Up-coming: SF Silent Film Festival 2013

This Thursday is opening night of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. It's one of my favorite film events, & this year's program looks especially exciting & diverse. Opening night is a Louise Brooks feature I'd never heard of before called Prix de Beauté. The centerpiece film is a restoration of Pabst's The Joyless Street, featuring Greta Garbo. Closing night is the Harold Lloyd classic Safety Last! Marion Davies appears in The Patsy, directed by King Vidor, & Douglas Fairbanks stars in the western The Half-Breed. The Last Edition from 1925 includes scenes shot on location in San Francisco. There are also films from Japan, the UK, Denmark, France, the USSR & Sweden. All the films will have live musical accompaniment, ranging from piano to chamber orchestra. Legong: Dance of the Virgins, a color film shot in Bali, will be accompanied by the Club Foot Orchestra & Gamelan Sekar Jaya. A last-minute addition to the festival is a 2-minute animated trailer for Vertov's The Eleventh Year, believed to have been created by Soviet graphic designer Alexander Rodchenko.

§ San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2013
July 18-21, 2013
Castro Theatre

Thursday, July 18

7:00 pm
Prix de Beauté
France, 1930 • Director Augusto Genina
Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne

Friday, July 19

11:00 am
Amazing Tales from the Archives (Free)
Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne

2:00 pm
The First Born
UK, 1928 • Director Miles Mander
Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne

4:30 pm
Tokyo Chorus
Japan, 1931 • Director Yasujiro Ozu
Musical accompaniment by Günter Buchwald

7:00 pm
The Patsy
USA, 1928 • Director King Vidor
Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

9:30 pm
The Golden Clown (Klovnen)
Denmark, 1926 • Director A.W. Sandberg
Musical accompaniment by Matti Bye Ensemble

Saturday, July 20

10:00 am
Winsor McCay: His Life and Art
A Special Presentation by John Canemaker
Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne

12:00 pm
The Half-Breed
USA, 1916 • Director Allan Dwan
Musical accompaniment by Günter Buchwald on the Mighty Wurlitzer

2:15 pm
Legong: Dance of the Virgins
Bali, 1935 • Director Henri de la Falaise
Musical accompaniment by Clubfoot Orchestra and Gamelan Sekar Jaya

4:00 pm
Gribiche
France, 1926 • Director Jacques Feyder
Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

6:30 pm
The House on Trubnaya Square
USSR, 1928 • Director Boris Barnet
Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne

8:30 pm
The Joyless Street (Die freudlose Gasse)
Germany, 1925 • Director G.W. Pabst
Musical accompaniment by Matti Bye Ensemble

Sunday, July 21

10:00 am
Kings of (Silent) Comedy
Tiles include:
Felix Goes West (USA, d. Otto Messmer, 1924)
Mighty Like a Moose (USA, d. Leo McCarey, 1926)
The Love Nest (USA, d. Buster Keaton, 1923)
The Immigrant (USA, d. Charles Chaplin, 1917)

1:00 pm
The Outlaw and His Wife (Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru)
Sweden, 1918 • Director Victor Sjöström
Musical accompaniment by Matti Bye Ensemble

3:30 pm
The Last Edition
USA, 1925 • Director Emory Johnson
Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne

6:00 pm
The Weavers (Die Weber)
Germany, 1927 • Director Friedrich Zelnik
Musical accompaniment by Günter Buchwald
Plus two-minute trailer for Dziga Vertov's The Eleventh Year

8:30 pm
Safety Last!
USA, 1923 • Directors Sam Taylor, Fred Newmeyer
Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra