the silent film thread

anyway i'm off to see this film for the umpteenth time at the action ecoles. sadly i couldn't round up anyway to go with me because this is like the greatest date movie ever, except that it's so beautiful you'll probably completely forget about your date which depending on your date might be a good thing!

though...

(swedish and bay area ILXors take notes)

a COMPLETE RETROSPECTIVE OF THE SILENT FILMS OF VICTOR SJOSTROM is coming first to sweden, some time in january i think, and then eventually to the pacific film archive in berkeley, in february. GO GO GO GO GO

http://cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/comunicati_stampa/COMUNICATI_LIVE_03/COMUNICATI_STAMPA_imgs/Mosjoukine.jpg

rowr

sad about the remainder of murnau's career: one film now lost, another cut to ribbons by the producers, the final film a flawed bit of brilliance which only premiered after his death in a car accident.

(admittedly I had just smoked a joint but STILL)

(they were crying and talking? what were they saying?!)

On the one hand, I hate the tinny ragtime music they have on a lot of silent movie videos; on the other hand, I feel very uncomfortable in the silence of a silent movie. Seeing Keaton film at Film Forum many years ago with a live (and very talented) pianist was king-kameha-meha classique.

amateurist keep posting! yours' are the only posts i check in fr nowadays!

i ws quite surprised that he had this though; doesn't normally go in for silent films. me either.

they once showed nosferatu (murnau, right?) at the GFT with live piano accompinament. pretty cool.

http://www.moma.org/visit_moma/momafilm/sjostrom_2003.html

oh and s1utsky i think it's coming to montreal too in 2004.

And, yeah obviously, Sunrise is the tops. Ivan Mosjoukine is plenty hot, but Murnau was a fox. Forget Malkovich, he should've been played by Dermot Mulroney or Guy Pearce or... but I get off on the tangent.

Amateurist, recommend to me a really good, reasonably priced (say... $70) multi-region DVD player.

...just some of my favorites. And Fairbanks swashbucklers, just about anything with Lon Chaney are also wonderful.

I've also always wanted to see the silent Wizard Of Oz serials. Have these ever been rereleased?

where are you, in the us? best buy was selling some cyberhome 500 models for $60 about nine months ago, and then they disappeared. but they might be back. they're not top of the line players but they can be switched to all-region very easily and are quite cheap.

I'm ashamed that I've yet to see Sjostrom, but I'm also excited that I haven't yet seen Sjostrom. Both he and Mizoguchi are just waiting for me at this point and I'm so looking forward to visiting.

"Greed" and "He Who Gets Slapped" I would rate nearly as highly; as Amateurist says above, HWGS is a truly macabre and impressionistic melodrama. Lon Chaney... magnifique. Such an eerie and sympathetic physical and facial performance.

I'd like to see more of Sjostrom's work...

Wish I could see the 4hr reconstruction of "Greed"; how do people feel that plays...?

How do people rate "The Crowd" and "Flesh and the Devil", out of interest? Those two show up on TCM quite a lot, and I always tend to say I'll get round to watching them.
How would people rate FWM's "Faust"? This looks a very tempting bargain in Fopp @ £7 on DVD.

i've seen like 20 silent films this past month or so, one today in fact, ozu's "i was born but."

i was supposed to go to some hipster silent film expo at the palais de tokyo tonight but it was sold out.

the crowd is beyond excellent, i haven't seen flesh and the devil.

Not being much near London in general, don't think I'd be able to make any such showings. A shame as seeing silents in the cinema is a great experience: I got the full effect from "Sunrise" in seeing it at the local Arts Cinema.

I don't get his reveence for "Sunrise" that so many people have. Maybe it is because critics don't like the genre films in which Murnau really excels.