| Sunday, July 15, 2007 |
| Silence is golden |
For several years, I have been meaning to attend the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I'm not a particular aficionado of silent film -- I've only seen about a half dozen of them, mostly back in the day when the Paramount in Oakland used to show one each summer -- but the idea of an entire film festival devoted to silent film just seemed incredibly cool. Anyway, it always got away from me, until this year, when about eight thousand mentions of the festival on Mick LaSalle's weekly podcast (fest founder Stephen Salmons is a frequent guest) kept it at "top of mind," so to speak. I bought advance tickets for the opening night screening of "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg," starring Norma Shearer and Ramon Novarro.
I'm glad I purchased them well in advance, since the film was sold out. Not only that, but an hour before the show was due to start, the line snaked all the way around the block. Apparently silent filmgoers get to the Castro even earlier than noir fans and International Film Festival attendees.
"The Student Prince" is 80 years old, but I was surprised at how engaging and touching the story was and how good the production values were. It's the tale of a lonely prince (Novarro) who goes off to college and falls in love with a barmaid (Shearer). In the words of LaSalle: "This isn't about nostalgia -- seeking the past in the present. It's about the opposite, finding the present in the past. Finding eternal human values and enduring emotions." What's more enduring than a love story? Really, it was much more enjoyable than most of today's "modern" entertainment, and Dennis James did a stunning job providing live musical accompaniment.
The only annoying thing about silents is that there are always scenes where people are talking, and you get the gist of what they're saying, but you really wish you could hear their voices -- or, at least, lip-read. Of course, since Novarro was Mexican, it's doubtful he would have been cast as a German prince if it had been a talkie. One of my favorite things about seeing old movies is looking up the bios of the stars whose lives I'm not already familiar with; Novarro's story was briefly summarized in the festival program. Sadly, he was beaten to death by a pair of male hustlers at his Hollywood home in 1968; the gay Novarro frequently employed prostitutes. Jean Hersholt also played a major role in the film -- he is, of course, well known to Oscar watchers because of the Humanitarian Award that bears his name.
The festival continued all weekend long with 11 different programs, but I was too overbooked to make the trek to the Castro more than once. Now that I've finally attended the fest, though, I shall certainly plan to go back next summer. |
posted by 125records @ 11:01 PM  |
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| 1 Comments: |
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I recently read Paul Auster's "Book of Illusions", which is an intriguing novel about a fictional silent film star who could have been based on this guy (or perhaps just a detail was lifted?). It's a rather wild tale. Given your enjoyment of silent star bios, you might get a kick out of it. The descriptions of the fictional silent films are amazingly detailed. You feel like you have seen all of them.
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I recently read Paul Auster's "Book of Illusions", which is an intriguing novel about a fictional silent film star who could have been based on this guy (or perhaps just a detail was lifted?). It's a rather wild tale. Given your enjoyment of silent star bios, you might get a kick out of it. The descriptions of the fictional silent films are amazingly detailed. You feel like you have seen all of them.