1. Nasty Women
Film scholars Maggie Hennefeld and Laura Horak devised an inspired program that skilfully brought together a selection of rarely seen comedy shorts and multi-reelers that were strange, scandalous, and at times frankly diabolical! All feature women who resist and rupture gendered social norms in the most destructive and hilarious of ways. We particularly loved the series of films with Betty (and her buddy Jane). We’re even more hooked since we found out that wayward Betty is played by an unidentified French actress! Stay hopeful though: we hear the best names in the biz are on the case! We’ll keep you posted.
Our tip: look out for the two programmers’ publications:
- Laura Horak, Girls Will be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians and American Cinema (Rutgers University Press: New Jersey, 2016).
- (Out in March 2018) Maggie Hennerfeld, Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes (Columbia University Press: NY, 2018).
Louise Brooks, publicity still from “Now We’re in the Air” (credit: le giornate del cinema muto)
2. Now we’re in the Air (Frank R. Strayer, US, 1927)
An early Louise Brooks comedy, which was considered lost until parts of reels 2, 3, and 6 were discovered at the Národní Filmový Archiv in Prague. The screening featured 23 minutes of the incomplete 35mm print, and Brooks appeared onscreen for only 5 minutes. But that was enough to blow our minds! She was utterly captivating, and her arrival prompted cheers and whistles from a theatre full of discerning fans.
Our tip: check out the Louise Brooks Society Blog
3. Jonathan Dennis Memorial Lecture: “David Shepard, Shadowing Silent Film for Fifty Years”
When pioneering film historian and preservationist David Shepard passed away in January, there was an immense outpour of eulogies, affectionate anecdotes, and personal memories from friends and colleagues around the world. At this years’ Jonathan Dennis Memorial Lecture, Professor Russell Merritt (who himself was a close friend of David) painted a remarkable picture of a man whose diligence and dedication to the field of film archiving carved the way for so many. This lecture was not only a poignant celebration of David’s life and career, but also a source of great inspiration to emerging archivists who may have missed the opportunity to meet this great man.
Our tip: take a look at David Shepard’s interview with Chicago Film Society, 2011.
Trade paper article detailing the controversy surrounding the release of “Dawn” – Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1928) (Credit: Media History Digital Library)
4. Dawn (Herbert Wilcox, UK, 1928)
Controversial from its conception, “Dawn” tells the story of British nurse Edith Cavell who organised a rescue mission for Allied soldiers in Belgium during WW1, and was subsequently shot by the Germans. Initially banned in Britain, the film was eventually released with cuts and a notably less charged execution scene. The festival screened a DCP (made from a print from the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique) with the final scene replaced by a 35mm British print from the BFI – the censor cut. The result: a potent reminder of the ways in which the film was embroiled in the diplomatic tensions of Western Europe at the time. Plus, a unique opportunity to watch a screening switching smoothly from digital to analogue projection.
5. Masterclasses in Silent Film Accompaniment
This is one of our Muto musts! Each year the festival selects two promising musicians to participate in a series of workshops on score improvisation led by the best names in silent film accompaniment. What’s more, festival goers get to sit in as spectators and watch them work. At the end of the week, the musicians fly solo in a live performance for one of the festival titles. Watching the pros shrewdly recognise and read early film language in order to improvise their score is basically all you need to get comfortable with early cinema.
Our tip: learn more about this year’s students: Bryson Kemp and Richard Siedhoff.
6. A Fool There Was (Frank Powell, US, 1915)
From the approximately forty films that Theda Bara made between 1914-1938, only six complete prints have survived. “A Fool There Was” is one. Even so, her legacy as one of the most enigmatic and salacious movie stars from the silent era endures. Watching this gorgeous 35mm print from MoMA is proof of why.
Special mention: the pitch-perfect new quintet score from Philip Carli. It might have been tempting to compose a grand gothic score that perpetuates the exotic and erotic tendencies the film’s surface exudes, but Carli skilfully evades this by emphasising the film’s inherent fatalism and its hypnotic vibes. We want a new DVD release!
7. Book: Bregt Lamaris, Film Museum Practice and Film Historiography: The Case of the Nederlands Filmmuseum (1946-2000) (Amsterdam University Press: Amsterdam, 2017)
Let’s cut to the chase: if you’re a film archivist, you really need to get your hands on “Film Museum Practice and Film Historiography: The Case of the Nederlands Filmmuseum (1946-2000) by Bregt Lameris. Using key case studies from the EYE Filmmusem, it is an urgent and incisive study of how archival collections are both a sign and symptom of shifting collection policies and attitudes toward film heritage. After reading this, you’ll never delude yourself in thinking that you’re an innocent keeper of the frame!
8. Japanese Saundo-Ban
“Tokyo no yado” (Credit: National Film Center of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)
From 1930 to1938 a unique mode of Japanese cinema emerged, the so-called Saundo-Ban. These films, shot as silent films, were released with post-synchronised soundtracks consisting of striking scores, sound effects, and sometimes even a popular song. From the two films shown at this year’s festival we fell most in love with a 35mm screening of Yasujiro Ozu’s “Tokyo no yado” (Japan, 1935), a depression-era story of an unemployed father and his two young sons trying to make ends meet in the bleak and brutal landscape of pre-war Japan. Watching this silent-sound hybrid felt radical and aesthetically inventive, yet somehow completely congruous with Ozu’s realist ethos. The film punches you in the gut, but it’s totally worth it!
Special mention: the exceptional performances from the three child actors who push the film to crushing new levels.
9. Der Gang in Die Nacht (F. W. Murnau, DE, 1921)
“Der Gang in Die Nacht” (Credit: Filmmuseum München)
The earliest surviving film by F.W. Murnau is a powerhouse precursor to the thematic and stylistic qualities that would come to define the director’s later works. It is a probing and profound experiment in film style that left us dazed and confused – and pleasurably so. The festival screened a DCP of a new digital restoration by the Munich Film Museum. This new restoration was made using the original camera negative (currently held at Bundesarchiv) together with Enno Patalas’ reconstruction workprint from the 1960s. Murnau’s shooting script and auxiliary print materials from the period were also used as references. Adding to the mix are painstakingly recreated intertitles, colour tints, and a new score! Doesn’t that sound like a dream project?
10. The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, US, 1927)
We’re still reeling from the heartache of this closing night affair: a love story between a prince and a peasant girl. Quintessentially Lubitsch, every moment is brimming with urbane wit, elegance and a visual quality that is inexplicably timeless. No spoilers here, but we’ll just tell you that the sublime pairing of Ramon Novarro and Normal Shearer will give you butterflies. If it doesn’t, we suggest you see a doctor.
More magic: The film also features a performance from the magnificent Phillipe De Lacy, a silent-era child actor who plays the younger version of the prince. We recommend you check him out in “Love” (Edmund Goulding, US, 1927), the earlier of two Anna Karenina adaptations in which Greta Gabro starred.
Honourable Mention: Pola Negri – The First Phase of Stardom
Not quite a retrospective in the traditional sense of the term, this programme of three titles from 1918 was designed to reassess Negri’s career and her rise to stardom by showcasing some of her earlier films. Many of us know her from her exquisite beauty and versatile roles in films from Poland, Germany and the US. Yet her legacy, marred with contradictions and fallacies, also presents a challenge to film historians. By exploring her earliest works and tracing her evolution as an artist, we can start to form a more accurate and faithful history of one of the silent era’s most celebrated stars.
Feature photo:The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (credit: Photoplay Productions)
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