The spotlight is on vintage silents in several events over the following nine days.
Tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 12:00 noon Pacific Time, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents Amazing Tales Online: Restoring the Films of William S. Hart, featuring George Eastman Museum Senior Curator Peter Bagrov and Preservation Manager Anthony L’Abbate.
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival press release elaborates:
In 2021 the Moving Image Department at the George Eastman Museum embarked on a multiyear project, funded by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation, to restore nine silent films of one of the first western superstars, William S. Hart (1864 – 1946). In addition to materials in the museum’s own collection, elements from at least seven other archives – The Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, UCLA, Fondazione Cineteca Italiana, La Cinémathèque française, Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, and the EYE Film Museum (the Netherlands) – will be used to put the jigsaw puzzle together. During the search for elements, many discoveries were made – including two films previously considered lost!
While enthusiastically applauding the efforts of the George Eastman Museum and the many archives involved in painstakingly restorating William S. Hart's films, which are between Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson and Tom Mix in the lineage of western movies, all the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog can think of right now is The Frozen North, Buster Keaton's brutal and hilarious spoof of Hart.
Classic film screenings, hallelujah, are starting to happen again. . . knock on wood. Next Friday, February 18, at NYC's Society of Illustrators, glorious 16mm film rules.
From the 16mm collection of animation historian, archivist and preservationist Tommy José Stathes, there will be a fun program of classic cartoons that runs from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Featured in the Friday night show: Felix the Cat, Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Porky Pig and Flip The Frog.
In a program titled Valentine’s Day: The Aftermath, classic cartoons featuring and skewering romantic themes abound.
Several cartoons on the bill - those of Fleischer and Otto Messmer - were produced in New York City.
Space is limited, and advance tickets for Valentine’s Day: The Aftermath are highly recommended.
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is back with some big screen fun next weekend.
One of Charlie Chaplin's crowning achievements, City Lights, will be seen in glorious 35mm at Oakland's Paramount Theatre. Accompanying in grand fashion: the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Timothy Brock.
This show is dedicated to the memory of Michael Morgan, the conductor and Music Director of the Oakland Symphony who passed in 2021.
Advance tickets for City Lights with Oakland Symphony Orchestra LIVE at the Paramount can be bought via Ticketmaster or in person at the Paramount’s Box Office in Oakland (between 12:00 noon and 5:00 pm on Fridays). San Francisco Silent Film Festival members receive a $5 discount per ticket.
Yes, Virginia Cherill, proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required to attend this event.
To whet your appetite for some Chaplin on the big screen, check out Roger Ebert's review of City Lights.
If it isn't possible to get to Oakland and see City Lights at the Paramount on Saturday night, at least there is The Silent Comedy Watch Party, on YouTube on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. One can watch the presentation on Hart and then follow it with The Silent Comedy Watch Party.
Co-hosts Ben Model and Steve Massa have been busy restoring and releasing silent comedy rarities (the latest starring Marion Davies) on DVD and Blu-ray.
Sincerely hope that Omicron will eventually fade and it will be possible to see such annual events as the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum's Charlie Chaplin Days again. . .
Until then, City Lights will bring the laughs, as it has since its theatrical release in January 30, 1931.
Felix the Cat and Farmer Al Falfa shall entertain audiences as they have for 100+ years. Omicron variant, please, go away and STFU!
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