SF Silent Film Festival 2018 Program

§ San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2018 Program
Castro Theatre

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

7:00 pm
THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
111 minutes | USA | 1928 | d. Paul Leni
Berklee Silent Film Orchestra

9:00 pm
Opening Night Party
McRoskey Mattress Company

Thursday, May 31, 2018

10:00 am
Amazing Tales from the Archives
100 minutes | Free
Live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin

1:00 pm
SOFT SHOES
With short: Detained (1924, d. Scott Pembroke, starring Stan Laurel, 17 m.)
45 minutes / with short: 62 minutes | USA | 1925 | d. Lloyd Ingraham
Donald Sosin

2:45 pm
MASTER OF THE HOUSE (DU SKAL ÆRE DIN HUSTRU)
107 minutes | Denmark | 1925 | d. Carl Th. Dreyer
Stephen Horne

5:15 pm
AN INN IN TOKYO (TÔKYÔ NO YADO)
80 minutes | Japan | 1935 | d. Yasujirô Ozu
Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius

7:15 pm
PEOPLE ON SUNDAY (MENSCHEN AM SONNTAG)
73 minutes | Germany | 1930 | d. Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann
Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

9:15 pm
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS (GARDIENS DE PHARE)
83 minutes | France | 1929 | d. Jean Grémillon
Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius

Friday, June 1, 2018

10:00 am
GOOD REFERENCES
60 minutes | USA | 1920 | d. Roy William Neill
Donald Sosin

12:00 noon
THE OTHER WOMAN’S STORY
65 minutes | USA | 1925 | d. B.F. Stanley
Stephen Horne

2:00 pm
SILENT AVANT-GARDE
From the collection of Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Films
70 minutes
Matti Bye Ensemble

4:15 pm
ROSITA
90 minutes | USA | 1923 | d. Ernst Lubitsch
Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

6:30 pm
MOTHER KRAUSE’S JOURNEY TO HAPPINESS (MUTTER KRAUSENS FAHRT INS GLÜCK)
133 minutes | Germany | 1929 | d. Piel Jutzi
Sascha Jacobsen and the Musical Art Quintet

9:30 pm
POLICEMAN (KEISATSUKAN)
121 minutes | Japan | 1933 | d. Tomu Uchida
Stephen Horne

Saturday, June 2, 2018

10:00 am
NO MAN’S GOLD
65 minutes | USA | 1926 | d. Lewis Seiler
Donald Sosin and Frank Bockius

12:00 noon
MARE NOSTRUM
111 minutes | USA | 1926 | d. Rex Ingram
Kevin Brownlow Celebration
Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius

2:45 pm
TRAPPOLA
With short: San Francisco, 1906
52 minutes, with short: 62 minutes | Italy | 1922 | d. Eugenio Perego
Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

4:30 pm
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (DER HUND VON BASKERVILLE)
65 minutes | Germany | 1929 | d. Richard Oswald
Guenter Buchwald Ensemble

7:00 pm
THE SAGA OF GÖSTA BERLING (GÖSTA BERLINGS SAGA)
200 minutes | Sweden | 1924 | d. Mauritz Stiller
There will be a 30-minute intermission at approximately 8:45 pm
Matti Bye Ensemble

Sunday, June 3, 2018

10:00 am
SERGE BROMBERG PRESENTS
65 minutes | A selection of short silents from Lobster Films
Donald Sosin

12:00 noon
A THROW OF DICE (PRAPANCHA PASH)
74 minutes | India | 1929 | d. Franz Osten
Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius

2:15 pm
THE ANCIENT LAW (DAS ALTE GESETZ)
129 minutes | Germany | 1923 | d. E.A. Dupont
Donald Sosin Ensemble with Alicia Svigals

5:30 pm
FRAGMENT OF AN EMPIRE (OBLOMOK IMPERII)
109 minutes | USSR | 1929 | d. Fridrikh Ermler
Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius

8:00 pm
BATTLING BUTLER
74 minutes | USA | 1926 | d. Buster Keaton
Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

Up-Coming: San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2018

I'm looking forward to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which this year expands to 23 screenings over 5 days, from classics to rarities to recent discoveries, all with live musical accompaniment. It opens this Wednesday night at the Castro Theatre, with the grandiosely melodramatic The Man Who Laughs, starring Conrad Veidt as the grotesque title character. The Berklee Silent Film Orchestra will perform their original score, recreating the experience of top-class film-going in the 1920s.

The festival's offerings are so uncommon that it's frustrating not to be able to take in everything. I'm always fascinated by the informative Amazing Tales from the Archives, showcasing the work of film preservationists & historians, which is offered free on Thursday, May 31st, at 10am. The avant-garde program on Friday, June 1st at 2pm looks intriguing. It includes films by Marcel Duchamp & Sergei Eisenstein & is accompanied by the stark, eerie music of the Matti Bye Ensemble.

Photo of Kevin Brownlow taken by Pamela Gentile

Venerated film historian Kevin Brownlow, whose book The Parade's Gone By gave me my mental image of the competitive, pioneering silent era, will attend the festival & celebrate his 80th birthday at the screening of Mare Nostrum on Saturday, June 2nd, at noon. Newly discovered footage of the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, probably shot in the last week of April 1906, will be shown at the Saturday, June 2nd, 2:45pm screening of the Italian comedy Trappola.

Greta Garbo fans should note that the version of The Saga of Gösta Berling playing on Saturday, June 2nd at 7p, is advertised as 200 minutes long. The Pacific Film Archive offers a supplementary program of Greta Garbo Rarities on Wednesday, May 30th at 3p. The delightful Serge Bromberg will present a program of early shorts from his Lobster Films archive on Sunday, June 3rd, at 10am. I'm excited to see that his list includes some of the startling "accidental 3D" films by Georges Méliès.

Klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals joins the Donald Sosin Ensemble to accompany The Ancient Law on Sunday, June 3rd at 2:25pm. This 1923 German film is apparently a source for The Jazz Singer. The salon-style Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra accompanies Battling Butler, starring Buster Keaton, to close out the festival on Sunday, June 3rd at 8p.

§ The San Francisco Silent Film Festival
May 30 - June 3, 2017
Castro Theatre

§ Festival Site | Schedule & Tickets | Festival Pass