"I was speechless," recalls Salmons, artistic director and co-founder
of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which opens its 13th
edition Friday at the Castro Theatre. "I was blown away. I was like,
'This is incredible. Is this what I've been missing? Is this how
people saw silent films? How is it that so few people have seen the
first 30 years of film history?' "
OK. So maybe Salmons wasn't completely speechless - just as silent
films aren't completely silent.
That first experience was during the early 1990s, when Salmons, then a
film school student, moved to San Francisco and saw the 1921 silent
classic "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," presented by the San
Francisco International Film Festival.
It was at the Castro, one of the few theaters with the right kind of
projection equipment. Dennis James was on the Wurlitzer. The audience
oohed and aahed.
"Kevin Brownlow, a film historian, once described the experience of
seeing silent films as 'live cinema,' " Salmons says. "It's like
opera, where the musicians interpret the action for you. But it's more
private because without the spoken word, you're forced to focus more
on the actors' faces. That makes the whole movie-watching experience
so much more intimate."
As Salmons soon discovered, that intimacy comes only after lots of
courting and preparation.
In 1991, Salmons met his future wife, Melissa Chittick, who told him
of her plans to start a silent film festival. Still mesmerized by his
first glimpse of "Apocalypse," Salmons instantly agreed to join the
cause, and the two got to work.
For five years.
That's how long it took to sort out the fundraising, plan the festival
events, book the right musicians and get access to rare silent-film
prints in viewable shape before the San Francisco Silent Film Festival
premiered in 1996. (As a warm-up, Chittick and Salmons screened one
gender-variant film, "I Don't Want to Be a Man" (1918), at the 1994
Frameline film festival.)
The first Silent Film Festival consisted of three films screened in
one day accompanied by music at the Castro: "Gretchen the
Greenhorn" (1916), "Lucky Star" (1929) and "Ben-Hur" (1925). (Some of
the dates are debatable because of the difference in premiere and
release dates.)
Salmons and Chittick presumed the festival would last one year, and
crossed their fingers in hopes that enough people would show up.
"Ben-Hur" sold out.
"The audience was stunned," Salmons says. "San Francisco is a place
packed with highly educated and highly appreciative movie lovers. They
had heard of all these actors and directors, but most never had a
chance to see them. We knew people wanted to see these films. We
didn't know they were insatiable for these films."
That first festival's one-day program of three films has since grown
to three days of 12 films. And while upward of 80 percent of silent
films have seemingly disappeared, each year that percentage gets a
little bit lower, thanks to restoration efforts by film institutions -
and a little bit of luck.
Perhaps the most famous example is "The Passion of Joan of
Arc" (1928), which was found in a broom closet at a Norwegian mental
institution.
Last year, the original 1927 version of "Chicago" recirculated after
the UCLA Film and Television Archive prepared a 35mm restoration of
the print. A couple of years before that, a Gloria Swanson film long
thought to be extinct turned up in a deceased man's apartment in the
Netherlands, along with about a thousand other cans of film still
being sifted through. In 1971, director Teinosuke Kinugasa, whose
"Jujiro" is screening at this year's festival, found his long-lost
1927 film "A Page of Madness" buried in a rice barrel at his home.
In the past, it seems, Salmons practically had to set up a midnight
meeting with an unidentified person with a briefcases handcuffed his
wrist to get access to these rare prints. But thanks to the San
Francisco Silent Film Festival's reputation, as well as that of the
Castro Theatre, it has gotten a little easier for him to fill the
program each year.
The first paying audience gathered to watch films in the late 1890s,
in a basement cafe in Paris. That's when motion-picture pioneers the
Lumiere brothers showed a series of one-minute movies (cameras could
hold only that much film back then). After the turn of the 19th
century, nickelodeons began showing up in storefronts. For a nickel,
viewers could crank out a few (sometimes naughty) series of moving
pictures. From about 1914 (after Cecil B. DeMille's first feature film
came out) through the 1920s, movie theaters boomed all over the
country. But especially in San Francisco.
"We're showing a 1927 film called 'Her Wild Oat' this year, and odds
are that it probably showed at the Castro that same year," says a
genuinely excited Salmons. "How cool is that?"
"Her Wild Oat" stars Colleen Moore, who was one of the biggest movie
stars in the United States in the 1920s. But because almost all of her
films are believed to be out of existence, few know much about her
work.
"Her Wild Oat" resurfaced in 2001 in the Czech Republic, where it was
exported and subtitled in Czech. It has since been restored with
retranslated English titles.
"From the point of view of entertainment, it's obviously very cool,"
Salmons says, while watching "Her Wild Oat" on DVD. "But from the
point of view of history, these images are better than anything we
could imagine. Look at her hair! Look at the way she carries herself!
When a whole audience gets to see these kinds of images for the first
time, they become mesmerized. It's almost like Colleen Moore is being
resurrected."
San Francisco Silent Film Festival: Fri.-next Sun. Castro Theatre, 429
Castro St., San Francisco. General admission $14-$20 per program; $140
for all 12 programs. For schedule, see box on Page 21. (800) 838-3006,
www.silentfilm.org.
The silent lineup
Friday
"The Kid Brother" (1927): 7 p.m. Starring Harold Lloyd. With the short
"Broncho Billy's Adventure" (1911).
Opening-night party: 9:15 p.m. Harold Lloyd-themed party with food,
drinks and music.
Saturday
"Amazing Tales From the Archives": 10 a.m. Free program on film
preservation.
"The Soul of Youth" (1920): 11:40 a.m. A portrait of society's
unwanted babies, unloved orphans and unlawful urchins. With the short
"The Old Family Toothbrush" (1925).
"Les Deux Timides" (1928): 2:15 p.m. Rene Clair's farce about a shy
lawyer courting a woman whose father is arranging a marriage for her
to a convicted wife abuser. With the short "Les Fromages
Automobiles" (1907).
"Mikael" (1924): 4:15 p.m. A landmark in the history of gay cinema.
With the short "L'Historie d'une rose" (1911).
"The Man Who Laughs" (1928): 7:45 p.m. Batman creator Bob Kane
credited the title character, whose face was disfigured into a
gruesome grin, as the inspiration for the Joker. With the short "The
Voice Invisible: Making a Record" (1919).
"The Unknown" (1927): 10:45 p.m. Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford star in
this horror tale. With the short "The Last Call" (1922).
Next Sunday
"The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (1926): 10:30 a.m. Earliest
surviving feature-length animated film, and the first made by a woman.
With the short "The Bottom of the Sea" (1914).
"The Silent Enemy" (1930): 1:10 p.m. Documentary about the Ojibway
Indians fighting hunger.
"Her Wild Oat" (1927): 3:50 p.m. Romantic comedy about a lunch-wagon
owner who tries to be a lady of wealth for a weekend. With Mary
Pickford Technicolor test for "The Black Pirate."
"Jujiro" (928): 6:10 p.m. A film is filled with symbolism and
distorted architecture. With the short "Kaleidoscope" (1925).
"The Patsy" (1928): 8:45 p.m. Marion Davies stars in King Vidor's
comedy. With the short "Lost: A Yodel" (1920).
Source: www.brownpapertickets.com
E-mail Delfín Vigil at dvigil(at)sfchronicle(dot)com.
This article appeared on page N - 20 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Bruce Calvert
--
Visit the Silent Film Still Archive
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