Three Hankie Monday and...

... My Favorite Year

Film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow once described 1927 as the Annus Mirabilis. It remains without a doubt, the greatest year the in storied existence of motion pictures. The Movies reached a parity of technology and creative expression, resulting in the greatest collective output of this or any other year, unsurpassed in both quantity and astonishing quality.

It was the year of F. W. Murnau’s masterpiece Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Frank Borzage’s 7th Heaven, both starring Janet Gaynor, both produced by Fox and both showered with generous and well deserved awards. While Charles Chaplin was conspicuously absent from 1927, two of film’s comic legends produced what may be considered their finest work. Buster Keaton released his Civil War railroader The General and Harold Lloyd’s equally impressive The Kid Brother was an ambitious reinterpretation of Henry King’s bucolic masterpiece, Tolable David.

A banner year for Weimar Cinema, UFA produced G. W. Pabst’s beautiful but nearly forgotten The Love of Jean Ney and Fritz Lang’s futuristic nightmare, Metropolis in 1927, both with the intoxicating Brigit Helm as their star, while French master Able Gance released his monumental epic, Napoléon.

Gauchos, Gangsters and Gags

The 14th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Douglas Fairbanks as The Gaucho
July 10-12, 2009
The Castro Theatre

What do swashbuckling romance, the Valentino of China, Soviet Science Fiction, and Edgar Allan Poe have in common? They are all part of the diverse line up for the14th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival running July 10th through 12th at the historic Castro Theatre. In addition to screening eleven feature films starring a wide range of actors and directors, the festival also includes a presentation of recently restored shorts and fragments called Amazing Tales from the Archives. They will also present a program of animated shorts, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney's initial try at building a series of animated shorts around a cute animal.

Dad always said...

…Children should be seen and not heard.

The Godless Girl (1929)
Monday June 22, 7pm, The Paramount

"The REFORMATORY..Bricks...
Barbed-Wire...Iron...
And rebellious Youth."

Christian and Atheist student groups battle for supremacy at an "everytown" American High School. When a riot breaks out at an off-campus meeting of The Godless Society, the police arrive too late to break up the melee, and a girl falls to her death. The horrified leaders of both groups, "Judy (Lina Basquette), daughter of Atheism" and "Bob (George Duryea), son of Gospel" linger as she dies. Arrested and found guilty of manslaughter, they are sent to the State Reform School.

The full-tilt moralistic bombast of Cecil B. DeMille, that succeeded so mightily before sound and failed so miserably after, is well represented in this melodrama, his final silent film. The original story and sensational titles were contributed by longtime DeMille scenarist Jeanie MacPherson. Eddie Quillan as Bozo "The Goat" Johnson and Marie Prevost as Mame provide comic relief, while Noah Beery is unforgettable as the monstrously brutal head guard.

Let Nothing You Dismay

THE MERRY GENTLEMAN
(Michael Keaton, US, 2008, 97 mins.)

"We're like two peas in a pod."

Once upon a time he was a versatile comic presence who moved from sitcoms in
the 1970s (Working Stiffs) to Ron Howard laughers (Night Shift, Gung Ho) in the 19-
80s. He was, in other words, on the same career track as Splash-era Tom Hanks.

Then he turned away from the light towards the darkness of the Caped Crusader (and long before he launched his movie career, he was a Pittsburgh kid serving as a stage hand on Mister Rogers Neighborhood). Whether by choice or by necessity, actor Michael Keaton has kept a lower profile ever since, though he’s done some of his most interesting work—like Jackie Brown and Game 6—in the intervening years.

Now he makes his directorial debut with The Merry Gentleman, which isn’t a topic-
al comedy like Mr. Mom, a Tim Burton bauble like Beetle Juice, or even a suburban chiller like Pacific Heights, but a two-pronged character study shot in shades of noir.

Salt and Pepper on The Arno...

Romola (1925)
Monday June 15, 7pm, The Paramount

"He is the traitor of traitors
-- the liar of liars --"

A mysterious stranger appears in 15th Century Florence and overturns the apple cart. Tito (William Powell) presents an outward appeal that does not reveal his Machiavellian intentions, as he charms his way into Florentine society.

In her second film with director Henry King, Lillian Gish was cast as the title character and moral compass of George Eliot’s mid-Victorian novel, a tale of social, cultural and religious upheaval set in Renaissance Italy. Sister Dorothy once again played a mirror opposite, the dark-eyed, simple-minded street urchin Tessa, who virtually steals the show. Considered a "prestige" film by it’s newly incorporated distributor MGM, Romola made extensive use of exceptionally beautiful locations in and around Florence, with flocks of birds and a host of eager, well costumed Italian extras, masterfully arranged and photographed by King. The oddly altered scenario, typical of Hollywood, is a staid but entertaining reinterpretation of Eliot’s Bonfire of The Vanities.

Last of The Talkies...

Part 7

The following SIFF 2009 previews are offered in order of their press screening dates. Must-sees from this group are OSS 117: Lost in Rio and Every Little Step.

OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009)
Sunday June 14, 6:30pm, Cinerama

French secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath returns twelve years after his silly Egyptian adventure for an equally hilarious send up of nineteen-sixties spy action thrillers in OSS 117: Lost in Rio. Teamed with a super-sexy Israeli agent in search of an ex-Nazi, this South American romp features more than ample amounts of awkwardly inappropriate, side-splitting ethnic, sexual and otherwise tasteless and tacky laughs. Spectacular locations and production values better than the films being spoofed prove that OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies was no fluke and insures a continuation of the franchise. (100 minutes)

In Your Absence (2008)
Friday June 12, 7pm, SIFF Cinema
Saturday June 13, 4pm, SIFF Cinema

Of the 39 SIFF films I previewed this year, In Your Absence is the only one I strongly disliked. Why?
Beautiful images of the Spanish countryside are used as the background for an ugly, dishonest story, which seeks to inform the viewer that people are selfish, ignorant and evil.
A mysterious stranger visits a small town, befriending the son of an old army buddy and arousing suspicions among the locals. Fans of the Paul Haggis film Crash may enjoy this offensive, arrogant lecture. (99 minutes)

Talk, talk, talk...

Part 6

The following SIFF 2009 previews are offered in order of their press screening dates. Must-sees from this group are Fifty Dead Men Walking and Tetro.

Three Blind Mice (2008)
Monday June 8, 9:30pm, SIFF Cinema
Wednesday June 20, 9:30pm, Uptown Cinema

Three Australian sailors spend their final night on the town in Sydney before returning to their next tour of duty in the Persian Gulf. Hookers, parents, a backroom card game and plenty of alcohol fuel this occasionally humorous but unexceptional adventure. (94 minutes)

Kaifeck Murder (2008)
Saturday June 13, 10pm, Harvard Exit
Sunday June 14, 4:30pm, Harvard Exit

A professional photographer travelling the Bavarian countryside on assignment with his son, stumbles into a village where a mass murder was committed eighty years earlier. What looks like and starts off as a first rate spook show, falls into implausible coincidence that explains away every notion of the supernatural. (86 minutes)

Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008)

Saturday June 13, 6:30pm, Uptown Cinema
Sunday June 14, 1:30pm, Uptown Cinema

A member of the Irish Republican Army prospers for years as a British double agent in 1980’s Belfast. Director Kari Skogland’s white-knuckle ride through "the troubles" is a showcase for composite character Martin McGartland (Jim Sturgess), a "made" man, husband, father and trusted friend, who betrays all but his British contact (Sir Ben Kingsley) in this exhilarating but far-fetched political thriller. If Sturgess brilliant (Serpico meets Bloody Sunday) performance isn’t nominated for a best actor award this year, there is no justice. (119 minutes)

The Silence Returns...

Watch out for these women…

Pacific Northwest Silent Era film enthusiasts can breath a collective sigh of relief as the popular Trader Joe’s Silent Movie Mondays series returns to Seattle’s Paramount Theater. Featuring four consecutive Monday programs, Women in Film II begins June 8 with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert starring in Flesh and The Devil (1926). Seattle Theater Group is also offering this first film in the series free of charge to the public!

Women in Film II will also present Henry King’s Romola (1924) starring Lillian Gish on June 15, C.B. DeMille’s The Godless Girl (1929), June 22 and Frank Borzage’s 1927 Oscar winning masterpiece, 7th Heaven, starring Janet Gaynor.

All four evenings will feature live musical accompaniment performed by maestro in residence Dennis James, on the Paramount’s original Publix 1, 4/20 Wurlitzer organ. Dennis is featured on an extraordinary video of The Yankee Clipper (1927), released earlier this spring by Flicker Alley and recorded at Seattle’s Paramount Theater. More on that in a bit…

Flesh and The Devil (1926)
Monday June 8, 7pm, The Paramount, Seattle

A Fool for Love...
A jewel from MGM's golden age, Flesh and The Devil (1926) is the story of Felicitas (Greta Garbo), an irresistible but moody and shallow woman who sends both her husbands, Count von Rhaden (Marc MacDermott) and Ulrich von Kletzinak (Lars Hanson, The Scarlet Letter 1926, The Wind 1928) to the field of honor with her obsessed lover Leo von Sellenthin (John Gilbert, The Merry Widow 1925, The Big Parade 1925). Garbo smolders as the aloof and toxic beauty every man desires, while Gilbert attempts to set her on fire with his penetrating gaze.

Produced by Hollywood's 'Wonder Boy' Irving Thalberg, adapted by Benjamin Glazer from Hermann Sudermann's novel, beautifully photographed by William Daniels and directed by Clarence Brown (The Rains Came 1939, The Yearling 1946), Flesh and The Devil exerts a potent and surprising sexual dynamism which furthers the theory that all men are stupid, and all women are evil.
(This preview originally ran 11/28/2007 for the SFSFF Winter Program)

What Does Your Soul Look Like?

COLD SOULS ***
(Sophie Barthes, US, 97 mins.)

In debut director Sophie Barthes' believably surreal world, lovingly shot by Andrij Parekh, human beings can live without their souls—but it isn't much of a way to live.

Last seen duking it out with Tom Wilkinson in Duplicity, Paul Giamatti plays a look-
ing-glass version of himself, an award-winning actor top-lining Chekhov's Uncle Van-
ya. When the strain becomes too much to bear, he pays a visit to Soul Storage, where Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn) offers to store his soul during the run of the play. After Flintstein's assistant (Lauren Ambrose) extracts it, the lighter Paul can
no longer handle Vanya's heaviness, so he tries on the soul of a Russian poet.

Curse of The Talkies

Part 5

The following SIFF 2009 previews are offered in order of their press screening dates. Must-sees from this group are Breathless and Against the Current.

Krabat (2008)
Tuesday June 9, 9:30pm, Admiral Theater
Thursday June 11, 9:15pm, Uptown Cinemas
Friday June 2, 4pm, Uptown Cinema

Following the Thirty Years War, an orphan finds a new home at an old mill in the German countryside. Along with eleven other boys, Krabat becomes a disciple, and ultimately a prisoner of the black arts, controlled by a mysterious master.
Production design and the deft use of special effects give this film a sinister look that will certainly appeal to its intended audience, but the big scene everything builds to, never happens. (120 minutes)

Wonderful World (2009)
Friday June 5, 7pm, Kirkland Performance Center
Thursday June 11, 7pm, Egyptian Theatre
Friday June 12, 4:15pm, Egyptian Theatre

A bitter, divorced has-been blames his unhappiness on everyone but himself and drives away his adorable daughter, but finally becomes a mensch. Matthew Broderick stars as a pot smoking, failed musician, whose negative life experience becomes self-perpetuating until real tragedy offers another perspective. This amusing little film with a well-rounded cast supports Broderick’s loveable whining nicely. (89 minutes)

Rain (2008)
Sunday June 7, 9pm, Kirkland Performance Center
Friday June 12, 4:30pm, SIFF Cinema

When her grandmother dies, a Bahamian girl leaves her small island home to live with her mother, a crack-smoking prostitute in Nassau. She struggles to survive her life in the slums by joining the high-school track team. An unexceptional story and poorly presented digital video make this film nearly unwatchable. (93 minutes)

Quick SIFF Reviews 4

It Takes A Cult
Dir: Eric Johannsen

This doc examines the “Love Family” cult, founded by Love Israel in Seattle in the late ‘60s; originally based in a house on Queen Anne Hill, the group eventually relocated to a farm in the country. Love gathered his tribe by promising a life of spiritual bliss, which in this case involved not only the expected chanting, but also sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll (of a kind). And people came, some claiming they had visions, others convinced that Love was indeed Jesus.

The parents of the director lived on the Family’s farm for a while, as did Eric himself. This opens doors for him as far as gaining access to interviewees and footage. But he also tends to gloss over the more controversial areas of life in the commune. He doesn’t shy away entirely. Commune dwellers talk about the lack of parenting of the kids on the farm that bordered on child abuse; being locked in a closet, for example. It would be interesting to know if Eric suffered/witnessed any of this himself, or talked to a kid who did, but he’s silent on the matter. There was also a pervasive sexism that’s discussed but not commented on; while the men were rechristened with names like “Confidence Israel,” the women had to settle for “Patience Israel” and, tellingly, “Submissive Israel,” and Love of course snagged most of the women for himself. Work was divided into “men’s” and “women’s” jobs; guess who got stuck doing the cleaning up and looking after the kids. The irony of this supposed alternative lifestyle not being terribly different in some aspects to the stereotypical nuclear family unit apparently escapes most interviewees.

Ultimately, everyone submitted to Love’s will, turning over all their worldly goods to the Family, while books other than the bible were banned. There were ultimately allegations of embezzlement and the Family’s property was also foreclosed, more controversy vaguely referred to. Does anyone regret the time spent within the cloistered confines of the family? The loss of years, the end of their marriages? There aren’t enough voices of dissent to round out the picture. As a result, I think it’s unlikely people outside of the Northwest would have much interest in the story.

The best part of the Q&A came when Donna James asked why there were no credits for the news footage that was used. Eric hasn’t got around to it, apparently. Donna said she’d talk to him about it.

Mondo Party Blast

May 27, 2009
Hong Kong Reception
This was a smallish gathering at Boom Noodle, where I have never been before. I arrived and was met by Nancy Kennedy (SIFF Director of Development), who handed me a ticket and said “Your first drink is on SIFF!” Ah, for those days of non-stop boozing…but a drink ticket is still welcome. I opted for a cranberry kaze, which was quite tasty.

Then an array of food was set out, all of it good. Chilled tofu; salmon; various salads; little tacos with something I couldn’t identify; a delicious bean dip.

It was a small-scale event — wisely, because of the size of the space — and I actually spent most of my time sitting and talking with this year’s head of PR (or, officially, “Communications Manager”) Ted Fry, who also bought me a second kaze; most welcome. A photographer took many photos of the food spread before people tucked into it. A camera crew hovered, filming Carl Spence. Deb Person was also at hand. SIFF is apparently going well, with no appreciable downturn in ticket sales.

The only other excitement is that I managed to acquire a program.

Quick Hits: Food, Inc. and Summer Hours

SIFF screenings for the following have ended, but one title
has already opened in Seattle, while the other opens shortly.

FOOD, INC. ***

Food, Inc. examines the costs of putting value and convenience over nutrition and environmental impact. Robert Kenner explores the subject from all angles, talking to farmers, activists, and authors, like producer Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), and takes his camera into factory farms and abattoirs where chicken grow too fast to walk properly, cows eat feed pumped with toxic chemicals, and illegal immigrants risk life and limb to bring these products to market at an affordable cost. If eco-docs, like Super-Size Me and King Corn, tend to preach to the converted, Kenner presents his findings in such an engaging fashion that Food, Inc. may well reach the very viewers who could benefit from it the most: harried workers who don't have the time or in-
come to read every book and to eat non-genetically modified produce every day.

Click here for the accompanying book. Food Inc. opens on 6/26 (venue TBA).

Return of The Talkies...

Part 4

The following SIFF 2009 previews are offered in order of their press screening dates. Must-sees from this group are Lovely Loneliness and Black Dynamite.

At West of Pluto (2009)
Saturday June 6, 7pm, Harvard Exit
Sunday June 7, 1:30pm, Harvard Exit

Another vacant, meandering, day-in-the-life High School film with occasional moments of humor and distress, whose lack of style or substance is offered as offbeat and contemplative. The only point of originality or interest is the reoccurring image of a young dog representing the boundless excess of youthful energy, as it systematically destroys a tree. (95 minutes)

Cold Souls (2009)
Monday June 8, 7pm, Harvard Exit
Wednesday June 10, 4:30pm, Harvard Exit

A neurotic New York actor (Paul Giamatti as himself) rehearsing a production of Uncle Vanya has his soul extracted to relieve his debilitating anxiety. His sense of dread is replaced by remorse and panic when he tries to retrieve his soul and learns its been sold on the Russian black market. A silly combination of science fiction and self-indulgence reminiscent of Woody Allen and Michel Gondrey works as tolerable, lightweight comedy if the viewer doesn’t overthink the material. Giamatti’s "soulless" reinterpretation of Vanya is worth the price of admission. (97 minutes)

Men with Eyeliner

Rudy in 1921's The Sheik

"I feel pretty, oh so pretty."
-- Maria, West Side Story (words: Stephen Sondheim)

"What a drag it is getting old."
-- the Rolling Stones, "Mother's Little Helper" (lyrics: Jagger/Richards)

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Specifically: actors. I've been keeping track for awhile now. I'm not talking about
the days of old when everybody wore it—especially Rudolph Valentino and his si-
lent-film brethren—but now that it's become more of a specialty item. Also, per-
iod pieces, drag fantasias, and Johnny Depp's Keef impersonation don't count.

I'm thinking specifically of straight-acting movie or television actors in straight-act-
ing roles (even if the actors or their characters aren't actually straight). Consequent-
ly, theater performers, where visible makeup is a necessity, and so-called metro-
sexuals also get the (designer) boot. Here's the list I started compiling last year.