further erosion/corrosion

La maschera del demonio (1960)
directed by Mario Bava






Alice in Wonderland (1903)
directed by Cecil Hepworth
and Percy Stow










Murder! (1930)
directed by Alfred Hitchcock

While hauntingly beautiful, I'm sure these are not the images
these directors wanted to
leave in our minds.

If films by these important and influential directors
are eroding and corroding,
what else are we losing?

further disintegration

More beauty within loss.
With a running jump, our hero grabs onto an overhanging bar and spins himself upwards onto the next floor.
How sad that the one piece of stunt work in Street Angel is nearly lost to deterioration.
How lucky we are to experience it with the glow of disintegration that gives the feat an other-worldly quality:

single shot - dying swan

Umirayushchii Lebed
aka The Dying Swan (1917)
directed by Eugeni Bauer

how i saw over 42.5 films in 26 hours

photo courtesy of San Francisco Silent Film Festival

the 2007 san francisco silent film festival lasted from july 13 until july 15 and yes, i did watch more than 42 films including feature lengths, shorts and fragments.

there is a wide variety in the programming, which allows for the screening of all kinds of silent film. my favorite treasures to see are fragments from otherwise lost films, such as the pieces from two clara bow films, red hair and three weekends (both 1928).

the program of early french shorts was quite shocking. early filmmakers weren't concerned about offending their public in the least- i counted two beheadings (one most disturbingly realistic), a couple of impalements and one short, reputedly of the follies-bergeres, with much female nudity. the presenter was just as theatrical. he burned a piece of safety stock film and then a piece of nitrate live on-stage. watching the nitrate burn made me think of the devasting fire of henri langlois' cinemateque.

a pleasant surprise was the valley of the giants (1927). a plot involving logging in the wilds of california seemed a guaranteed yawn, even if it was seemingly inspired by the big four. director charles j brabin and cinematographer ted mccord created a stunning film with gorgeous vistas complimented by a runaway train which crashed off the side of a cliff! yeah!

also:
the student prince in old heidelberg 1927
directed by ernst lubitsch
stunning, i love his silent work

camille 1921
directed by and starring alla nazimova
incredibly melodramatic yet it still made me cry

miss lulu bett 1921
directed by william c demille
fantastic acting and an ending that had the crowd cheering

p.s.
the half movie was the godless girl (1929). a demille 2-hour-plus epic about religion at the end of a very full weekend sealed its own fate.

p.p.s
leonard maltin- i was standing on the platform waiting for the trolley. next to me a noisy group was scrambling around for quarters. guess who! there are lots of famous people in sf but i never expect to see them on public transit.

"thither we came, and thence down in the moat...."

Kanal 1957

directed by andrzej wajda

cinematography by jerzy lipman

this was an interesting study in what film quality brings to my viewing experience. i've been watching a bunch of beautiful criterion releases lately. their high picture quality has spoiled me, to the extent of seeing Swing Time on the big screen and feeling disappointed about the scratches and jumps where the frames had deteriorated completely.

i'd already started watching the facets release of Kanal, loving how dark it was (visually and in the plot) when i found out there was a criterion version. i felt i had to abandon the first disc and finish watching the cleaner version; better to see the work of cinematographer jerzy lipman (who also filmed Knife in the Water.)

surprisingly, i much preferred the darker film i had cast aside. and its because while the criterion showed so clearly the horrors of travelling through the sewers, the facets showed what the characters had become- more ghosts then people, appearing and disappearing in unending darkness. it was a much more moving experience.

beautiful light flares.

the quote is credited to dante, spoken by the artist in response to the horrors of the sewers.