Mandarin Mystery Art Deco

Here's another little Republic program-filler loaded with Art Deco goodness:

 

I always cringe while watching films with titles like this, bracing myself for sudden appearances of racist depictions but the only Oriental appearance is on a stamp. Whew!

A very lovely demonstration of decorous lounging on an Art Deco chair (bias-cut silk evening gown required):

Oh golly, I want those sconces!

Out of respect for Franklin Pangborn, who faints repeatedly throughout the picture, I didn't include the great one but you can

watch it here for yourself.

The Mandarin Mystery (1936)

directed by Ralph Staub

cinematography by Jack Marta

Skew to the left, skew to the right

The program for the
2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival has been announced. Book your vacation now, I have....

These are some of the stunning images seen last year at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Sadly, the film was nowhere near as clear as the print I saw on the big screen.

Look at that composition! They had visuals down by 1925, alright.

This is one film I didn't know I would enjoy as much as I did. I stuck around to see Jack Pickford and ended up falling for Louise Dresser's beautifully nuanced facial expressions. You never know what you are going to discover at the festival.

What are you excited to see?

The Goose Woman (1925)

directed by Clarence Brown

cinematography by Milton Moore

art direction by William R. Schmitt

and E.E. Sheeley

original cinema

Light, shadow, and moving image - a solar eclipse is the essence of cinema.

Here in the Bay Area it was an annular eclipse, leaving just a crescent-shaped sliver of sun visible, so that shape became the theme of this primitive cinema. Look at the countless crescents formed by the shadow of a tree. This is the original non-narrative moving image.

Light at the end

It looks black up ahead, but the end of the semester is nearly here....

Seance On A Wet Afternoon (1964)

directed by Bryan Forbes

cinematography by Gerry Turpin