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| D. W. Griffith: The Massacre (US 1912). |
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| D. W. Griffith: The Massacre (US 1912) starring Blanche Sweet. |
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto for the 21st time continued its voyage of
discovery to the first decades of film history. The Griffith Project
proceeded to a “first golden year” and better prints. Swiss Cinema and
Italian Avant-Garde retrospectives were instances of inspired
programming. Funny Ladies was the most popular and the most contested of
the main themes. In terms of overall print quality this year was better
than last year with many good and complete prints, making it all easier
to digest. But this was not a year of discoveries that change notions
of film history, like 2001 was, with its Japanese and African-American
series.
For the fourth time Le Giornate del Cinema Muto took
place in the town of Sacile, which has not enough hotel space, meaning
that most guests are scattered in the neighbourhood, mostly in
Pordenone. Shuttle service and programme scheduling have developed
favourably, but still only the minority who stay in Sacile or have a car
can fully profit from the festival. With a schedule stretching from
9.30 am till 1 am, it would be important to have an opportunity for that
15 minutes nap in the afternoon, but to go back to Pordenone for that
would mean even more stress instead of relaxation. A loss of festival
energy is the result.
The excellent hospitality and the friendly
atmosphere are overwhelming, and the ambience is favourable to good
conversation and inspired meetings. Irritation is postponed, but it may,
however, lead to post festum fatigue.
From the Finnish
viewpoint, this year was the first when a foreign film from a Finnish
source was screened: Fauno, restored for Project Lumière by Cinémathèque
Royale and Cineteca del Friuli from a print from the Finnish Film
Archive, was screened in the Italian Avant-garde cycle. For the first
time, the Haghefilm Award was announced for the Finnish Film Archive:
thanks to it and the efforts of our foreign film archivist Mr. Juha
Kindberg, a Ufa Kulturfilm, Wunder der Schöpfung, can be restored,
hopefully to screen next year in Le Giornate.
The CD-ROMS of Le
Giornate are important resources for film studies. The complete
programme information of the first 20 years was published on CD-ROM, and
more than one hundred stills of this year’s films were also made
available on CD-ROM.
I saw the films in Teatro Zancanaro, except when stated otherwise.
THE GRIFFITH PROJECT PART 6
The
Griffith Project Part 6 proceeded to 1912, an exciting year of growing
maturity in the development of D. W. Griffith, his “first golden year”
(Paolo Cherchi Usai). Titles famous in film history alternated with
run-of-the-mill stuff. During the six years of this first (almost)
complete Griffith retrospective of the world, we have so far covered
five years of his production, giving us a real-time feel of his
evolution.
The mastery of Griffith is already apparent in 1912:
the unique mixture of atavistic gravity, wry humour, Homeric grandeur
and intimate touch. With Billy Bitzer, he knows how to mix epic “distant
views” with intimate close-ups, as in The Massacre, where we see the
first battle from the mountain-top and finally a close-up of the
slaughtered Indian mother and baby.
The variety of the 63 films
Griffith directed in 1912 is amazing. There are films of lyrical
simplicity (The Mender of Nets, The Sands of Dee) and of epic grandeur
(The Massacre), there is a new refinement of the thriller format (The
Girl and Her Trust) and an Ur-film of the gangster genre (The Musketeers
of Pig Alley).
Griffith makes a prehistorical drama about the
invention of the weapon (Man’s Genesis), and an ambitious Pre-Columbian
mythical saga (A Pueblo Legend). He evokes the age of autocracy (When
Kings Were the Law) and creates further Civil War dramas (The Informer).
He displays insight in psychology (The Painted Lady), and in subtle
nuances of relationships (Friends), he satirizes prejudice (The New York
Hat), and expresses generosity in accepting differences (Oil and
Water).
DWG approaches with growing subtlety and force familiar
themes of alcoholism and domestic violence (Brutality), brutal father’s
violence to daughter (The School Teacher and the Waif), and “man’s
dominant vagary” in general. An all-important recurrent theme is
motherhood. “If motherhood hadn’t existed before 1908, Griffith would
have invented it”, says David Mayer. The Female of the Species and The
God Within are among DWG’s strongest statements of the theme. “The baby
awakens the sleeping God within the woman’s breast”: this intertitle
could serve as the motto to this great Griffithian theme.
The
vision of society grows more complex. As Eileen Bowser states, the stark
juxtaposition of the rich and the poor familiar from Biograph’s moral
melodramas reappears in richer and more ironic variations: both poverty
and wealth can corrupt (One Is Business; The Other Crime).
Acting
in DWG films gets subtler in 1912, but broad gestures still appear. As
Joyce Jesionowski states, contexts in these films are better
established, characters more motivated, histories more completely
unfolded, and convention is being replaced by more individual and
particular stories. Although there is usually a moral to the stories,
the movement is toward the non-judgmental, as in Oil and Water (DWG
448).
1912 was a year of good acting for DWG. Blanche Sweet was
at her best in The Painted Lady. Mary Pickford returned to Griffith for
her last and best Biograph performances in roles of great versatility,
from sensuous saloon ladies to noble Indian princesses, from fierce
Southern belles to oppressed country daughters. Henry Walthall had a
wide range of roles, Robert Harron kept building his craft. Lionel
Barrymore and Harry Carey had a strong presence in many films. Dorothy
Bernard, who excelled in The Girl and Her Trust, made her last film for
Biograph (DWG 417). Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish debuted (DWG 426). Mae
Marsh had her first starring roles as a cavewoman and a cowgirl (DWG
419 and 420). There is even a funny glimpse of Max Davidson (DWG 422).
Anita Loos’s first film as a screenwriter was Mary Pickford’s last as a Biograph actress (DWG 441).
It
was moving to see Duel in the Sun soon after the retrospective, with
Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore (as the parents of the unfortunate
brothers), and Harry Carey 35 years later.
Griffith shot his films 393–421 in California or in the West, and the films 422–457 in New York and the East Coast.
Many
films anticipate future achievements: Greed and The Treasure of Sierra
Madre (Man’s Lust for Gold), They Died with Their Boots On, Fort Apache,
and The Searchers (The Massacre), Three Ages, Teenage Caveman, and 2001
A Space Odyssey (Man’s Genesis), Tol’able David (The Spirit Awakened),
Three Godfathers and Three Women (The Female of the Species), and Heart
O’ the Hills (A Feud in the Kentucky Hills).
The quality of
prints was better than in the previous installments of the
retrospective. There were less unassembled prints, less prints without
intertitles, and less films from paper-prints than previously. Even some
prints announced as stemming from the paper print collection of the
Library of Congress were actually regular 16 mm or better. Still the
print quality varied from the brilliant to the awful.
Many prints
screened were not struck from the best existing material (= original
negatives). As a whole, until now we have largely seen ruins of
Griffith, though it would not have to be so. I look forward to seeing
these seminal and visually striking films in good, assembled,
intertitled, and hopefully even tinted and toned 35 mm film prints. What
Gaumont does with Feuillade and Perret should be done with DWG, too. If
the father of the cinema does not deserve it, who does?
Of the
63 DWG films of 1912, 5 are considered lost, 5 were not screened because
there is no viewing print, and one title (The Inner Circle, DWG 424)
vanished from the programme without explanation.
Two Daughers of Eve (DWG 427) was not available for screening, although negatives exist.
Neither
were A Father’s Lesson (DWG 453), Misappropriated Turkey (DWG 454),
Drink’s Lure (DWG 456), nor When Love Forgives (DWG 457) directed by
Griffith or Anthony O’Sullivan.
Heredity (DWG 435) is considered
lost, one of “frontier Biographs that pit savage whites against wronged
but violent Native Americans” (Russell Merritt). Also considered lost
are My Hero (DWG 442), An Adventure in the Autumn Woods (DWG 449), The
Tender-Hearted Boy (DWG 450, which “sounds like a film of exceptional
charm”, J.B. Kaufman), and Brothers (DWG 455).
Volume Six of the
exemplary The Griffith Project series of books was an indispensable
companion to the viewings. First-rate entries were written by Tom
Gunning, Russell Merritt, and Joyce Jesionowski, among others.
As
versions seen by the contributors were not always the ones screened
here, inevitable revisions will be due. More DWG primary sources seem to
exist than is acknowledged in the volumes; some not recognized by the
volume were screened in Sacile, of further more could be heard from
collectors.
* = especially good or important
Print quality
affects evaluation. Seeing a bad print is like seeing through dirty
glass. If a film is unassembled, evaluation is impossible.
GRIFFITH 1912 – 1
Repeat at Cinema Ruffo where the 16 mm projection is better than at Teatro Zancanaro
The Mender of Nets (US 1912) (17’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 393 *
Under Burning Skies (US 1912) (17’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 394
A Siren of Impulse (US 1912) (17’, 16 mm, assembled workprint without intertitles) DWG 395
Iola’s Promise (US 1912) (23’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 396 +
GRIFFITH 1912 - 2
The Goddess of Sagebruch Gulch (US 1912) (16’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 397
The Girl and Her Trust (US 1912) (14’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 398 *
The Punishment (US 1912) (17’, 16 mm, did. ing., paper print) DWG 399
Fate’s Interception (US 1912) (18’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 400
GRIFFITH 1912 – 3
The Female of the Species (US 1912) (16’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 401 *
Just Like a Woman (US 1912) (20’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 402 +
One Is Business, the Other Crime (US 1912) (18’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 403 *
The Lesser Evil (US 1912) 17’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 404
GRIFFITH 1912 - 4
The Old Actor (US 1912) (17’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 405
His Lesson (US 1912) (17’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 407
When Kings Were the Law (US 1912) (18’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 408
A Beast at Bay (US 1912) (15’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 409
GRIFFITH 1912 - 5
Home Folks (US 1912) (18’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 410
A Temporary Truce (US 1912) (24’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 411
Lena and the Geese (US 1912) (16’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 412
The Spirit Awakened (US 1912) (16’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 413
GRIFFITH 1912 - 6
The School Teacher and the Waif (US 1912) (17’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 414 +
Man’s Lust for Gold (US 1912) (17’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 415
An Indian Summer (US 1912) (18’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 416 +
Heaven Avenges (US 1912) (16’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 417
GRIFFITH 1912 - 7
The Massacre (US 1912) (34’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 418 *
Man’s Genesis (US 1912) (18’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 419
The Sands of Dee (US 1912) (17’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 420 *
GRIFFITH 1912 - 8
A Pueblo Legend (US 1912) (33’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 421 +
The Narrow Road (US 1912) (15’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 422
A Child’s Remorse (US 1912) (16’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 423
GRIFFITH 1912 - 9
A Lodging for the Night (US 1912) DWG 406 – shown in this screening on 35 mm, although it had been announced to be screened on video separately
NB. // THE INNER CIRCLE (US 1912) (15’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 424 – not shown, though announced for this screening //
A Change of Spirit (US 1912) (17’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 425
An Unseen Enemy (US 1912) (16’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 426 +
Friends (US 1912) (14’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 428 – end missing *
GRIFFITH 1912 - 10
So Near, Yet So Far (US 1912) (16’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 429
A Feud in the Kentucky Hills (US 1912) (17’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 430 *
In the Aisles of the Wild (US 1912) (13’, 35 mm, no did.) DWG 431
The One She Loved (US 1912) (24’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 432
GRIFFITH 1912 - 11
Friends (US 1912) (14’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – repeat – end still missing *
The Painted Lady (US 1912) (18’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 433 *
The Musketeers of Pig Alley (US 1912) (18’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 434 *
Gold and Glitter (US 1912) (15’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 436 +
My Baby (US 1912) (15’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 437 +
GRIFFITH 1912 - 12
The Informer. A Story of the Civil War (US 1912) (18’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 438 *
Brutality (US 1912) (12’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 439 – incomplete – end missing *
The Unwelcome Guest (US 1912) (16’, 16 mm, did. ing.) DWG 440 *
The New York Hat (US 1912) (18’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 441 *
GRIFFITH 1912 - 13
The Burglar’s Dilemma (US 1912) (16’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 443 *
A Cry for Help (US 1912) (9’, 35 mm, unassembled workprint without intertitles) DWG 444
The God Within (US 1912) (12’, 16 mm, did. ing., reconstructed intertitles) DWG 445 *
Three Friends (US 1912) (15’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 446 *
GRIFFITH 1912 - 14
The Telephone Girl and the Lady (US 1912) (15’, 35 mm, unassembled workprint without intertitles) DWG 447
Oil and Water (US
1912) (22’, 35 mm, did. ing., tinted and toned). DWG 448 Exceptionally,
a tinted and toned print was seen. This UCLA print was important for
the whole DWG retrospective as a reminder how beautiful the films really
are. *
A Chance Deception (US 1912) (15’, 35 mm, unassembled, without intertitles) DWG 451
Fate (US 1912) (17’, 35 mm, did. ing.) DWG 452
FUNNY LADIES
Funny
Ladies was the most talked-about retrospective. Many guests had strong
opinions on it, and on the basis of the suggestions, sequels could be
made. Mabel Normand would deserve a retrospective. Mary Pickford, a
funny lady and much more, should be paid full tribute, as too few of her
films have been seen in Le Giornate or Bologna (where’s Poor Little
Rich Girl?).
Obvious choices had been omitted (Stiller’s heroines
such as Karin Molander, Lubitsch ladies save one, Gloria Swanson in
DeMille’s satires: where is The Affairs of Anatol?). Many main
attractions I’d recently seen (It, Stage Struck, The Patsy) and I
probably also missed much funny stuff.
FUNNY LADIES
The Picture Idol,
US 1912 James Young (14’, 35 mm, did. ol.) – starring Clara Kimball
Young as a girl who adores the Vitagraph star Maurice Costello.
Chyt’te ho!
(Catch Him!) (not released in Finland) CZ 1925, Karel Lamac (49’, 35
mm, did. ceco) – starring Anny Ondrakova as the rich orphan who becomes
the object of a young burglar’s affections.
Amarilly of Clothesline Alley,
US 1918, Marshall A. Neilan (55’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – SC: Frances
Marion – based on a novel by Belle K. Maniates – brilliant social satire
stars Mary Pickford as an object of a Pygmalion-like social experiment
****
FUNNY LADIES
De tossede kvindfolk
(Oh, Those Women!) DK 1917, Lau Lauritzen (19’, 35 mm, did. dan.) –
starring Agner Andersen and Agnes Seeman in a comedy of two marriages,
where mixed messages almost cause two divorces
En sølvbryllupsdag
(Silver Wedding) DK 1919, Lau Lauritzen (19’, 35 mm, did. dan.) –
starring Olga Svendsen, who leaves hubby on the morning of their silver
wedding, just as they are about to learn about a huge legacy which
depends on their continuing marital happiness
Engelein, DE
1914, Urban Gad (49’, 35 mm, did. dan.) – starring Asta Nielsen as the
”Little Angel” who is actually a little devil of a teenager. The plot
requires the smoking and libidinous girl to pose as a 12-year-old.
FUNNY LADIES
Tilly the Tomboy Visits the Poor,
Hepworth, GB 1910, Lewin Fitzhamon (6’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – starring
Alma Taylor and Chrissie White as the two little devils who wreak havoc
in a bakery, in a laundry van, and at an invalid’s home
Tubby’s Rest Cure,
US 1916, Frank Wilson (14’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – Violet Hopson as the
wife of Tubby, who catches his husband ailing in the countryside with a
bunch of country girls
Blood and Bosh, US 1913, Hay Plumb
(7’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – starring Chrissie White in an absurd parody
melodrama, which spoof conventions of thrillers, including furious
cross-cutting between scenes in which nothing is happening
Daisy Doodad’s Dial,
US 1914, Larry Trimble (10’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – starring Florence
Turner as Daisy in a story of a face-making competition. Daisy rehearses
on the street so successfully, she is arrested for disturbing the
peace. She manages to scare even herself as she grimaces in front of the
mirror. ***
Rowdy Ann, US 1919, Al Christie (36’, 16 mm,
did. ing.) – starring Fay Tincher as a cowgirl who can floor any man and
who is sent to an Eastern school to be turned into a lady
FUNNY LADIES
Den nærsynede Guvernante,
DK ? (4’, 35 mm, solo titolo ing.) – starring Petrine Sonne as the
short-sighted governess, who is such an avid reader, she keeps reading
even as she takes the child to a walk, and returns home with the wrong
child
Smith’s Cook, Mack Sennett, US 1927, Alf Goulding
(23’, 35 mm, did. ol.) – Polly Moran as the cook on the mad car ride to
her wedding, wooed by a motorcycle cop, and inspired by tonic drink
Helen’s Babies,
(not released in Finland), US 1924, William A. Seiter (59’, 35 mm, did.
ing.) – Baby Peggy the child star in custody of best-selling author of
books on child-care (Edward Everett Horton) who has never had experience
of child care before; an early appearance of Clara Bow.
FUNNY LADIES
Dizzy Daddies,
Hal Roach, US 1926, Richard Wallace (19’, 16 mm, did. ing.) – starring
James Finlayson and Gertrude Astor. – JF is the lawyer who has to get
rid of his daughter’s fiancé’s ferocious breach-of-promise claimant but
gets caught up with the lady himself. (para DR) ****
Footloose Widows
(not released in Finland), Warner Bros., US 1926, Roy Del Ruth (76’, 35
mm, did. ing.), SC: Darryl F. Zanuck, starring Louise Fazenda and
Jacqueline Logan as two gold-diggers in Palm Beach to chase
millionaires. Interesting as an early example of the hard-boiled Warners
/ Zanuck comedy style. Soulless to the point of boring.
FUNNY LADIES
Miss Minerva Courtney,
US 1915, ? (13’, 16 mm, did. ing.) – starring Minerva Courtney who
proves she can imitate Chaplin in an accurate recreation of The Champion
Reference:
The Champion, US 1915, Charlie Chaplin (12’, 16 mm, did. ing.) ****
What? No Spinach!,
US 1926, Harry Sweet (19’, 16 mm, did. ing.) – Gale Henry starring in a
story resembling Keaton’s Seven Chances – guy must marry within 48
hours if he wants to inherit a million dollars
The Sting of Stings,
Hal Roach, US 1927, James Parrott (22’, 16 mm, did. ing.) Charley Chase
and Edna Marion feel so privileged, they decide to share their
happiness with six underprivileged kids. The series of escalating
catastrophes culminates at the carnival. ****
FUNNY LADIES
Ask Father,
US 1919, Hal Roach (14’, 35 mm, did. ing.), starring Harold Lloyd and
Bebe Daniels. Harold must “ask father” permission to marry his daughter,
but the father of Harold’s sweetheart is the busiest man in town.
Harold invents incredible plots to reach him, including climbing walls
and donning an armour. Bebe is the businessman’s tender stenographer who
manages to toss the pillow right where Harold falls. (para DR) ****
Orchids and Ermine /
Halloo-tyttö, US 1927, Alfred Santell (74’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – Colleen
Moore as the switchboard operator of a luxury hotel dreams of marrying
up. She falls in love with a valet who really is a millionaire in
disguise who wants to ward off gold-diggers.
FUNNY LADIES
Exit Smiling (not
released in Finland), MGM, US 1926, Sam Taylor (80’, 35 mm, did. ing.) –
Beatrice Lillie’s performance got the audience roaring with laughter in
the closing event – she plays a maid to a touring theatrical company’s
inebriated leading lady
FUNNY LADIES
Happiness (not
released in Finland), Metro Pictures, US 1924, King Vidor (97’, 35 mm,
did. ing.) – SC: J. Hartley Manners – starring Laurette Taylor. Fine
social comedy already has many elements of Vidor’s The Crowd, and it
represents the Vidor credo forcefully. Social conditions are crucial,
but not for happiness, which is finally an interior quality. It’s
another story of “the poor rich” and “the rich poor”. The best Vidor
comedy I’ve seen. ***½
AVANGUARDIA ITALIANA / ITALIAN AVANT-GARDE ****
The
Italian Avant-Garde programme was an inspired instance of creative
programming by Carlo Montanaro. Many of the Italian avant-garde films
proper are lost. Instead we got to see a vision of early Italian film
history from the viewpoint of innovation and experiment. The concept of
the avant-garde was impossibly stretched, but why worry? The programming
was good.
AVANGUARDIA ITALIANA / ITALIAN AVANT-GARDE – 1
PROGRAMMA LEOPOLDO FREGOLI
Partie de cartes, Lumière, FR 1897, Leopoldo Fregoli?
Danse serpentine, FR 1897, Leopoldo Fregoli?
Pere cotte, IT 1898-1899, Leopoldo Fregoli
Dietro le quinte I, IT 1898, Leopoldo Fregoli
Dietro le quinte II, IT 1898?, Leopoldo Fregoli
Maestri di musica, IT 1898, Leopoldo Fregoli
Fregoli donna, IT 1898-1899, Leopoldo Fregoli
Burla al marito, IT 1899, Leopoldo Fregoli
Fregoli barbiere mago, IT 1899, Leopoldo Fregoli
Fregoli barbiere maldestro, IT 1898-1899, Leopoldo Fregoli
Fregoli al restaurant, IT 1898-1899, Leopoldo Fregoli
Fregoli trasformista, IT 1898-1899, Leopoldo Fregoli
Fregoli prestigiatore, IT 1898-1899, Leopoldo Fregoli
(tot.
antologia Fregoli 8’, 35 mm, no did.) Leopoldo Fregoli, a protean
pioneer of Italian cinema, experimented for the first time with many
tricks in his films.
FEET AND ORANGES
La storia di Lulù, Ambrosio, IT 1909-1910, Arrigo Frusta (7’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – Feet only
Amor pedestre, Ambrosio, IT 1914, Marcel Fabre (4’, 35 mm, did. it.) – Feet only
Le mogli e le arance
(Wifes and Oranges) (not released in Finland), Do.Re.Mi., IT 1917,
Luigi Serventi (75’, 35 mm, did. it.) – sophisticated comedy ends with
an interesting montage.
AVANGUARDIA ITALIANA / ITALIAN AVANT-GARDE - 3
Farfalle,
Cines, IT 1908, ? (9’, 35 mm, no did.) – caleidoscopic figures of a
coloured ballet film anticipate the chromatic dynamism of Futurism
Cretinetti che bello, Itala, IT 1909, André Deed (4’, 35 mm, did. it.) – disjecta membra – Cretinetti’s pointed shoes anticipate Leningrad Cowboys
Un matrimonio interplanetario,
Latium Film, IT 1910, Enrico Novelli, (12’, 35 mm, did. ing.) –
fanta-futuristic design in a constructivistic precursor of Aelita, story
of an interplanetary love affair between Earth and Mars
Kri-Kri Detective, Cines, IT 1912, Raymond Frau (7’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – transportable policemen can be inflated like balloons
Kri-kri è miope, Cines, IT 1913, Raymond Frau (4’, 35 mm, did. ing.) – a hyperbole of short-sightedness, where everything is transformed
Thaïs,
Novissima-Film, IT 1917, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Riccardo Cassano (35’,
35 mm, did. fr.). “La célèbre courtisane” (Thaïs Galitzky) in a story
of decadence and glamour, with poems by Baudelaire as intertitles,
donning a “costume funambulesque et symbolique”, inhabiting rooms of
stark graphic ornaments, experiencing a prolonged death of poisonous
vapours. Beautiful incomplete toned print of a visually striking film.
AVANGUARDIA ITALIANA / ITALIAN AVANT-GARDE - 4
Le fiabe della nonna,
Cines, IT 1908, ? (7’, 35 mm, did. ted.) Fairytale told via mirror
effects. Sometimes referred to as the cinema’s first flashback, it is
more a case of a framing story.
Nozze d’oro, Ambrosio, IT 1911, Luigi Maggi (19’, 35 mm, did. it. e fr.)
Excelsior,
IT 1913, Luca Comerio (fragment 14’, 35 mm, did. it.). A unique
‘cine-photo-choreographic’ event, ‘The Excelsior Dance, the Titanic
Struggle of Progress Against Decline’ was conceived in 1881 to celebrate
modernism. Giant stages, high angles, huge production in a
“proto-musical” exceptional in the cinema of the age. Very impressive.
Special score by Donald Sosin.
Fauno, Ambrosio, IT 1917,
Febo Mari (72’, 35 mm, did. it.). Ballet-like Symbolistic film in the
spirit of Debussy. Powerful atmosphere, beautiful movement, dream-like
force, excellent cinematography, exciting colour in a story of a
sexually frustrated woman and a statue of a faun brought to life.
CINEMA SVIZZERO / SWISS CINEMA
Inspired
programming gave us an interesting introduction to the first decades of
Swiss cinema. We witnessed the Nordic influence of landscape in Swiss
fiction films such as La Vocation d’André Carel, the Griffith influence
in Switzerland’s The Birth of a Nation, Die Entstehung der
Eidgenossenschaft, and the excursion of German top talent in Petronella.
Print quality was good.
CINEMA SVIZZERO / SWISS CINEMA - 1
[Le ”Ciné-Journal Suisse” par lui-même], CH 192 ?, ? (2’, 35 mm, no did.)
Les Vendanges dans le vignoble Vaudois, CH 1923, ? (3’, 35 mm, did. fr. e ted.)
Rochers-de-Naye sur Caux le concours de ski au printemps a eu lieu par un temps magnifique, CH 1928, ? (3’, 35 mm, did. fr. e ted.)
Genf, die Stadt der Nationen, CH 1920, ? (8’, 35 mm, did. ted. e fr.)
[Sur le tournage de “La Vocation d’André Carel"], CH 1924, Charles-Georges Duvanel? (1’, 35 mm, did. fr.)
La Vocation d’André Carel /
La Puissance du travail (not released in Finland), CH 1925, Jean Choux
(85’, 35 mm, did. fr.) Landscape inspires drama in a film which includes
an early role for Michel Simon. Nordic cinema was a model here, but the
landscape is rather a beautiful background, and not an integral
element, not a mirror of the soul.
CINEMA SVIZZERO / SWISS CINEMA - 4
Die Entstehung der Eidgenossenschaft
(not released in Finland), CH 1924, Emil Harder (74’, 35 mm, did. fr. e
ted.). The legend of the formation of Switzerland is very interesting
and handsome to watch but lacks the cinematic passion of the model,
Griffith.
CINEMA SVIZZERO / SWISS CINEMA - 5
Neuenegg (Berne). L’Anniversaire de la bataille de 1798, CH 192?, ? (2’, 35 mm, did. fr. e ted.)
Kuh-Ringkämpfe in Sitten. Wallis (Schweiz), CH 1924, Robert Freckmann? (10’, 35 mm, did. ted. e fr.)
Petronella (not
released in Finland), CH 1927, Hanns Schwarz (107’, 35 mm, did. ted.). A
discovery of a great period of Hanns Schwarz, director of the great Die
wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna. This is a drama from the era of the
Napoleonic wars, starring Wilheilm Dieterle, Maly Delschaft, Oscar
Homolka, Theodor Loos, and Georg John. Beautiful landscapes.
SAVING THE SILENTS
The Ageless Sex,
Vitagraph, US 1914, Harry Lambert (8’, 35 mm, did. ing.) A surreal
satire: when all artifice is removed, there is nothing left of the
woman. ***
[Prizma Color Film: Native Americans], US 1920, ? (4’, 35 mm, did. ing.)
The Mollycoddle / Vetelys, US 1920, Victor Fleming (35 mm, 85’ did. ing.) Douglas Fairbanks in top form in a beautiful restored print. ****
The Unsullied Shield,
US 1913, Charles J. Brabin (15’, 35 mm, did. ing.) Eye-poppingly
brilliant print of a ridiculous story about “noblesse oblige”.
The Hazards of Helen Episode 108: The Trial Run, US 1916, James Davis (15’, 35 mm, did. ing.)
Kindred of the Dust /
Tukkikuninkaan poika, US 1922, Raoul Walsh (102’, 35 mm, did. ing.) A
mediocre melodrama produced and directed by Walsh, starring his then
wife Miriam Cooper (who honored Raoul with the memorable line: "he never
bored you with the truth"). Of interest to the Finnish viewer is the
lumberland milieu. **
FUORI QUADRO / OUT OF FRAME
JERRY THE TYKE cartoons
Jerry the Troublesome Tyke: He Gets Fired, GB 1926
Jerry the Troublesome Tyke: The Joy Provider, GB 1925, Sid Griffiths, Bert Bilby (7’, 35 mm, did. ing.)
Jerry the Troublesome Tyke: Golf, GB ca 1926
Jerry the Troublesome Tyke: All Up a Tree, GB 1926, Sid Griffiths, Bert Bilby (10’, 35 mm, did. ing.)
Wolves of Kultur Episode 1: The Torture Trap, US 1919, Joseph A. Golden (30’, 35 mm, did. fr.)
THE BEST SHOW OF THE FESTIVAL: a brilliant foursome!
Fedora, IT 1916, Giuseppe De Liguoro (13’, 35 mm, did. ing.). Francesca Bertini, an elemental force of passion. ****
A Christmas Carol,
US 1910, J. Searle Dawley (16’, 35 mm, did. ing.). Told with elaborate
superimpositions, the film has a charming archaic quality, the
stylization fitting the subject well. ***½
Exceeding His Duty,
GB 1911 (Hepworth), Lewin Fitzhamon? (6’, 35 mm, did. ted.). The story
of the brutal father and his little daughter is like a prequel to Broken
Blossoms. The father even looks like Donald Crisp. “Exceeding his duty”
is the kind policeman who interferes too enthusiastically, therefore
losing his job. ***½
Det var engang (not released in
Finland), DK 1922, Carl Th. Dreyer (77’, 35 mm, did. dan. e ing.). Det
Danske Filminstitut 2K digital restoration 2002. Only incomplete
material exists of this film of Dreyer, based on a fairytale famous in
Denmark, but the charming film has been made enjoyable thanks to the new
restoration. Comments on the digital restoration: mostly it is
astonishingly good, including close-ups of faces. But there is an
obvious loss of detail in shots of the forest, the trees and of the
river, and in depth of field in general. In the scenes of the enchanted
forest it would be important to feel “the sublime of the nature” with
the power of cinematography to record “more than the eye can see”, in
order to convey the sense of infinity and transcendence. I look forward
to 4K. ***½
VIDEO SHOWS - Teatro Ruffo
London After Midnight /
Laukaus yössä – A Reconstruction of the film by Tod Browning with Lon
Chaney (MGM), US 2002, Rick Schmidlin (48’, sonoro, did. ing.). A
fascinating attempt to reconstruct a famous horror thriller of which no
moving images exist. Based on hundreds of stills and the continuity, the
film has been reconstructed complete with the intertitles. I look
forward to future projects of Rick Schmidlin along this model.
GOODNIGHT, SILENTS…
Miss Butterfly,
FR?, ca. 1925, ? (6’, 35 mm, did. fr.). Hard core pornography with a
full menu of variations possible between consenting adults. The casual
bisexuality of silent hard core is striking. The absence of uninspired
oohs and aahs and banal muzak is a plus.
Eloquenza di un fiore,
IT 1910, Mario Caserini (8’44", 35 mm, did. fr. e ol.) Flowers were a
favourite motif in silent films, and this charming story shows a child’s
ploy to bring man and mama together with a flower. ***½
