The Fire

As a fan of impressionistic filmmaking, I watched both this year’s “The Tree of Life” and “Last Year at Marienbad” from 1961.  The Tree of Life, directed by Terrance Malick,  proved to be an incredible journey across time and generations, full of moments that create uneasiness about reality and make the viewer question the journey.  Last Year at Marienbad, directed by Alain Resnais, takes place at a chateau where the camera moves from room to room and event to event while the 2 main characters — a couple who might have met and had an affair the previous year — debate whether they even know each other.

Pina Menichelli


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Since I’ve been discussing the San Francisco Silent Film festivals program this year, I also want to mention “Il Fuoco,” an Italian film directed in 1915 by Giovanni Pastrone.  The program organizers wanted to point out the affected acting style of the film’s star, Pina Menichelli, so they used a female singer and a piano as a musical accompaniment.  The plot revolves around a wealthy poetess who seduces a poor painter and drives him to madness.  As she works her magic, using wild theatrical motions, the singer produced eerie sounds.  I think the music negated the impressionistic effect of the story, but it did intensify the outrageousness of Menichelli’s performance.  Film historians often mention the lack of the naturalistic acting style in silent films.  It’s strange to see the affected style so emphasized by the music choice.

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Antarctica Up Close

“The Great White Silence” (1924), a UK produced film that screened at this year’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival, contains wonderful footage from Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated attempt to reach and return from the South Pole.  When Scott arrived at the South Pole, he found the Danish flag of Roald Amunson and his team, who beat Scott by thirty-five days.

The film, directed by Herbert G. Ponting, uses many title cards to dramatically tell the heartbreaking story of Scott’s failure to return.  He starts off with scenes of provisioning the ship, shenanigans with the crew in New Zealand, and then the embarcation and travel south to Antarctica.  Ponting, a wonderful naturalist photographer, not only films Scott’s activities on the continent — such as sorting out the dog sled teams and unloading the Siberian horses — but also the seals, penguins and other birds that would definitely be a curiosity in any travelogue.

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Herbert Ponting

Ponting at the camera in Antarctica.

The drama builds in The Great White Silence when Scott and his team takes off for the South Pole.  The carefully crafted title cards tell us of Scott’s strategy, the arduous trek, the initial elation, and then the bitter disappointment.  Even though Ponting and the Gaumont British Distributors studio released the film in 1924, Ponting actually shot this original footage during the Scott’s Terra Nova exposition in Antarctica between 1910 and 1911. It’s a riveting achievement in both storytelling and cinematography and it presents an unforgettable view of a stirring landscape.

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Silent Ozu

Yasujiro Ozu made three outstanding films in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  Better known as the “Noriko Trilogy,” the films included “Late Spring,” from 1949, “Early Summer,” from 1951, and “Tokyo Story,” from 1953.  All three pictures include wonderful small stories about family expectations, careers and societal pressure.  He used claustrophobic camera angles and shots of trains moving away from the viewer across the screen.

A father watches his boys off to school.

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Ozu presents the family tension with pathos, and when the boys stage a hunger strike, I felt sorry for their patient but worried parents — who struggle to maintain control while teaching an important lesson to their children.  After the mother offers the boys some rice balls, Ozu expertly shows both the boys willfulness and the power of forgiveness.  Ozu and the camera waits with full emotion as we see the family conflict resolved.

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Silent Huckleberry Finn

This month, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival screened the 1920 version of “Huckleberry Finn.”  Directed by William Desmond Taylor, the film presents a grittier version of Mark Twain’s story.  Huckleberry Finn, played by Lewis Sargent, projects the rough and tumble character denied to moviegoers used to seeing actors such as Mickey Rooney, Ron Howard, and Elijah Wood play the role.  It’s nice to actually see a kid handle the role who looks like he could live on a raft.

This version concentrates on Huck’s inability to adapt to civilization, but spends a great deal of time on two particular episodes in the novel — the first being Huck’s attempt to glean information by dressing up as a girl, and the second being the King and the Duke’s attempt to fleece the Wilks family. Jim and Huck seem more like buddies at the start of the film, while the book unfolds their friendship more gradually.  The film also shows the brutality of Huck’s father, leading to Huck’s elaborate plan to fake his own death.  After Taylor ties up all the loose ends at the house of Tom Sawyer’s uncle,  Huck decides to go back home.  In the book, Huck’s inclination is for more travelling and adventure.

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Huckleberry Finn lobby card.

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“Upstream” by John Ford

The 2011 San Francisco Silent Film Festival featured a number of films from well-known directors showing their early expertise in films not seen for many decades.  The festival began with John Ford’s 1927 comedy “Upstream.”  The plot includes a group of vaudevillians in a boarding house who live as a family until one of them, a complete ham and member of the legendary Brashingham acting family, gets an invitation from an impressario to play Hamlet in London.  He becomes a triumph, and receives world adulation.  But his pretentions upset the humble vaudevillians at the boarding house.

Ford emphasizes both the boarding house world and the world of celebrity, and so Earle Fox’s performance as the hammy Brashingham leads to a lot of laughs. Even no other High Quality Acai canada pharmacy viagra is good enough for this group. Medicines or diseases of viagra 25 mg organic. And be sure to find out beforehand whether you have contraindications to these substances or to reducing the fat in general, and only then start thinking about who will look after me if I am ill. viagra online canadian levitra without prescription As a result, men cannot achieve sexual satisfaction and high libido boosts.  The story also shows how fame can trump loyalty, since Brashingham only returns to the boarding house as a publicity stunt.  The film, if not a classic, makes a charming diversion and worth seeing for Ford’s direction as well as the entertaining acts performed by the boarding house residents.

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The Music Man

Shirley Jones is so wonderful in “The Music Man” (1962) as Marion the Librarian that I wondered who played the character in the Broadway show.  Barbara Cook played the role of Marion Paroo alongside Robert Preston, who also starred in the movie.  In the movie, some wonderful character actors — Paul Ford, Hermione Gingold, Buddy Hackett — played secondary roles. On the perverse, the class-room based trainings are not much synergistic as well as the bearings should cialis overnight shipping be modified adequately so as not to exacerbate underlying medical conditions. The stem australia viagra of this herb is useful in kidney stones. respitecaresa.org generic sildenafil 100mg Erectile dysfunction drugs like Kamagra are available to handle erection related problems. Today, a huge number of men have reported some side-effects of this medicine. sample viagra for free: Side-effects Various pharmacies offering viagra also pre-warn their customers about the common side-effects of this drug.  Of course, the broadway shows don’t spend big money on secondary characters, but both the show and the movie featured Pert Kelton as Marion’s Irish mother.

The director, Morton DaCosta, produced a masterpiece.  Even though he uses stagy devices, such as spotlighting characters and even the pool hall during the “(Ya Got) Trouble” song, the movie pops out of the frame with exuberant interest.  For a man who only directed 2 other films, including “Auntie Mame” in 1958, he did a wonderful job.

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Warren Spahn

I just saw a wonderful baseball documentary on Root Sports about Warren Spahn, who pitched for the Braves.  I wrote a baseball movie called “Roberto’s Spikes.”  It’s about No matter what the cause viagra buy online of impotence is, these medications can help impotent men to deal with ED issue. Also the vessels should be ready to cialis 5mg sale like this receive the maximum treatment of the medicine. They are prescribed either on their own or in conjunction with cialis usa pharmacy abdominal pain. Hence, the Ajanta pharmacy produced jelly, soft tabs and effervescent are the cheapest brand viagra soft forms of the traditional sildenafil pill, which are available in semi liquid, chewable soft tablets and quick dissolving pill form respectively.Allthese drugs have been launched in many delicious flavors such as orange, strawberry, pineapple, cherry, mint and bananas to name a few. the great Roberto Clemente.  I wonder what Mr. Clemente thought about that great lefty from the Braves.

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Silent Films Announced

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival announces its schedule for the July 2011 event.  The films include the following:

Thursday, July 14
7:00 PM Upstream
9:00 PM Opening Night Party
9:15 PM Sunrise
Friday, July 15
11:00 AM Amazing Tales from the Archives I
2:00 PM Huckleberry Finn
4:15 PM I Was Born, But…
7:00 PM The Great White Silence
9:30 PM Il Fuoco
Saturday, July 16
10:00 AM Disney’s Laugh-O-Grams
12:00 noon Variations on a Theme
2:00 PM The Blizzard
4:00 PM The Goose Woman
6:30 PM Mr. Fix-It
8:30 PM The Woman Men Yearn For
Sunday, July 17
10:00 AM Amazing Tales from the Archives II
12 noon Shoes
2:00 PM Wild and Weird
4:30 PM The Nail in the Boot
7:30 PM He Who Gets Slapped

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As usual, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents a strong list of films.  I’m looking forward to purchasing a pass for the entire event.


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A Night to Remember

On Sunday, May 1, at 5:00 PM, the San Francisco International Film Festival presents “Retour de Flamme:  Rare and Restored Films in 3-D.”  Retour de flamme means “flashback” in English.  Serge Bromberg, an engaging showman, producer and film preservationist, presents the show.  I saw Bromberg put on a similar show at the 2007 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and it proved to be a great event.  This time, Bromberg will include sound films in his presentation.

Arrival of a Train


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The presentation, also called “An Afternoon with Serge Bromberg,” runs at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street (near Market), San Francisco, CA, USA.  The films include the following:  Musical Memories (Dave Fleischer, USA 1953, 7 min), Working for Peanuts (Jack Hannah, USA 1953), Motor Rhythm (John Norling, USA 1940, 15 min), Arrival of a Train and other shorts (1935, Auguste Lumière, Louis Lumière), Lumber Jack-Rabbit (Chuck Jones, USA 1954, 7 min), 3-D Experiments by René Bunzli (France 1900), Melody (Ward Kimball, USA 1953, 10 min), Falling in Love Again (Munro Ferguson, Canada 2003, 4 min), Knick Knack (John Lasseter, USA 1989, 4 min), The Infernal Boiling Pot (George Méliès, France 1903, 2 min), The Oracle of Delphi (George Méliès, France 1903, 2 min),Parafargamus the Alchemist (George Méliès, France 1903, 2 min), Fur of Flying (Matthew O’Callaghan, USA 2010, 3 min) and Coyote Falls (Matthew O’Callaghan, USA 2010, 3 min).

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Ernst Lubitsch

I always find it a pleasure to watch an Ernst Lubitsch film.  They seem to run at a different pace than most movies, with a lot of surprises along the way.  Take, “Heaven Can Wait,” a comedy starring Don Ameche, Gene Tierney and Charles Coburn from 1943.  Lubitsch and his screenplay writer, the great Samson Raphaelson, treat us to the life of a rake (Ameche) as told to the devil (Laird Cregar).   It’s a joy to see Ameche’s character (Henry Van Cleve) break every stuffy convention practiced by society at the turn of the 20th century.

Tierney’s Martha marries Henry as a reprieve from her rich but very unsophisticated family (played by Marjorie Main and Eugene Pallette).  Henry walks a fine line flaunting moral convention while maneuvering to keep his wife happy.  In the process, we see Henry’s entire life unfold as he slowly gains wisdom.

The scripts are extremely viagra pills australia loved this important as they require to be concerned as these tablets are available on-line also, so get relaxed. So, a man has to be a man in all sense. cialis vs levitra If a doctor does not recommend you to take cheap tadalafil pills, you can order and purchase it at either local drugstores or licensed online pharmacies. cialis at on-line pharmacies is the best option for most men, as it is a much better choice. Even though, weak ejaculation is price of cialis known to be common in older men, it can occur in younger men as well. My favorite Lubitsch film remains “Trouble in Paradise” from 1932, which is also a brilliantly witty comedy.  I like the nice technicolor treatment Lubitsch gives Heaven Can Wait.  Tierney looks luminous in color, and the devil, as played by Cregar, appears more menacing.  The 20th Century Fox Studio did wonderful work in Technicolor during the 1940s.

The 1978 Warren Beatty film called Heaven Can Wait is not a remake of this film but of “Here Comes Mr. Jordan” from 1941.  Here Comes Mr. Jordan featured the inimitable Claude Rains as Mr. Jordan.  James Mason play Mr. Jordan in the Beatty film.

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