sunday in the richmond district

San Franciscans often complain that the westernmost part
of the city is just too far away,
boring and out-of touch.
It's such a shame for they are missing out on some gems.

While it's not quite the step back in time people believe,
you can pretend you are back in the 1920s
this Sunday in the Richmond District.

Step 1) Spend the afternoon at the Legion of Honor's Cartier jewelery show.
Marvel at the fabulous Art Deco diamond cuffs worn by Gloria Swanson
in Sunset Boulevard amongst many, many other pieces from the era.

Step 2) Rest your bedazzled eyes on the screen at the 1926 Balboa Theater,
which will be showing the darkly German-Expressionist
The Cat and the Canary (1926) on it's 84th birthday.
Be sure to dress, their parties are quite the deal-
short features, live vaudeville acts
and birthday cake.

Have a lovely time, darlings! I'll add pictures next week.

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?

parallel lines

...even down to the gloved fingers on the stairway railing.





Sudden Fear (1952)
directed by David Miller
cinematography by Charles Lang

comments policy

Are you other bloggers getting spammed as much as I am in the comments?
It's reaching epic proportions around here.
I'm tired of clicking on links that take me places no lady would voluntarily go, so
for the next little while at least I'm going to be ruthless about which comments I publish.

If there is no meaningful content relating to that particular post, I will disregard and not publish such comments.

Hopefully this spamming will calm down soon and we can get back to regular social intercourse (hee.)

happy new year 2010

Flesh and the Devil (1926)

Happy New Year, all!
May there be many new and
exciting film discoveries all year long....

single shot - pollock

Pollock (2000)

single shot - lost weekend

Lost Weekend (1945)

I've been away. Seems when one blogs a lot, the rest of life backs up.
Now that things are settling down and holidays are in sight, I should manage to post more regularly.
See you soon.

i saw the gaucho on the big screen

I haven't seen many Douglas Fairbanks movies - just The Thief of Baghdad, When the Clouds Roll By and The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, the last two also courtesy of the San Francisco Silent Film Fest. The hammy qualities overshadow the daring stunt work for me. However, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to view my first Lupe Valez.

You know I'm not easily won over by movie stars but wow, she has a presence. I'd heard about her from friends and its easy to see why she's talked about. Fiery is the best term, and much like Clara Bow especially the eyebrow expressions. Oh Mr. Fairbanks - why walk into a scene when you can do a back flip? Its all so endearing and so much fun.

The best part was the outtakes shown before the feature. The shots of Mary Pickford as the Virgin were not only shot in two-strip technicolor but with a whirling set of metal spikes behind her head lit brightly to replicate the celestial glow. Numerous shots were tried and miraculously those that didn't quite line up just right (as well as those with the technicians making adjustments) have been preserved.

Viewed at the Castro Theatre as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
The booklets published by the festival feature great articles on each film.
This film was written up by local writer and blogger Brian Darr.

SFSFF 2009- sunday

Erotikon (1929, directed by Gustav Machaty, photographed by Vaclav Vich, art direction by Alexander Hackenschmied) was the film I was most anticipating this year and it truly was fantastic. I especially liked the Soviet-style framing of the actors. I was happily surprised by the sympathetic treatment of the lead character and her situation. Unfortunately, I felt this was undermined by the musical score, composed and provided by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. The music accompanying the seduction scene was rather too sweet, more suited for a mother-daughter reunion than for the sensual interplay happening on-screen. There were virtually no dynamics throughout the score. In fact the music made the languid pace actually feel boring. I know I would enjoy the film much more with a different soundtrack. I hope to be given that opportunity sometime.

So's Your Old Man (1926, directed by Gregory La Cava) lifted the mood this afternoon. If not for the beautiful intertitles during Wild Rose, the intricate John Held Jr illustrated cards would surely win the prize. Although W C Fields was just as funny without using that voice, my heart was captured by the scene-stealing caddy in the overly-long golf scene. He is uncredited unfortunately; does anyone know who that was?

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928, directed by Jean Epstein) was also a visual pleasure. Again, I have to credit Stephen Horne for a brilliant and harmonious accompanying score, utilizing both piano and synthesizer for special sound effects. The stunning visuals were a treat, especially the long veil that reminded me of Vera Chytilova's Automat Svet.

But the long days of sequestering myself in the lovely old theater surrounded by thousands of fellow silent film fans finally extracted it's price - I left the remaining film for the rest to see, perhaps for my own viewing another time.

SFSFF 2009 - saturday

Amazing Tales From The Archive is one of the highlights for me of the entire weekend. It's so inspiring to learn about all the work done to bring all these films and fragments to such an appreciative audience. This year the theatre was nearly full to see these little tidbits:
Screen Shots promotional short (1923)
The Actor's Children short (1910)
Polly of the Follies trailer starring Constance Talmadge (1922)
Happiness Ahead trailer fragments starring Colleen Moore (1928)
The Lover's Oath trailer starring Ramon Navarro
How the Hungry Man Was Fed (1911)

I missed the next but was back in time for
Wild Rose (China, 1932, directed by Sun Yu)
The special guest was actress Qin Yi, who received a standing ovation as a well-known actress and wife of the star of this film. Restored by the China Film Archive, it was a beautiful print. Unfortunately the film occasionally jumped its tracks, one time obscuring the FANTASTIC Art Deco set I knew had to be in a film from Shanghai in the early 1930s. It also featured the most beautiful intertitle of the fesetival: the Chinese character for snow that was drawn as if weighed under in snow. Qin Yi said before the film that China was behind the rest of the world in film making but with double exposures and a crane shot, this movie wasn't lacking in any department.

Underworld (1927, directed by Josef von Sternberg)
This was as stunning as everyone told me it would be. The lighting was moody and turned out multiple gradations of gray. The nightclub scene was a stand-out, especially the rapid set of close-ups as the drinking progressed. The look was reminiscent of der Blaue Engel showing that this was pure von Sternberg. Stephen Horne's score was as impressive as ever- understated as the film was in the first half, dramatic and pulling tension as the film making picked up the same speed. Mr Horne really knows how to ratchet up the tension, even dropping back if need be. He doesn't always replicate the sound effects suggested by the screen, rather he underscores these moments and plays around them as a good jazz musician does to swing the melody. Brilliant.

The Wind (1928, directed by Victor Sjostrom)
Far better than I had expected. As phenomenal as it was, it greatly benefitted from the accompaniment of the mightly Whurlitzer organ and TWO wind sound machines hand cranked by sound artists. The overwhelming storm was fighting it out with the volume of the organ - I could feel the wind from the pipes along the wall of the theatre.

More next time about the final day of the festival.

influence

You know this one, don't you?

Ringing any bells yet?

Its so eerily beautiful.
I fell in love with this scene when I saw this film as a little girl.
Apparently so did Lars von Trier.
In the commentary for his own film, he names the ending sequence of Europa as an homage to
Night of the Hunter (1955).

Ghost Ship

Gorgeous cinematography only slightly marred by the poor video transfer.
Can't someone release a nice, REMASTERED boxed set to honor Val Lewton?
Or is this as good as a B-movie can hope to look?



There's a wealth of geometric combinations to be arranged on the set of a ship.
Some of this reminds me of The Long Voyage Home a few years earlier:

Ghost Ship (1943)

directed by Mark Robson

cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca

produced by Val Lewton

art direction by Albert D'Agostino

and Walter E Keller