Tweet San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Their schedule is up:
http://www.silentfilm.org/event-home.php

Great stuff! It's just a bit of a shame you won't get the original scores written for Loves of Pharaoh (a lush score by Eduard Künneke) and for The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrowna (Maurice Jaubert's haunting score).

The orchestra that played with THE LOVES OF PHAROAH at the Egyptian played the original score. It was very good, but not as great as other original scores I've heard.

Their schedule is up:
http://www.silentfilm.org/event-home.php" target="_blank" target="_blank

The Canadian! Woot!

I'm pretty excited, a lot of good stuff. I'm especially excited about The Spanish Dancer and The Canadian. July can't come fast enough for me!

I'll still plan to go, but do regret that most of the program is familiar to me (one of the hazards of going to Pordenone).

To handicap the festival, they'll have figure out something special indeed with the music to do something with The Overcoat, which is a cold and heartless film version of the famous Gogol story.

Wings I've just seen. Mantrap I've just seen. I didn't like Mantrap, but mainly because it was one more story that wastes Bow's talents.

If they were going to show the one real find from Pordenone it should have been The Lady in the Dugout. A great movie and an almost unique Western, filmed by men who really were there.

The real winner in this lineup is The Canadian, which I saw back to back last October in Pordenone with The Wind. The Wind is famous, perhaps rightfully so, but in many ways The Canadian is a better movie, especially the first half, a really interesting mix of humor and drama. The film can't quite keep up this level, the second part falling into more routine, but its still quite a nice film.

It's a heck of a lineup! Here: http://silentfilm.org/index.php" target="_blank

Mont Alto will be there, with a new score for Wings (joined by Ben Burt on effects) plus two favorites: Brigitte Helm in The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna and Buster Keaton's The Cameraman. There are quite a few other films that I've been hoping to see (The Spanish Dancer!), all accompanied by excellent music, so find a way to get there.

Rodney, I thought your group played for Wings in Topeka, but I checked and was wrong. The listing say it was an organ score. In any case I thought it really worked. Were you there for that film?

But that's what I get for going to Kansas AND Pordenone.

Rodney, I thought your group played for Wings in Topeka, but I checked and was wrong. The listing say it was an organ score. In any case I thought it really worked. Were you there for that film?

But that's what I get for going to Kansas AND Pordenone.

No, that was the organist. We bugged out to play for a different movie in a different city that night. We loaned the organist a lot of the Zamecnik themes for the film.

Our score will also be based on the Zamecnik themes, but it will be different from the reconstruction on the DVD. I still don't quite know how it'll differ, but I am going to use music that I like, see what I can salvage from the full-orchestra manuscript (that's what I'm supposed to be doing now). The plan is to repeat the score at the Denver Silent FIlm Festival in September.

Also, thought the Maurice Jaubert score for Nina Petrovna is very nice, as I understand it was written and performed pretty much only in France. It also survives only as a partial piano transcription (though it has been reorchestrated for a version shown on European TV). Our compiled score for Nina Petrovna is (in my opinion) also quite effective.

Agree with Lokke that it,s "familiar." And spoiled by the unwelcome presence of not just one, but two, digital
versions. To paraphrase Joe McCarthy (Never thought I,d dredge him up)
One digital in the San Francisco Silent Film Festival is one digital too many

Which two? All the descriptions on the website but one (Pandora's Box) employ the word "print."

I believe the festival has employed 35mm prints for every program but three over the years: Bardleys The Magnificent in 2009, Metropolis in 2010 and last year's "Wild And Weird" program with the Alloy Orchestra.

WINGS and LOVES OF THE PHAROAH were shown digitally here in Los Angeles, so I would assume they would be shown digitally there as well.

I wouldn't be suprised if Wings were a digital presentation, as it has been screened almost everywhere else this year. But if so, I'll be kicking myself for missing it shown in 35mm this spring in Palo Alto. Did anyone who attended that show remark on the quality of the print?

Yes, Miss Du Pont, at the press conference it was announced "Wings" and
"Loves of Pharaoh" will be digital

I have no idea if WINGS was digital or not here in Seattle. All I know is, it looked terrific and the oragnist out did himself.

I have no idea if WINGS was digital or not here in Seattle. All I know is, it looked terrific and the oragnist out did himself.

An easy check: if the the muzzle flashes and explosions had added color, it was a digital print; since those were added digitally and (as I understand) not transferred back to film. Depending on the quality of the work and the resolution, digital prints can look very, very nice; and clean-up is much more manageable there.

I have no idea if WINGS was digital or not here in Seattle. All I know is, it looked terrific and the oragnist out did himself.

An easy check: if the the muzzle flashes and explosions had added color, it was a digital print; since those were added digitally and (as I understand) not transferred back to film. Depending on the quality of the work and the resolution, digital prints can look very, very nice; and clean-up is much more manageable there.

I had not wished to comment earlier as I don't have quite the accumulated knowledge as other board members, but as I don't believe Greta nor Derek caught WINGS at The Stanford, this is puzzling to me as I did see the screening, and AFAIK they only show film prints at this theater, and it was advertised as a print, and it had the color effects. Overall, to me the B&W imaging seemed cleaned up a bit, much better than what I remember from viewing this film on PBS years ago, or more recently on TCM; but not to the extent I found it to be startlingly crisp. I do believe what I saw was a print, and as yet I don't imagine I've even experienced a "digital" showing of a classic film on a big screen as I only attend The Stanford, with trips to the PFA and UCLA on occasion.

None of the new restoration of WINGS is Black And White. It is Tinted throughout. Mostly a golden Amber, with a little bit of Rose and Blue. Plus the Stencil effect for a few scenes. So another puzzling statement.

If you saw yellow flashes from the guns as they shot, that is definitely digital, it is not in the film prints. And if it's really clean it is also digital, because film would show dust, hair, and other little things that accumulate over time and will never show up digitally.

The Stanford shows only Film - we aren't equipped for digital. The 35mm print of Wings that we showed last Fall included the tints & explosions. The print came from Paramount.

The Stanford shows only Film - we aren't equipped for digital. The 35mm print of Wings that we showed last Fall included the tints & explosions. The print came from Paramount.

Well, my information was bad. Sorry 'bout that.

I'll still plan to go, but do regret that most of the program is familiar to me (one of the hazards of going to Pordenone).

To handicap the festival, they'll have figure out something special indeed with the music to do something with The Overcoat, which is a cold and heartless film version of the famous Gogol story.

Wings I've just seen. Mantrap I've just seen. I didn't like Mantrap, but mainly because it was one more story that wastes Bow's talents.

If they were going to show the one real find from Pordenone it should have been The Lady in the Dugout. A great movie and an almost unique Western, filmed by men who really were there.

The real winner in this lineup is The Canadian, which I saw back to back last October in Pordenone with The Wind. The Wind is famous, perhaps rightfully so, but in many ways The Canadian is a better movie, especially the first half, a really interesting mix of humor and drama. The film can't quite keep up this level, the second part falling into more routine, but its still quite a nice film.

Ehh, excuse me, but Pordenone didn't "find" either THE LADY IN THE DUGOUT or THE CANADIAN, both films had been well seen at various Cinephile Conventions for quite a number of years and were well known with Historians and Cinephiles alike before they ever hit Pordenones screens. If it took the Pordenone commitee this long to read Brownlows THE WAR, THE WEST AND THE WILDERNESS and decide that these films may be good enough not to offend the virgin eyes of their crowd, goodie for them, but no credit is due them for discovering anything.

And you think MANTRAP wastes Clara Bow? You should go back to watching Hungarian films from the 1960's.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

My 2 cents on the upcoming event are here http://strictly-vintage-hollywood.blogspot.com/2012/05/san-francisco-silent-film-festival-2012.html

I could not make it to LA for The Canadian, I'm damned glad to see it coming up.

Is now the time to begin planning an Nville dinner get together?

Mary? Karie? Greta & Ray? Derek? Lokke? Rodney? Bueller?

Is now the time to begin planning an Nville dinner get together?

Mary? Karie? Greta & Ray? Derek? Lokke? Rodney? Bueller?

Send for the hostess with the mostess ... Frederica!


Jim

Is now the time to begin planning an Nville dinner get together?

Mary? Karie? Greta & Ray? Derek? Lokke? Rodney? Bueller?

Sounds like fun... still not quite sure where I'm staying, but most if not all of my immediate family is coming with. Of course, we're doing 7 or 7:30 pm shows on Thursday and Sunday evenings; so avoiding those dinner times would work better for me personally.

Is now the time to begin planning an Nville dinner get together?

Mary? Karie? Greta & Ray? Derek? Lokke? Rodney? Bueller?

Send for the hostess with the mostess ... Frederica!


Jim

Not sure if Fred is making the trek this year.

Send for the hostess with the mostess ... Frederica!

Jim

Not sure if Fred is making the trek this year.

Not this year. You're on your own, party peeps.

I'll be coming and Karie too. Maybe Thursday or Saturday night for dinner?

I'll be coming and Karie too. Maybe Thursday or Saturday night for dinner?

Greta and Ray can't do Saturday or Thursday, so maybe lunch with them

Saturday is looking good to me.