Today starts the 39th edition of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, the silent film festival in the Italian city of Pordenone. This festival will be online. On this first weekend, Saturday and Sunday, and the following Saturday (the 10th), there will be two feature-length screenings, while during the workweek one feature-length programme will be presented, at 8:30 pm. All films and special content will remain available on the site for 24 hours after their online opening, enabling people in all time zones to access the screenings. All films are presented with musical accompaniment; intertitles will be available with both Italian and English subtitles. At EFSP, we will give you a glimpse of the programme.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 898/1. Photo: Transocean Film Co., Berlin. Ben Alexander in Penrod and Sam (William Beaudine, 1923), based on the novel by Booth Tarkington.
Saturday 3 October: On the Opening Night, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto presents Americana at its best. Penrod and Sam is centered on a group of scamps and the endearing mischief they make. The film, which prefigures Boyhood in its nostalgic look at childhood, surprisingly avoids much of the era’s racial stereotypes. The film was produced by J.K. McDonald Productions and distributed in the US by First National. In 1931 director William Beaudine would make a sound version of this film. Ben Alexander (1911-1969), one of Hollywood's most popular silent child stars, played Penrod.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 16.
Monday 5 October: Sessue Hayakawa achieved global stardom by combining matinee idol glamour with at times problematic ethnic characterizations. In Where Lights Are Low (Colin Campbell, 1921) he’s a Chinese prince seeking to rescue his love from slave traders in San Francisco. Musical accompaniment: Philip Carli.
American postcard by Kraus Mfg. Co., N.Y., 1913. Photo: Thanhouser Co.
Monday 5 October: In the Thanhouser short Toodles, Tom and Trouble (Lloyd Lonergan, 1915) pandemonium breaks out when Tom thinks baby Toodles is stolen and all signs suggest that Trouble the collie is to blame. Don’t worry, the Thanhouser dog Lady continued her career after making this short! Marie Eline (1902-1981), nicknamed 'The Thanhouser Kid', was an American silent film child actress and the sister of Grace Eline. She began acting for the Thanhouser Company in New Rochelle, New York, at the age of eight and starred in exactly one hundred films between 1910 and 1914.
Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Fotominio.
Tuesday 6 October: Italian actress Letizia Quaranta played a leading role in the comedy La tempesta in un cranio/Kill or Cure (Carlo Campogalliani, 1921). Letizia was the younger sister of film diva Lydia Quaranta and she also peaked in the silent era. Letizia worked for the Turinese companies Itala, Gloria, and Ambrosio, and for the company of her husband, director Carlo Campogalliani. His La tempesta in un cranio/Kill or Cure is an anarchic, quasi-surreal comedy of multiple delights in which the timorous scion of a wealthy family is gaslit by his friends in order to prove that his fears of hereditary insanity are hogwash. Musical accompaniment: Günter A. Buchwald, Frank Bockius.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4619/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa.
Thursday 8 October: German actress Brigitte Helm stars as a woman who embraces hedonism when her husband neglects her in Abwege/The Devious Path (1928). G.W. Pabst’s cynical take on marital unhappiness is presented at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in a transformative new restoration. Musical accompaniment: Mauro Colombis.
Vintage postcard, Ross Verlag, no. 860/2. Photo by A.B.C. Berlin-Steglitz.
Friday 9 October: Mary Pickford can be seen tonight in A Romance of the Redwoods (1917), directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Presented is a stunning new restoration of this Gold Rush Western, featuring a bold central performance and dramatic location work. Musical accompaniment: Donald Sosin with Joanna Seaton. In 1926, Mary Pickford and her husband. Douglas Fairbanks visited Berlin and stayed at the Hotel Adlon near the Brandenburg Gate, which is in the background of this picture.
German postcard by Verlag Gastspieldirektion Rita Sacchetto, München, Serie F. 3. Photo: F. Grainer, München (Munich).
Saturday 10 October: German actress and dancer Rita Sacchetto was in the 1910s a star of the Danish Nordisk Film Company. This afternoon is on show Ballettens datter/Daughter of the Ballet (Holger-Madsen, 1913). The festival site: "Director Holger-Madsen’s superb eye for evocative compositions provides the ideal framework for influential dancer Rita Sacchetto, starring as a charismatic ballerina torn between love and her art." The musical accompaniment is by John Sweeney.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 674. Photo: Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
Saturday 10 October: The genius of Laurel and Hardy was already in evidence before they first teamed up. On closing night, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto presents 5 riotous shorts predating their legendary partnership, each one joyfully showcasing their individual talents. The Films are The Serenade (1916), The Rent Collector (1921), Detained (1924), Moonlight and Noses (1925), and When Knights Were Cold (1923). Musical accompaniment: Neil Brand.
See the daily schedule of the festival at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 898/1. Photo: Transocean Film Co., Berlin. Ben Alexander in Penrod and Sam (William Beaudine, 1923), based on the novel by Booth Tarkington.
Saturday 3 October: On the Opening Night, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto presents Americana at its best. Penrod and Sam is centered on a group of scamps and the endearing mischief they make. The film, which prefigures Boyhood in its nostalgic look at childhood, surprisingly avoids much of the era’s racial stereotypes. The film was produced by J.K. McDonald Productions and distributed in the US by First National. In 1931 director William Beaudine would make a sound version of this film. Ben Alexander (1911-1969), one of Hollywood's most popular silent child stars, played Penrod.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 16.
Monday 5 October: Sessue Hayakawa achieved global stardom by combining matinee idol glamour with at times problematic ethnic characterizations. In Where Lights Are Low (Colin Campbell, 1921) he’s a Chinese prince seeking to rescue his love from slave traders in San Francisco. Musical accompaniment: Philip Carli.
American postcard by Kraus Mfg. Co., N.Y., 1913. Photo: Thanhouser Co.
Monday 5 October: In the Thanhouser short Toodles, Tom and Trouble (Lloyd Lonergan, 1915) pandemonium breaks out when Tom thinks baby Toodles is stolen and all signs suggest that Trouble the collie is to blame. Don’t worry, the Thanhouser dog Lady continued her career after making this short! Marie Eline (1902-1981), nicknamed 'The Thanhouser Kid', was an American silent film child actress and the sister of Grace Eline. She began acting for the Thanhouser Company in New Rochelle, New York, at the age of eight and starred in exactly one hundred films between 1910 and 1914.
Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Fotominio.
Tuesday 6 October: Italian actress Letizia Quaranta played a leading role in the comedy La tempesta in un cranio/Kill or Cure (Carlo Campogalliani, 1921). Letizia was the younger sister of film diva Lydia Quaranta and she also peaked in the silent era. Letizia worked for the Turinese companies Itala, Gloria, and Ambrosio, and for the company of her husband, director Carlo Campogalliani. His La tempesta in un cranio/Kill or Cure is an anarchic, quasi-surreal comedy of multiple delights in which the timorous scion of a wealthy family is gaslit by his friends in order to prove that his fears of hereditary insanity are hogwash. Musical accompaniment: Günter A. Buchwald, Frank Bockius.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4619/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa.
Thursday 8 October: German actress Brigitte Helm stars as a woman who embraces hedonism when her husband neglects her in Abwege/The Devious Path (1928). G.W. Pabst’s cynical take on marital unhappiness is presented at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in a transformative new restoration. Musical accompaniment: Mauro Colombis.
Vintage postcard, Ross Verlag, no. 860/2. Photo by A.B.C. Berlin-Steglitz.
Friday 9 October: Mary Pickford can be seen tonight in A Romance of the Redwoods (1917), directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Presented is a stunning new restoration of this Gold Rush Western, featuring a bold central performance and dramatic location work. Musical accompaniment: Donald Sosin with Joanna Seaton. In 1926, Mary Pickford and her husband. Douglas Fairbanks visited Berlin and stayed at the Hotel Adlon near the Brandenburg Gate, which is in the background of this picture.
German postcard by Verlag Gastspieldirektion Rita Sacchetto, München, Serie F. 3. Photo: F. Grainer, München (Munich).
Saturday 10 October: German actress and dancer Rita Sacchetto was in the 1910s a star of the Danish Nordisk Film Company. This afternoon is on show Ballettens datter/Daughter of the Ballet (Holger-Madsen, 1913). The festival site: "Director Holger-Madsen’s superb eye for evocative compositions provides the ideal framework for influential dancer Rita Sacchetto, starring as a charismatic ballerina torn between love and her art." The musical accompaniment is by John Sweeney.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 674. Photo: Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
Saturday 10 October: The genius of Laurel and Hardy was already in evidence before they first teamed up. On closing night, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto presents 5 riotous shorts predating their legendary partnership, each one joyfully showcasing their individual talents. The Films are The Serenade (1916), The Rent Collector (1921), Detained (1924), Moonlight and Noses (1925), and When Knights Were Cold (1923). Musical accompaniment: Neil Brand.
See the daily schedule of the festival at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto.
No comments:
Post a Comment