San Francisco Silent Film Festival announces winter event

October 27, 12:43 PMSF Silent Movie ExaminerThomas Gladysz

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Buster Keaton stars in "Sherlock Jr.," one of the films to be
screened at the Winter Event in Dec.
San Francisco Silent Film Festival

By Thomas Gladysz
SF Silent Film Examiner

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival has announced the line-up for its 2009 Winter Event. The single day festival, scheduled for Saturday December 12, will take place at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco.

This year’s Winter Event presents an eclectic and ambitious program. It celebrates the varied achievement of the silent era with five very different films; each will be shown with live musical accompaniment. Among the films is Abel Gance’s groundbreaking J’Accuse (1919), which was recently restored. The restored print will be making its American premiere at the Castro. Here’s the line-up for this year’s Winter Event.

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927)
Saturday, December 12 at 11:30 am

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness is a simple story – told with both sensitivity and savagery - of one family’s survival on a small farm on the edge of the jungle. It is a way of life that often pits them against the forces of nature. Publicity of the time touted a cast of 500 native hunters, 400 elephants, tigers, leopards, pythons, and other denizens of the wild – including Bimbo the monkey. Shot entirely in Siam (present-day Thailand), Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper’s adventure story (the elephant stampede is remarkable) is a prototype for their later masterpiece King Kong.

A popular success in its day, Chang was nominated (along with F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise and King Vidor’s The Crowd) for “Artistic Quality of Production” at the first ever Academy Awards. Chang will be screened in a 35mm print from Milestone Film & Video. Donald Sosin will accompany the film on piano with an original score.

J’accuse (1919)
Saturday, December 12 at 2:00 pm

If you can only see one film at the Winter Event, this may be it. Abel Gance’s pacifist epic is set against the backdrop of World War I, sharply delineating the tragedy of its incredible carnage. Notably, the film’s director returned to active service in 1918 in order to film actual battle scenes. While Gance’s expressionistic camerawork and rapid-cut editing are revolutionary to say the least (Gance also directed the stunning Napoleon), the heart and soul of J’accuse is a romantic triangle between poet Jean Diaz (Romauld Joubé), his beloved Edith (Maryse Dauvray), and her husband François Laurin (Séverin-Mars).

Though a huge hit in France, J’accuse was truncated at the time of its American release in order to blunt its antiwar message. Gance’s original cut has been long unavailable until this major restoration, which was made possible by Lobster Films Studios and Netherlands Filmmuseum. J’accuse will be screened in a 35mm print from Netherlands Filmmuseum. Robert Israel will perform his original orchestral score, which has been adapted to play on the Castro’s Mighty Wurlitzer.

Sherlock Jr. (1924), along with The Goat (1921)
Saturday, December 12 at 7:00 pm

Buster Keaton is the sublime genius of the silent cinema. And at the Winter Event, film buffs will have the chance to see not one, but two of his best efforts. Sherlock Jr. is without a doubt a masterpiece - and one of the great movies about the movies. In it, Keaton plays a cinema projectionist who dreams of being a famous detective. When he’s framed for petty theft by a rival for his sweetheart’s affection, Buster nods off on the job and his dream comes true - he projects himself onto the screen as Sherlock Jr., the world’s greatest detective who’s on the trail of the stolen watch. A brilliant meditation on the nature of the cinema, Sherlock Jr. contains some of the most astonishing effects then and now ever put on film.

Accompanying the film is a Keaton short, The Goat, directed by Buster Keaton and Malcolm St. Clair.
Sherlock Jr. and The Goat will each be screened in a 35mm print from David Shepard, courtesy of Douris UK, Ltd. Dennis James will accompany each on the Mighty Wurlitzer, aided by percussionist Mark Goldstein. And introducing the films are special guests Melissa Cox, granddaughter of Buster Keaton, and Frank Buxton, a comedy writer and festival regular who once worked with the comedic legend.

West of Zanzibar (1928)
Saturday, December 12 at 9:15 pm

Like The Unknown (Guy Maddin’s Director’s Pick at the 2008 Silent Film Festival), West of Zanzibar is an inspired partnership between director Tod Browning and actor Lon Chaney. Chaney has never been more affecting than in this wildly melodramatic, fever-pitched nightmare of betrayal, despair, loss and revenge. Moving from vaudeville stage to the jungles of the Congo, West of Zanzibar tells its story of darkness and redemption with great skill, while investing each of its desperate characters with depth and humanity.

The cast of West of Zanzibar includes Chaney, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Nolan, and Warner Baxter. The film will be screened in a 35mm print from Warner Bros. Dennis James will accompany on the Mighty Wurlitzer.

Along with setting the schedule for its Winter Event, the Festival has also announced the dates for its annual summer event. The 15th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival will take place July 15 - 18, 2010. The lineup of films and guests for that event is expected to be announced in May. The discerning reader, however, will notice the addition of a fourth day to what had long been a three day event.

More info: The San Francisco Silent Film Festival winter event will take place at the Castro Theatre (429 Castro Street, San Francisco CA 94114). For additional details, including ticket information for each program, visit the Silent Film Festival website at http://www.silentfilm.org/