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Movies Forum Index » Silent Movies Forum » Stockholm conference on women in silent film
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| Bruce Calvert |
 Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:58 pm |
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Urbanora's blog today features a Stockholm conference concerning women in
silent films. There are the usual dry academic lectures, plus screenings of
some rare films. The Bioscope blog entry is at
http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/women-and-the-silent-screen-conference/.
The conference website is at
http://www.film.su.se/pub/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=9319.
Some of the films screened are:
Women and the Silent Screen V
Stockholm, Sweden, June 11-13, 2008
Preliminary Screening Program
All films will be screened in the cinema Victor with piano accompaniment.
English sub-titles will be projected underneath the original inter-titles.
Many thanks to the Netherlands Filmmuseum, the Swedish Film Institute,
Fondazione CentroSperimentale di Cinematografia/Cineteca Nazionale and in
particular to Elif Rongen Kaynakci and Annette Förster for researching and
selecting the films, and to Jon Wengström, Monica Dall'Asta, Heide
Schlüpmann and Karola Gramann for their added suggestions and kind help in
putting the program together.
Wednesday, June 11
16:30-17:00 - Victor
LA RUSE DE MISS PLUMCAKE / MISS PLUMCAKE'S TRICK (France, 1911)
35mm b/w print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum
180 meters, 5 mins (18fps)
Dutch inter-titles
Prod: Pathé Frères / SCAGL
Director: Georges Monca
Script: unknown
Cast: Mistinguett, Andree Pascal, Charles Lorrain
This comedy offers us the music-hall star and future 'queen' of the revue,
Mistinguett, in the role of a maid that is mistaken for her American
mistress while visiting Paris. Mistinguett makes a parody of the
attractiveness of American women and lampoons Parisian men's idolatry with
them. The film's inclusion in the program serves three purposes: first,
because the print is incomplete, it may be taken as an example of a
fragment, one of the core topics of this conference; second, bringing the
existence of this rare print of a Pathé-SCAGL comedy with Mistinguett to the
attention of feminist film historians; and third, calling attention to
Mistinguett's significance to the relations between French music-hall and
cinema in the early 1910s, which deserves more research.
DIE LANDPOMERANZE / THE UNWIELDY COUNTRY WOMAN (Germany,
1917?)
35mm (Desmet method) colour print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum
540meters (ca)., 26mins (18fps) German intertitles
Prod: Treumann-Larsen Film GmbH
Director: Dr. R. Portegg aka Rosa Porten and Franz Eckstein
Script: Rosa Porten
Cast: Rosa Porten (Isa), Franz Verdier (Caspar Freiherr), Max Wogritsch
(Jürgen von Oesterlingk)
Isa's father, a wealthy gentleman of the countryside, wants her to marry
Jürgen. However, Jürgen is rather prejudiced towards country women.
Furthermore, he is attracted to a rich girl from the city. Upon hearing
this, Isa, who doesn't want to get married anyway, swears to teach Jürgen a
lesson. For this purpose, she leaves her house and applies for a job
(disguised as a boy) at Jürgen's household.
This fast-paced comedy, written and directed by Rosa Porten herself, appears
in almost no written sources. It is therefore no surprise that this film was
lost for many years, until this incomplete print appeared in the Nederlands
Filmmuseum collection, carrying the original German titles. Die
Landpomeranze has been preserved in 2008 in order to be presented for the
very first time at this conference. Given the impossibility to complete the
missing ending, due to complete lack of written sources, the preserved print
has an open end, in hope that the missing reel(s) get discovered somewhere
in the future.
21:00-23:00 - Victor
Trailer DIE GESUNKENEN / THE SUNKEN (Germany, 1925)
35mm b/w print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum
65 meters, 3 mins (18fps)
German inter-titles
Prod: Aafa Film
Director: Rudolf Walther-Fein
Script: Ruth Goetz and Leo Heller, based on the novel by Luise Westkirch
Cast: Asta Nielsen, Olga Tschechova, Hans Albers, Wilhlem Dieterle, Otto
Gebühr
Dutch trailer from the presumed lost Asta Nielsen film Die Gesunkenen
(1925), a drama based on a scenario by Ruth Goetz after the novel Diebe
(Thieves) by Luise Westkirch. The Dutch censorship board noted about the
film (2340 meters, + 117 minutes): 'rough milieu', 'cocaine abuse',
'prostitution', 'ladies and gents of suspect repute'. In addition to
Nielsen, the film featured the actors William Dieterle, Otto Gebühr, Olga
Tschechowa and Hans Albers.
'A SANTANOTTE / HOLY NIGHT (Italy, 1922)
35 mm colour print restored by Associazione Orlando (Bologna), Cineteca
Nazionale (Rome) and George Eastman House (Rochester, USA), with the
endowment of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
1250 meters, 61 mins (18 fps)
Italian inter-titles
Prod: Films Dora (Neaples), "Serie grandi lavori popolari."
Director: Elvira Notari
Script: Elvira Notari, based on the song 'A Santanotte by Eduardo Scala
(words), Francesco Buongiovanni (music).
Photography: Nicola Notari.
Principal cast: Rosè Angione (Nanninella), Alberto Danza (Tore Spina),
Eduardo Notari (Gennariello), Elisa Cava (madre di Tore), Carluccio, a
student of Notari's school of acting.
Original length: mt. 1285.
Based on a popular Neapolitan song by Eduardo Scala and Francesco
Buongiovanni, 'A santanotte was one of the greatest hits of Elvira and
Nicola Notari's Dora Films.
It tells the tragic story of Nanninella, a waitress who supports her
alcoholic and abusive father Giuseppone. She is in love with Tore, but her
father prefers the deceptive Carluccio. When Giuseppone accidentally dies,
Carluccio accuses Tore of murder. Nanninella is forced to accept Carluccio's
marriage proposal hoping that this will convince him to withdraw his
accusations against Tore. As she tries to escape with Tore on the day of her
wedding, the film ends in death and misery.
The story has several points in common with that of Assunta Spina, a popular
theatrical drama by Salvatore Di Giacomo that Francesca Bertini had adapted
into a film in 1915. Yet Notari's film surpasses its predecessor in its
crude representation of patriarchal oppression, offering a powerful
melodramatic interpretation of the everyday experience of so many Italian
working class women at the beginning of the century.
DIE BÖRSENKÖNIGIN / THE QUEEN OF THE STOCK-EXCHANGE (Germany,
1916)
35mm colour print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum
1090 meters, 52 mins (18fps)
Dutch inter-titles
: Neutral Film
Dir: Edmund Edel
Script: Edmund Edel
Cast: Asta Nielsen, Aruth Wartan, Willy Kaiser-Heyl
Asta Nielsen plays the proprietor of a copper mine on the verge of ruin.
After the plant manager has traced a new copper vein, she buys the almost
worthless shares and therewith secures the finances of the mine and herself.
Gratefully, she makes the manager, with whom she is also in love, a
share-holder. But when he deceives her with another woman, she takes revenge
with great sovereignty.
The film is particularly interesting for its setting - the male-dominated
milieus of an industrial plant and of the stock-exchange - and for Nielsen's
superior role in it, which she plays with both style and gusto.
Print
Editor: Sofia Bull
Source: Filmvetenskapliga institutionen
Updated: 04/01/08
Thursday, June 12
20:00-23:30 - Victor
Trailer VADERTJE LANGBEEN / DADDY LONGLEGS (The Netherlands, 1919)
35mm b/w print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum
32 meters, 1 min (18fps)
Dutch inter-titles
Prod: Mary Pickford Co.
Director: Marshall Neilan
Script: Agnes Johnson, based on the novel by Jean Webster
Cast: Mary Pickford (Jerusha Abbott), Milla Davenport (Mrs. Lippett)
Among the few silent trailers of the Filmmuseum collection, this stylish
trailer is remarkable for the drawings it contains.
Discovered and preserved in 2004 during the international Mary Pickford
research project by Christel Schmidt, this film has only been shown in
Amsterdam during the Pickford program.
Although the trailer shows nothing of the film itself, it constitutes an
important evidence to prove the popularity of Mary Pickford with Dutch
audiences.
THE DAWN OF A TOMORROW / NATTENS SKUGGOR (USA, 1915)
35mm colour print from the Archival Film Collections of the Swedish Film
Institute
1283 meters, 66 mins (17 fps)
Swedish inter-titles
Prod: Famous Players Film Co.
Director: James Kirkwood
Script: Eve Unsell, based on the novel and the play The Dawn of a Tomorrow
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Principal cast: Mary Pickford (Glad), David Powell (Dandy), Forrest Robinson
(Sir Oliver Holt), Robert Cain (his nephew)
The Dawn of a Tomorrow. The Swedish Film Institute.
This conference screening will be the premiere of the restored Mary Pickford
film The Dawn of a Tomorrow, a film that was considered lost until a tinted
nitrate print with Swedish inter-titles surfaced in 2005. The film is set in
London and Pickford plays Glad, "the poorest and happiest of all orphans".
During the course of the film, this angel in a Dickensian world gives
shelter to an evicted mother and child, prevents a suicide, intervenes to
inhibit domestic violence, and convinces her sweetheart to reform. The
beauty of the close-ups displays an extraordinary preciseness of expression
that makes this long lost Pickford film a revelation to watch.
FLICKAN I FRACK / THE GIRL IN TAILS (Sweden, 1926)
35mm colour print from the Archival Film Collections of the Swedish Film
Institute
2506 meters, 115 mins (19 fps)
Swedish inter-titles
Prod: AB Biografernas Filmdepôt
Director: Karin Swanström
Script: Hjalmar Bergman, Ivar Johansson, based on the novel Flickan i frack
by Hjalmar Bergman
Principal cast: Einar Axelsson (Ludwig von Battwhyl), Magda Holm (Katja
Kock), Nils Arehn (her father), Georg Blomstedt (Starck, the headmaster),
Karin Swanström (Hyltenius, the vicar's wife), Erik Zetterström (Curry,
Katja's brother)
Flickan i frack. The Swedish Film Institute.
An early example of cross-dressing in Swedish film, a restored version of
the comedy Flickan i frack will be screened at the conference for the first
time ever. Magda Holm plays Katja, a bright, small-town daughter of an
inventor who cares more for the upbringing of his son than his daughter.
When Katja's request for money to buy a new dress for the examination ball
is turned down by her father, she decides to attend the ball dressed in
tails, creating a further scandal by drinking and smoking cigars. Flickan i
frack was Karin Swanström's fourth and last film as a director, and she also
plays one of the leading parts in the film. The film was remade in 1956.
Print
Editor: Sofia Bull
Source: Filmvetenskapliga institutionen
Updated: 04/01/08
Friday, June 13
16:00-18:30 - Victor
BILLY'S STRATEGEM / DE LIST VAN BILLY (USA, 1912)
35mm b/w print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum, courtesy of the AFI.
290 meters, 14 mins (18fps)
Dutch inter-titles
Prod: Biograph
Director: D.W. Griffith
Script: George Hennessy
Cast: Edna Foster (Billy), Wilfred Lucas, Claire McDowell, Inez Seabury,
Robert Harron, William Butler
Billy´s Strategem. The Netherlands Filmmuseum.
Billy and his sister are home with their grandfather, while their parents
are out working. Their house gets attacked by the Indians, who get past the
grandfather. However, Billy has a plan; he finds a way to get out of the
house and blows up the house with the Indians in it.
This Griffith film, starring Edna Foster as Billy, was repatriated from the
Nederlands Filmmuseum archive to the USA, through the AFI, back in 1974. The
film was then restored by the AFI, and a projection print, still carrying
Dutch titles was kindly donated to the Filmmuseum Collection.
COURAGEOUS COWARD /SUKI'S REHABILITATIE (USA, 1919)
35mm (Desmet method) colour print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum
283 meters, 14 mins (18fps)
Dutch inter-titles
Prod: Haworth Pictures
Director: William Worthington
Script: Frances Guihan, based on a story by Tom Geraghty
Cast: Sessue Hayakawa (Suki Iota), Tsuru Aoki (Rei Oaki)
Courageous Coward. The Netherlands Filmmuseum.
Suki Iota, a young japanese-american lawyer, is investigating a murder case
and is secretly in love with his custodian's niece, Rei. When Suki realizes
that Rei's boyfriend Tom is involved in the murder case, he drops it,
despite being called a coward for his actions.
The only surviving fragment of this long lost film is its last reel. Despite
the fact that most of the action is lost, Nederlands Filmmuseum decided to
make a presentation print of this fragment, since it is still worthwhile to
watch Tsuru Aoki and her real-life husband Sessue Hayakawa in the few
romantic scenes that have survived. Another point of interest is the way in
which Aoki's character gets criticized in the film as a young woman of
Japanese origins who in her eagerness to become Americanized neglects her
own roots.
UMANITÀ / HUMANKIND (Italy 1919)
35 mm colour print restored by Associazione Orlando (Bologna) and Cineteca
Nazionale (Rome), with the endowment of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
720 meters, 35 mins (18 fps)
Italian inter-titles
Prod: Liana Film (Rome)
Director: Elvira Giallanella
Script: Based on Vittorio Emanuele Bravetta's poem Tranquillino dopo la
guerra vuol ricreare il mondo
Principal cast: a little boy (Tranquillino), a little girl (Serenetta)
Presented in an introductory title as a "humoristic-satirical-educational"
work, the film is centered on two young siblings, Tranquillino e Serenetta,
who get up during the night to steal from the jam jar and play with Daddy's
cigarettes. The smoke gives Tranquillino a terrifying dream: the world has
been destroyed by a terrible war and his attempts to recreate the world only
makes him retrace and redo the mistakes of humankind during the course of
history, from dictatorship to war. The backward trip throughout the past
makes the kids realise that history has been built on arms and war.
Desperate and frightened, they seek help in prayer and are finally saved by
a bearded God, who appears in the sky and takes them in his arms.
Based on a poem for children by Vittorio Emanuele Bravetta, Umanità is the
only title in Elvira Giallanella's filmography as a director. A quite
mysterious figure, Giallanella was involved in film production since 1913,
when she participated in the founding of the Vera Film company, which
produced one of the first Futurist films, Mondo baldoria (1913). It is
uncertain whether Umanità was ever screened, as it's not listed in the
censorship archives and never mentioned in period film magazines.
KAERLIGHED OG PENGE / LOVE OR MONEY aka OUTWITTED (Denmark, 1912)
35mm colour print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum
260 meters, 13 mins (18fps)
Dutch inter-titles
Prod: Nordisk Films Kompagni
Director: Leo Tscherning
Script: Harriet Bloch
Cast: Else Frölich, Oscar Stribolt
Kaerlighed og penge. The Netherlands Filmmuseum.
Kaerlighed or penge is a comedy after a scenario by Harriet Bloch in which
men's intentions with women are getting spoofed. Both the situation and the
plot are rather surprising. The main character, Karen, is a well-to-do
single mother with a son. She has three admirers courting her: a lieutenant,
a poet and a wealthy man. This amuses rather than impresses her, and she
candidly questions if they are after her love or her money. One day, her
friend from America, Ebba, visits Karin, who seizes the opportunity to throw
a party. Together they concoct a test to find out about each man's true
intentions... and they are having a ball while evaluating the outcome.
PAS DE FEMMES! / NO WOMEN! (France, 1920)
35mm (Desmet method) colour print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum
506 meters, 27 mins (18fps)
Dutch inter-titles
Prod: Film Denizot, Marseilles
Director: Vincenzo Denizot
Script: unknown
Cast: unknown
This comedy is exceptional in two respects: first, it seems to be an unknown
French production by the Italian director Vicenzo Denizot, known from
Maciste-films; and most importantly in the context of this conference, it
seems a rare counterpart to the many anti-suffragette films of the time: it
ridicules anti-feminism.
A luxury hotel by the sea is occupied by a bunch of spoiled girls eager for
excitement beyond their daily routines of gourmet dining and playing tennis.
The chief rascal among them is Suzy, who preferably drives her governess to
despair with her unruliness. One day, a notorious anti-feminist arrives
together with his nephew, to recover from the stress of campaigning against
furious women. He demands to be served only by men and chases the chamber
maid from his room. The girls agree that this is an affront to women's
dignity and Suzy is appointed by lot to scheme and lead their vengeance...
DIE LIST EINER ZIGARETTENMACHERIN / WANDA'S TRICK (Germany, 1918)
35mm colour print from the Nederlands Filmmuseum
920 meters, 45 mins (18fps)
French inter-titles
Prod: Treumann-Larsen Film GmbH
Director: Dr. R. Portegg aka Rosa Porten and Franz Eckstein
Script: Wanda Treumann
Cast: Wanda Treumann, Heinrich Schroth, Marie Grimm-Einödshofer
This is a film produced by and starring German comedienne Wanda Treumann,
and co-written and co-directed by Rosa Porten. Rosa Porten made films in the
1910s together with her husband Franz Eckstein, using the pseudonym Dr. R.
Portegg. According to contemporary press, they were known for their
proficient direction.
The film mixes comedy with romance and social drama. It focuses on the
interrelations of gender and class and on a factory girl's independent
spirit, business competence, and sense of humour. The plot has a serious
undertone, but both its comic twists and Treumann's guileless acting lend it
a striking breeziness and a pro-lib edge.
Print
Editor: Sofia Bull
Source: Filmvetenskapliga institutionen
Updated: 04/01/08
--
Bruce Calvert
--
Visit the Silent Film Still Archive
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com |
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