Programmes at L'Institut Lumière (Lyon)

Institut Lumière (Lyon): - Rue du Premier-Film, Magazine de L'Institut Lumière (Lyon) - Institut Lumière, 25 rue du Premier-Film. http://www.institut-lumiere.org/

NOVEMBRE-DECEMBRE 2013 (#101)
Otto Preminger
Rééditions, l'actualité du cinéma de patrimoine
Le cinéma français par Raymond Chirat
Invitation à Fernando Solanas
Films noirs coréens
Cinéma de montagne, hommage à Gerhard Baur
Edward S. Curtis, photographe-cinéaste des Indiens d'Amérique
Planète Marker au Centre Pompidou
Cinéma et psychiatrie

AOUT-OCTOBRE 2013 (#99 Quinquies)
Une rentrée cinéma avec Desplechin, Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Wilder, Comencini...

MARS-AVRIL 2013 (#99ter)
Pier Paolo Pasolini, œuvres d'un poète
L'Épouvantable Vendredi, Soirée Hideo Nakata
Danielle Darrieux racontée par Raymond Chirat

JANVIER-MARS 2013 (#99 bis)
Marlene Dietrich
Michael Cimino
Maurice Pialat

NOVEMBRE 2012-JANVIER 2013 (#99)
Charlie Chaplin
John Cassavetes

OCTOBRE 2012: Lumière 2012, Grand Lyon Film Festival
Ken Loach
Vittorio De Sica
Max Ophuls
Dean Martin
Baby Cart, saga japonaise
Hommages en leur présence:
- Jacqueline Bisset
- Max von Sydow
- Lalo Schifrin
- Agnès Varda
- Andrei Konchalovsky
- Tim Roth
Grandes Projections
Moments d'histoire
Du muet au parlant: Charles Brabin
Pour revenir son Renoir
Mario Ruspoli
Ciné-concerts
Splendeurs des restaurations 2012
Documentaires sur le cinéma

Programmes at BFI Southbank (London)

BFI Southbank (London), Belvedere Road, South Bank, London, https://whatson.bfi.org.uk

REGULAR FEATURES
Previews
In Person
Intro
Talk
Q&A
BAFTA Masterclass
BFI/BAFTA Screenwriters' Lecture Series
Philosophical Screens
Projections: psychoanalytical readings
Passport to Cinema
Out at the Pictures
In the Studio
Sonic Cinema
Essential Experiments
BFI Mediatheque
Mezzanine: Displays from the Archive's Collections
Restoration
Digging the Past
Projecting the Archive
The Flipside
TV Specials
Missing Believed Wiped
Broadcasting the Arts
BUG: The Evolution of Music Video
African Odysseys
Doctor Who at 50
Extended runs
Seniors
Future Film (for 15-25 year olds)
Film Funday (for children)
The BFI Future Film Festival (February)
The BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (LLGFF, March)
The BFI London Film Festival (LFF, October)
BFI Membership Exclusives
BFI IMAX

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2013
Gothic, the dark heart of film (Rhidian Davis)
Gothic Part I: Monstrous - extended run: Nosferatu (Herzog, 1979)
Gothic Part II: The Dark Arts
Nosferatu
Vivien Leigh centenary (Jo Botting) - extended run: Gone with the Wind 4K, 233 min
Extreme Summits: mountain conquests - extended run: The Epic of Everest (1924) - Kendal Mountain Festival Weekend
In person: Roger Corman, Dario Argento, and George A. Romero
Peter Glenville
Discover Arab CinemaBFI IMAX: Catching Fire

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2013
Australia: Shifting Sands (Clare Stewart)
Satyajit Ray: Part Two (Andrew Robinson) - extended run: Mahanagar
Claude Sautet: The Heart of Things (Scott Foundas) - extended run: Classe tous risques
Benjamin Britten at 100
The Boulting Brothers: Part Two (Jo Botting)
Heroes of Comedy (Dick Fiddy)
Celebrating The Observer's Philip French
Sonic Cinema
2013 BAFTA and BFI Screenwriting Lecture Series
Passport to Cinema: Masquerade! Cinema and its MasksExtended run: - Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, US 1964) - Bonjour tristesse
The Stuart Hall Project (John Akomfrah, GB 2013)
BFI IMAX: Eugene Onegin

AUGUST 2013
Satyajit Ray: Part One (Andrew Robinson) - extended run: Mahanagar
Hitchcock's Silents (Robin Baker, Geoff Andrew)
Heaven's Gate
Patrick McGoohan, a genuine original (Dick Fiddy)
The Boulting Brothers: Part One (Jo Botting)
Thought in Action: The Art of the Essay Film (Kieron Corless)
Passport to Cinema: Masquerade! Cinema and its Masks
Extended run: - Heaven's Gate, 216 min - Dial M for Murder 3D - Silence (Pat Collins, IE 2012) - Bonjour tristesse
BFI IMAX: Elysium

JULY 2013
Werner Herzog, Part Two (Geoff Andrew) - extended run: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle - extended run: Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes
Symphonies of Life: Jean Grémillon (Geoff Andrew)
Television Looks at Film
From Tehran with Love: Mania Akbari (Geoff Andrew)
London Indian Film FestivalCelebrating 100 years of electronic music and silent cinema - centenary of Luigi Russolo's A Manifesto for an Art of Noises - centenary of a proto-synthetizer (1914) - Sonic Cinema: Film Concert: Mother (Pudovkin, SU 1926) with Russian electronic musician Slow joining forces with Norwegian cosmic disco outfit Mental Overdrive and electronic act Aggie Frost
Film Funday: Family Funday Singalong: The Jungle Book (1967)
Extended run: - Dial M for Murder 3D - Roman Holiday - ライク・サムワン・イン・ラブ / Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, JP 2012)
BFI IMAX: Pacific Rim

JUNE 2013
Werner Herzog, Part One (Geoff Andrew) - extended run: Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes
Rita Hayworth (David Benedict)
Tony Garnett: Seeing Red, Part Two (Marcus Prince)
Seasons in the Sun: The Heyday of Nikkatsu Studios (Jasper Sharp)
Sheffield Doc/Fest
Yoko Ono's Meltdown - including Battleship Potemkin with score by Pet Shop Boys
Ulrich Seidl: The Paradise Trilogy
Extended run: - Viaggio in Italia / Journey to Italy - The King of Marvin Gardens - ライク・サムワン・イン・ラブ / Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, JP 2012)
BFI IMAX: Man of Steel

MAY 2013
Terence Stamp (Geoff Andrew)
Lars von Trier (Nick James)
Sight & Sound Deep Focus: The Roots of Neorealism (Pasquale Iannone): Konets Sankt-Peterburga, Menschen am Sonntag, 1860 (Blasetti), Man of Aran, Tokyo no yado (Ozu), Toni, Aniko Bóbó, Ossessione, Le Ciel est à vous, Roma città aperta, Ladri di biciclette, Riso amaro
Tony Garnett: Seeing Red, Part One (Marcus Prince)
The 4th Fashion in Film Festival: Focus on Marcel L'Herbier: Fabricating Dreams
Sci-Fi-London
BUG 37: The Evolution of Music Video (Adam Buxton)
Extended run: - Scarecrow - Viaggio in Italia / Journey to Italy - The King of Marvin Gardens
BFI IMAX: Iron Man 3

MARCH-APRIL 2013
John Boorman (Michel Ciment) - extended run: Point Blank
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Part Two (Tony Rayns) - extended run: Il vangelo secondo Matteo - Teorema
Made in Britain: Warp Films at 10 (Stuart Brown, Michael Hayden)
Jacobean Tragedy on TV (John Wyver)
Brids Eye View Film Festival: Celebrating Arab Woman Filmmakers
Film concert: Sumurun (DE 1920) with live score by Amira Kheir
BUG 36: The Evolution of Music Video (Adam Buxton)
Peter Kubelka
Extended run: - The Servant - Scarecrow
BFI IMAX: Oblivion

MARCH 2013
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Part One (Tony Rayns) - extended run: Il vangelo secondo Matteo
Returning to Oz
Heads Talking (Dick Fiddy)
BFI IMAX: Oz - The Great and Powerful

FEBRUARY 2013
Roman Polanski, Part Two (Geoff Andrew)
Montgomery Clift (Trevor Johnston) - extended run: A Place in the Sun
This Working Life: Steel, a century of steelmaking on screen
State of the Nation: Anand Patwardhan's portraits of India (Skhdev Sandhu)
Beryl Vertue, a talent to entertain (Marcus Prince)
Chinese New Year
Extended run: - Madame de...
BFI IMAX: Les Misérables (GB 2013 film adaptation of the 1980 musical by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg)

JANUARY 2013
Roman Polanski, Part One (Geoff Andrew) - extended runs: Repulsion, Chinatown
Screwball Comedy (Peter Swaab)
Jonas Mekas, Part Two (Mark Webber)
Anthology Film Archives and Essential Cinema
LOCO London: four days of the world's best comedy films
Reel Lives: biographical drama on television (Marcus Prince)
Underground
BUG 35: The Evolution of Music Video (Adam Buxton)
Extended run: - Babettes gæstebud - Underground
BFI IMAX: Les Misérables (GB 2013 film adaptation of the 1980 musical by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg)

DECEMBER 2012
Doris Day (David Benedict) - introduced with wit and insight
Light Ealing (Mark Duguid)
Jonas Mekas, Part One (Mark Webber)
TV Christmas Specials
Extended run: - Babettes gæstebud - Lawrence of Arabia 4K
BFI IMAX: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2012 - NFT1 now equipped with 4K
Uncut: Celebrating the centenary of the BBFC (Mark Kermode, Linda Ruth Williams)
Dark Ealing (Mark Duguid) - extended run: It Always Rains on Sunday
Alexander Mackendrick (Philip Kemp)
Beyond the Fourth Wall, experiments in TV drama (Marcus Prince)
Passport to Cinema: Shadow of Hitchcock
The Art of Television Promotion and Digital Design
Sonic Cinema: Drifters (GB 1929) with live score from Jason Singh
Extended run: - Lawrence of Arabia 4K - The Shining the longer US cut 144 min
Im Kwon-taek, fun far, fly high (Tony Rayns)
BFI IMAX: Skyfall

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2012
The Genius of Hitchcock, Part Two (Geoff Andrew) - The Hitchcock 9 - extended run: Vertigo digital
Sight & Sound Poll Winners
The screenwriter Paula Milne, the personal as political (Marcus Prince)
Husbands
The Big Screen: David Thomson in ConversationLiberty 2012: Disability Film
Extended run: - F for Fake - Husbands
BFI IMAX: Frankenweenie (2012), an IMAX 3D Experience

AUGUST 2012
The Genius of Hitchcock, Part One (Geoff Andrew) - extended run: The Lodger
Jafar Panahi & Mohamed Rasoulof (Sheila Whitaker)
Anna Pavlova (Jane Pritchard)
Trailblazers: Queens of TV Comedy (Dick Fiddy)
Preview: Eames: The Architect and the Painter (US 2011, Jason Cohn, Bill Jersey)
BFI Mediatheque: dancing feet
Extended run: - Il deserto rosso digital - F for Fake digital
BFI IMAX: The Dark Knight Rises

JULY 2012
Christopher Nolan (Geoff Andrew) - good introduction
Jean-Claude Carrière (David Somerset) - extended run: Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie
Patricio Guzmán, the power of memory (Michael Chanan) - extended run: Nostalghia de la luz
Two masters of Japanese cinema, Kaneto Shindo & Kozaburo Yoshimura, Part Two (Alexander Jacoby)
The Aristocracy on TV (Marcus Prince)
Bruce Lacey & Friends (William Fowler)
Wolfgang Suschitzky centenary
BFI Mediatheque: looking for Alfred
Extended run: Il deserto rosso
BFI IMAX: The Dark Knight Rises

Programmes at La Cinémathèque de la Ville de Luxembourg

Cinémathèque Luxembourg, Soirée Filmreakter, N. VanMaele

La Cinémathèque de la Ville de Luxembourg. Musée du cinéma. 17, Place du Théâtre, L-2613 Luxembourg, http://www.vdl.lu/Culture+et+Loisirs/Art+et+Culture/Cin%C3%A9math%C3%A8que.html

Regular features:
LIVE@Cinémathèque
Ciné-Concert
Tous les genres du cinéma
Tous les styles du cinéma en 10 leçons
Kino mat Häerz... a mat Kaffi!
Week-ends à la Cinémathèque: - Comedy Classics - Arthouse Classics - Sense and Sensibility -
Filmreakter's Cinélunatique: Exploitation Cinema at the Cinematheque (curated by Jacques le Rippeur and Gov Van Meatgrinder).
Ciné XXL. Université Populaire du Cinéma.
Cinema Paradiso (for kids)

NOVEMBRE 2013
Bernardo Bertolucci
The (In)Glorious Eighties
Festival du Film Brésilien
Premiere: Atelier Luxembourg
Ciné-Concert: KrausFrink Percussion - L'Homme à la caméra

OCTOBRE 2013
The (In)Glorious Eighties
Festival CinEast
Du réalisme au surréalisme
Bernadette Lafont
B. Traven + Denis Diderot

AOÛT-SEPTEMBRE 2013
City Open Air Cinema
Abécédaire de Hollywood au cinéma
NSA, CIA, FBI, Everyone
Votez cinéma!

JUILLET 2013
City Open Air Cinema
Abécédaire de Hollywood au cinéma
Crossdressing
Cinéma cubain, Cuba au cinéma

JUIN 2013
Crossdressing
¡Cine Cubano Sí!
Ciné-Concert Asphalt
Le Monde en doc

MAI 2013
Live Cinema
¡Cine Cubano Sí!
Michael Cimino + Daniel Day-Lewis
Les salles obscures au cinéma
Prix Miradas/Blécker

AVRIL 2013
Rétrospective Michael Cimino
Les salles obscures au cinéma
Hommage à Daniel Day-Lewis
Soirée spéciale "La Bosnie"

MARS 2013
Discovery Zone - Luxembourg City Film Festival
Roy Andersson
Nagisa Oshima
Soirée-débat "Fukushima"

FÉVRIER 2013
LIVE@Cinémathèque: Le Sang d'un poète
Wes Anderson
Jean Cocteau
Margarethe von Trotta
Soirée spéciale "Le Kosovo"

JANVIER 2013
Jean Cocteau
The Magnificent Anders(s)ons
Margarethe von Trotta
Ciné-Concert: Sunrise

DÉCEMBRE 2012
The Nightmare of Christmas
Le néoréalisme italien
The Mind-Game Film
Otras Miradas / Autres Regards
Le Monde en doc: Catastroïka

NOVEMBRE 2012
Le néoréalisme italien
Brazil Film Festival
The Mind-Game Film
LIVE@Cinémathèque: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
Fictions of Politics

OCTOBRE 2012
The Mind-Game Film
Festival CinEast
Du Traveling au MacGuffin
Censure! Films lapins de la RDA
Samuel Fuller
Chris Marker
Ciné-Concert: Der Rosenkavalier (Robert Wiene / Richard Strauss / Frank Strobel)

AOÛT-SEPTEMBRE 2012
Marilyn Monroe & More: Open Air Film Festival
Abécédaire des Blondes au Cinéma
Votez cinéma!
Radio Days: La radio au cinéma
Cinélunatique Double Feature

JUILLET 2012
Marilyn Monroe & More: Open Air Film Festival
Abécédaire des Blondes au Cinéma
Focus on New Russian Cinema
Michel Piccoli
Fritz Lang: Master of Noir

JUIN 2012
Michel Piccoli
Fritz Lang: Master of Noir
Gus Van Sant
Prix "Miradas/Blécker"

Programmes at das Filmmuseum (Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Vienna)

Das Filmmuseum (Vienna). Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Augustinerstrasse 1, 1010 Vienna, Austria. http://www.filmmuseum.at

DECEMBER 2013 - JANUARY 2014
Responsible: Regina Schlagnitweit, Alexander Horwath. Texts by: Rui Hortênsio da Silva e Costa, Christoph Huber, Olaf Möller, Harry Tomicek.
Satyajit Ray. The Early works
To India! Projections from Europe and America
Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project (Mysterious Object at Noon, Borom sarret, Touki bouki, A Brighter Summer Day, The River Titash, Manila in the Claws of Light, Limite, Ragbar, Redes, Hanyo, Al-momia)
Christmas with The Wizard of Oz
Marx Brothers
Was ist Film 62-63: Peter Kubelka, Ferry Radax, Günter Zehetner
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 74: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wong Kar-wai, Edward Yang

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2013
Jerry Lewis
Marseille
Live Cinema: Sandra Gibson & Luis Recoder
Ephemeral Films: National Socialism in Austria
In person: David Gatten
Home Movie Day 2013
Was ist Film 55-61
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 73

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2013
Carnival of Souls: Horror Films 1918-1966
Joe Dante
In person: Henry Hills
Lecture: Timothy Druckrey
Was ist Film 48-54
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 72

APRIL-MAY 2013
The Real Eighties: American Cinema 1980-1989
Michael Haneke
David OReilly
Michaela Gill & Billy Roisz
Burned Books, including Valkoiset ruusut (Text: Brigitte Mayr, introduced by Michael Omasta)
Was ist Film 42-47
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 71

APRIL-MAY 2013
Jonas Mekas
Hanns Eisler
Anthology Film Archives
Premiere: films of Matteo Garrone, Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Philip Scheffner, Nik Thoenen
Was ist Film 37-41
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 70

MARCH 2013
Robert Bresson
Dominik Graf
Carte blanche à Dominik Graf
Commissioned works: Advertising as Avantgarde
Was ist Film 33-36
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 69: artists

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2013
England's Dreaming: British Cinema in the 1960s
In person: Ute Aurand
Was ist Film 29-32
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 68: youth

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013
Valerio Zurlini
Antonio Pietrangeli
Konrad Wolf
Heynowski & Scheumann
Premiere: Bernie von Richard Linklater
Was ist Film 25-28
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 67: Paris

DECEMBER 2012-JANUARY 2013
Buster Keaton
Beyond Buster: American Film Comedians 1923-1936
Artists at Work: Hommage à Reinhard Wulf
Marika Green in Pickpocket
The Wizard of Oz
Was ist Film 23-24
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 66: Ford, Visconti

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2012
Fritz Lang
Jack Smith
Premiere: Easy Rider by James Benning
Premiere: Un amour de jeunesse by Mia Hansen-Love
Was ist Film 17-22
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 65: in memoriam Chris Marker, Tony Scott

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2012
Die Utopie Film. Life and Cinema: 100 Proposals
Premiere: Senna by Asif Kapadia
In person: Luke Fowler
Urbanize! Filming the city - from below
Was ist Film 10-16

MAY-JUNE 2012
Olivier Assayas
King Hu
The Provocation of Reality: 50. Anniversary of the Oberhausen Manifesto
Was ist Film 5-9
Die Utopie Film Kapitel 64: rock

Nautavaellus / Cattle Roam

FI 1988. PC: Nautavaellus-työryhmä. D: Lasse Naukkarinen. DP: Lasse Naukkarinen, Sakari Rimminen (colour) - 16 mm. Trick photography: Lauri Pitkänen. ED: Tuula Mehtonen. S: Matti Kuortti, Jorma Harjamäki, Tuomo Kattilakoski (mix). Featuring: Miina Äkkijyrkkä. Loc: Pöljä (Siilinjärvi), Kuopio, Helsinki. 28 min. KAVA 35 mm print with English subtitles viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (In the Core of the Documentary 72: The First Documentary Project, Finnish Film Foundation 1988-1989, curated by Ilkka Kippola and Jari Sedergren, introduced by Jari Sedergren), 16 Oct 2013.

Miina Äkkijyrkkä (born 1949) is a Finnish artist, sculptor, and promoter of Finncattle. Every day I pass by her sculpture Peltilehmät / Metal Cows / Sacred Cows at Sörnäisten rantatie. (In Finnish "peltilehmä" = "metal cow" is a synonym for a motor car.) They are bigger-than-life cows sculpted from wrecked cars, with an affinity with Picasso's bulls, but entirely original. At home we have a big Marimekko print of an expressionistic Miina Äkkijyrkkä cow. Somehow her works are always full of life, no matter how wild and stylized they are.

Lasse Naukkarinen's documentary is an account of Miina Äkkijyrkkä's demonstration in the cities of Kuopio and Helsinki to promote Finncattle during a hot summer. Finncattle may not produce as much milk as Ayrshire cattle, but it is a healthy, resilient breed which does not consume much fodder and does not need much medication, so may be all told even strictly economically at least competitive with the more productive breeds.

The movie is a humoristic yet thoughtful study of the determined artist-promoter and the puzzled reactions of all kinds of observers, from policemen to men of the street.

Shot in juicy 16 mm, the blow-up to 35 mm has been conducted very well, and this print belongs to the ones which give today the frisson of glorious photochemical film.

Sampled: Le Havre in 35 mm

Aki Kaurismäki: Le Havre (FI/FR/DE 2011). Blondin Miguel (Idrissa Saleh).

Le Havre (2011), Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 15 Oct 2013.

I sampled the first 20 minutes of Le Havre in 35 mm. Shot and edited on 35 mm, Le Havre went to general release in digital, and it has been almost impossible to see it in 35 mm. The Sodankylä screening was in 35 mm, but there was something wrong in the projection. I then was about to visit the gala preview, but there it turned out that the screening was in 2K DCP.

In our screening I finally got to see how Le Havre is supposed to look like. The print is fine, and there is a vibrant photochemical sense of light. This I had guessed, now I know.

Le Havre is now more topical than two years ago, after the Mediterranean tragedies in Lampedusa and elsewhere. Similar tragedies have been already startlingly covered by Emanuele Crialese in his films such as Terraferma.

Pordenone: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 5-12 October, 2013

I like the sense of adventure in Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, prominent in this year's edition.

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto has always had the ambition of rewriting film history. It achieved that goal long ago, already during the first ten years of its existence. The most amazing thing now is that it still keeps going on with the same ambition level, presenting so many great discoveries, not resting on its laurels, not repeating itself, although there is now a new generation of GCM aficionados who were not even born when the festival started.

The 32nd Giornate del Cinema Muto was thus not based on the tried and true but on the unexpected and the unknown, with a good balance between works of real substance and flights of fancy.

The age of the silent film lasted 35 years, but the period of the silent feature film lasted only 17 years. Even contemporary cinemagoers could not know how magnificent the achievements of the cinema were globally. Pioneering historians from Paul Rotha to Georges Sadoul, Jean Mitry, Jerzy Toeplitz and Rune Waldekranz did not have the wide access to the treasures that we have now. A young film historian of today is in a privileged position to assess film history thanks to festivals such as the Giornate del Cinema Muto.

Essential to the GCM experience is the catalog, written by the best experts, and offering new information in each chapter. Full of interesting insight, and a great pleasure to read. It is available online on the festival website.

UKRAINE. Ivan Kozlenko's introduction made new sense for me of the Ukrainian film phenomenon. Such classics of the Soviet film as Zvenyhora, Arsenal, Earth, Man with a Movie Camera, The Eleventh, and Spring were significantly Ukrainian films which could not have been made elsewhere. Shown now were other great but less known films such as Nichnyi viznyk / The Night Coachman by Heorhii Tasin, and Shkurnyk / The Opportunist and Khlib / Bread by Mykola Shpykovskyi. For the first time I saw Alexander Dovzhenko's Sumka dipkuriera / The Diplomatic Bag, a wild and crazy exercise. I look forward to seeing Borotba veletniv / The Struggle of Giants by Viktor Turin and Dva dni / Three Days by Heorhii Stabovyi another time.

SWEDEN. Jon Wengström's focus was on the last years of the silent cinema in Sweden. There was then an ambition towards the international market with urban and pan-European themes, and foreign screenwriters and actors were hired to achieve that goal. Of his selection I had only seen Ivar Johansson's masterpiece Rågens rike / The Kingdom of Rye before. I finally got to see another masterpiece, Alf Sjöberg and Axel Lindblom's justly famous Den starkaste / The Strongest. Karin Swanström's Flickan i frack / The Girl in Tails is a suave humoristic tale based on a screeplay by Hjalmar Bergman. Gustaf Molander was the director most prominently on display. Polis Paulus' påskasmäll / The Smugglers is a contender for the all time best comedy starring Fyrtornet och Bivognen (Fy och Bi / Pat and Patachon). Hans engelska fru / His English Wife starring Lil Dagover and Urho Somersalmi is a curious mix of quintessential Swedish countryside drama and urban high society drama set in London. The film includes a rapid-shooting sequence which we Finns decided was the most terrific we have ever seen in the cinema. Förseglade läppar / Sealed Lips starred an enchanting Mona Mårtenson in an Italian drama about a novice who gets to decide between life and monastery. Synd / Sin was based on the play Brott och brott / Crime for Crime by August Strinberg, starring Lars Hanson, Elissa Landi, and Gina Manès, but a happy end had been substituted to the original tragic one by Molander's current screenwriter Paul Merzbach, whose work in my opinion was far from the level of Molander's own achievements as a screenwriter. It was exciting to see Anthony Asquith's Swedish version of A Cottage on Dartmoor, Fången n:r 53, shot by the master Axel Lindblom, significantly different in structure. Finally, there was a key Swedish transitional film from the silent to the sound cinema, expertly restored by the Swedish Film Institute, Konstgjorda Svensson / Artificial Svensson by Gustaf Edgren.

LAMPRECHT. Gerhard Lamprecht was a survivor, managing to make films with dignity in the many changing political circumstances of Germany, becoming a pioneering archivist and filmographer as an important sideline. His cycle of realistic Berlin films from the late 1920s was screened in newly restored versions. I saw the restored Die Verrufenen / The Slums of Berlin, Die Unehelichen / Children of No Importance, and Menschen untereinander / [People among Each Other], and look forward to seeing Unter der Laterne / Under the Lantern later. A Deutsche Kinemathek 50th Anniversary tribute programme with solid program notes by Rolf Aurich and Wolfgang Jacobsen.

ANNY ONDRA became a film actress in Czechoslovakia in 1919, and soon she was a part of a creative team which included the director-screenwriter-actor Karel Lamac, the cinematographer Otto Heller, and the screenwriter Vaclav Wasserman. From the Anny Ondra series I saw Gilly poprvé v Praze / [Gilly in Prague for the First Time], Dama s malou nozkou / [The Lady with the Small Foot] (the delightful introduction), Setrele pismo / [The Missing Letters], Chyt'te ho! / [Catch Him!], and [The Anny Ondra sound test for Blackmail]. I seem to have made the wrong choices and missed the best films of the retro, films such as Prichozi z temnot / Redivivus, Drvostep / [The Lumberjack], and Lucerna / [The Lantern]. A Národní filmový archiv 70 programme, the general introduction written by Briana Čechová.

THE CANON REVISITED 5. Paolo Cherchi Usai had selected stunning films for reappraisal: William Wellman's Beggars of Life, Vsevolod Pudovkin's Mat / Mother (this I didn't watch this time, nor the Alexander Rasumnyi adaptation Mat / Mother, which I had also seen before), Lupu Pick's Scherben / Shattered, and Viktor Turin's Turksib [this we have screened ourselves this year].

ANIMATION: FELIX THE CAT, KO-KO THE CLOWN. Every day was bookended with masterpieces of animation. The days started with Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat animations, and they ended with "Goodnight Ko-Ko" selections from the Fleischer brothers. I saw all the Felix movies and none of the Ko-Ko films, being a morning person who cannot help being prone to falling asleep after nine in Italian time (ten pm. Finnish time).

ANIMATION: SOVIET SILENT ANIMATION. Sergei Kapterev and Peter Bagrov introduced to us the first-ever retrospective of silent Soviet animation. The greatest masterpiece, one of the most remarkable animations of all times, was Pochta / Mail by Mikhail Tsekhanovski, based on the screenplay by Samuil Marshak.

ITALIAN REDISCOVERIES. I saw Enrico Guazzoni's comedy Il gallo nel pollaio / [A Rooster in the Henhouse] and look forward to seeing later Guido Piacenza's Viaggio in Congo / [A Voyage in Congo], Eleuterio Rodolfi's I promessi sposi / [The Betrothed], Giuseppe Di Liguoro's Giuseppe Verdi nella vita e nella gloria (1813-1913), Giulio Donadio's Giorgio Gandi, and Mario Roncoroni's Ironie della vita / [Irony of Life].

JOLY-NORMANDIN. A super collaboration, for a long time in preparation, was the international co-production of restoring Joly-Normandin films from 1896-1897,  based on Coleccao Joan Anacleto Rodrigues (Cinemateca Portuguesa), Coleccion Antonino Sagarminaga (Filmoteca Española), Fonds Joly-Normandin (Musée suisse de l'appareil photographique, Cinémathèque Suisse), British Cinématographe Company (BFI National Archive), Normandin (Archives francaises du film du CNC), Lobster Films, Cinémathèque francaise, and Svenska Filminstitutet, all this curated by Camille Blot-Wellens. A remarkable archeological feat in the field of very early cinema.

THE CORRICK COLLECTION 7. The Corrick Family was a troupe of singers, entertainers and film presenters from New Zealand who toured widely in Southeast Asia and England in 1898-1915. Their remarkable film legacy has been restored with loving care by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. I have been a big fan of these shows from the beginning, and now we saw the final screenings, 19 short films altogether this year. The program notes of Leslie Anne Lewis make sense of these early short films in the best way, both for their cinematic significance and for the implications of culture, history, and society. An exemplary way to treat early cinema. On display was beautiful print quality of well-known films often seen in horribly battered copies (The Lonely Villa by D. W. Griffith) and colour-driven féeries in amazingly preserved colour (La Fée aux pigeons / The Pigeon Fairy by Gaston Velle and Segundo de Chomón).

MEXICO. Dr. Aurelio de los Reyes has compiled a three-part, six-hour chronicle of early Mexican cinema and history. I saw the beginning, 43 short films by Lumière, Edison, Salvador Toscano, and los Hermanos Alva / The Alva Brothers. I realized that this is an indispensable source for a student of Mexican cinema and history with "the longest, and the most violent political revolution of the 20th century, and the first to be extensively chronicled on film" (Aurelio de los Reyes).

TOO MUCH JOHNSON. Stranger than fiction: Orson Welles' lost pre-Citizen Kane film was found last year in Pordenone. I was certainly not the only one to think that there must be a practical joke here somewhere, but the incredible story seems true. The world premiere was, appropriately, in Pordenone. The silent footage was shot by Mercury Theatre for prologues to be used in their theatrical production of William Gillette's comedy Too Much Johnson, but the plan was rejected after the film had been shot and rough-edited. Paolo Cherchi Usai narrated live the projection of the work print screened as it was found, transferred onto safety film. The visual quality was mostly fine. Too Much Johnson does not make sense in itself, but in the Mercury Theatre context the discovery is invaluable. Aspects of Welles's visual sense (but not his mastery) are already in evidence. Too Much Johnson is a spoof full of the joy of play. They had fun, and so have we.

THE BLACKSMITH. Another surprise discovery, via Argentina, Fernando Peña alerting Lobster Films: the first version of Buster Keaton's The Blacksmith which was only released in France, and includes scenes missing from the generally known version (scenes such as Buster's lighting-fast proposals during a chase, and a break during that same chase to watch the silhouette of an undressing woman). This earlier version makes more sense as a narrative.

ICHIRO KATAOKA IN A BENSHI PERFORMANCE. A benshi (a talking live explainer of a film show) of a new generation performed for three shorts and one feature, a first screening outside Japan of Jiro Kawate's Fukujuso / The Scent of Pheasant's Eye, a tale of love between women.

THE CLOSING GALA was a film concert to Harold Lloyd's The Freshman with Carl Davis conducting his own brilliant score, played by FVG Mitteleuropa Orchestra at a strength of 40-50 players. I like the moment of self-revelation and started to think about the autobiographical symbolism of the story. Harold Lloyd also started by imitating others but found greatness by being himself.

REDISCOVERIES. Der geheime Kurier / The Mysterious Messenger, Gennaro Righelli's adaptation of Le Rouge et le Noir, starring Ivan Mosjoukine and Lil Dagover, did no justice to Stendhal but was a piece of splendid adventure entertainment. Vasili Zhuravliov's Kosmicheskii reis / Cosmic Voyage was a fine science fiction discovery, well made and humoristic, also a piece of light entertainment.

PORTRAITS. Musidora, la dixième muse by Patrick Cazals, and Natan - the Untold Story of French Cinema's Forgotten Genius, by David Cairns and Paul Duane. Both new documentaries have lasting value.

STRIKING A NEW NOTE. My perennial favourite show in Pordenone is where the schoolchildren of Pordenone and Cordenons play to silent comedies, this time to two Our Gang films, No Noise and Crazy House, the later starring Jean Darling, present at 91 years, and performing at the festival. I hope these children live as long as Jean Darling, building a bridge of two centuries of living memory.

Some of the Gerhard Lamprecht and Gustaf Molander movies from the late 1920s seemed too slow and long, perhaps because too fast a speed had been avoided, but it would be interesting to know how long the screenings were at the time of the original release.

Links

Pamela Hutchinson in Silent London, ten articles, 5-13 October, 2013
http://silentlondon.co.uk/2013/10/13/le-giornate-del-cinema-muto-2013-pordenone-post-no-8/
Pamela Hutchinson in The Guardian, 14 October, 2013
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/oct/14/orson-welles-giornate-del-cinema-muto-silent-film
Jay Weissberg in Variety, 22 October, 2013
http://variety.com/2013/film/international/orson-welles-too-much-johnson-pordenone-1200751887/
Ivo Blom in his blog, 21 October, 2013
http://ivoblom.wordpress.com/
Wellesnet on 9 and 14 October, 2013, on Too Much Johnson
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=7921
David Cairns on Mubi Notebook, 30 October, 2013, on Too Much Johnson
http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/girls-delightful-in-cuba-stop-orson-welles-too-much-johnson
Daniel Fairfax in Senses of Cinema, December 2013, 18 Dec 2013
http://sensesofcinema.com/2013/festival-reports/pordenone-trembles-the-32nd-giornate-del-cinema-muto/

Film concert The Freshman, score composed and conducted by Carl Davis, performed by FVG Mitteleuropa Orchestra

Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc.

SERATA FINALE / CLOSING NIGHT

THE FRESHMAN / Keltanokka / (IT: Viva lo sport!; GB: College Days) (Harold Lloyd Corp., dist: Pathé Exchange, US 1925) Titolo di lavorazione/Working title: The Rah Rah Boy D: Sam Taylor, Fred Newmeyer; SC: Sam Taylor, John Grey, Ted Wilde, Tim Whelan; DP: Walter Lundin; 2nd cameraman (foreign release neg.): Henry Kohler; casting dir: Gaylord Lloyd; prod. mgr: Jack Murphy; asst. dir: Robert A. (“Red”) Golden; C: Harold Lloyd (Harold Lamb), Jobyna Ralston (Peggy), Brooks Benedict (il mascalzone/college cad), James Anderson (l’eroe/college hero), Hazel Keener (la bella/college belle), Joseph Harrington (il sarto/college tailor), Pat Harmon (l’allenatore/football coach); rel: 20.9.1925; 35 mm, 6883 ft, 76' (24 fps); print source: Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc., Los Angeles. English intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in Italian, 12 Oct 2013

Score composed and conducted by Carl Davis, performed by FVG Mitteleuropa Orchestra.

Kevin Brownlow: "“The whole idea of The Freshman can be said almost in a line,” recalled Harold Lloyd. “A boy had an obsession to be the most popular student in the college, and he went about it in the wrong way.”"

"Lloyd worked without a script, but he employed the largest number of gag writers of any comedian in the business. “His gag men used to sit in a room with a long kitchen table and canvas chairs,” said Lewis Milestone, who directed Lloyd briefly on The Kid Brother. “They would come in in the morning with awful expressions. They hated the world. Not so much as a good morning. They’d sit there reading magazines."

"“Then they’d hear Harold’s dogs barking. They’d stick the magazines behind them and Harold would come in. One of the fellows would stand up and point at another across the table and say, ‘So-and-so’s got a great idea.’"

"“‘Well,’ Harold would say, ‘Let’s hear it. I’m all ears.’"

"“And, of course, so-and-so hadn’t any idea at all. But he was in a spot. He had to think of something. He would start babbling, and then the others would start talking – they wanted to impress the boss because he was Harold Lloyd. And out of this would come a gag.”"

"“Lloyd was there all the time,” said his friend, John Meredith. “Let’s be honest about it, it was all Harold Lloyd. If he liked it, it was made. If he didn’t, it wasn’t made.”"

"Whatever the drawback of the gag man system, it enabled Lloyd to start a film with little more than a football game in his head, and to end up with a film considered by many to be his masterpiece."

"“We went out to Pasadena where all the Rose Bowl football games were held,” he said, “and we worked for two or three days. Somehow the business or the spirit wouldn’t come, and finally I said to the boys, ‘Fellows, let’s call it off. We can’t do the picture this way. I’ve got to know the character. I’ve got to feel it, or we’re not going to get out of it what I think we’ve got here.’ So we scrapped what we’d shot. We still didn’t have a script, but we went back and we did The Freshman right from the beginning. And as I look back, it’s a good thing that we did.”"

"Hal Roach said that the original idea had been his. But a Charles Ray film of 1917 called The Pinch Hitter survives as an obvious starting point – although the difference is that between a Ford Model T and a Pierce- Arrow. Yet it was not Charles Ray who sued Lloyd for plagiarism, but a writer called H.C. Witwer, author of Universal’s Leather Pushers series. He had related a college story to Lloyd, who had passed it to his gag men. They subjected it to professional scorn. But they kept remembering the story and invited Witwer back to listen to their outline. He was generous in his praise, said it was nothing like his, and if they wanted to use any gags from it they were welcome. So when The Freshman turned into (almost) the most successful comedy ever made, Witwer slapped them with a lawsuit. Not until 1933 did the Harold Lloyd Corporation emerge (mildly) victorious. “Why should Lloyd pay $40,000 to a literary staff to work up the play if it had already been done and could readily have been purchased and copied for a much smaller sum?,” read the court’s decision. “Such a contingent taxes our credulity.”"

"In common with most picture people, Lloyd had never been to university. But one of his gag men had. Sam Taylor (ex-Fordham) was so obviously brilliant that Lloyd promoted him to director, usually in partnership with Fred Newmeyer. They made Safety Last!, Girl Shy, For Heaven’s Sake, etc., after which Taylor graduated to directing John Barrymore, Norma Talmadge, and Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks."

"The Freshman is the nearest to outright satire that Lloyd ever attempted, and yet it isn’t satirical because Lloyd so clearly believes in the society he makes fun of. He convinces us that the world he wishes to join is eminently worthwhile, whatever misery it makes him undergo. Perhaps this was one of the reasons the picture upset students in the 1960s and 70s – that and the fact that The Freshman so quickly develops into an epic of embarrassment."

"When Harold performs his movie jig, his father says, “I’m afraid, Ma, if Harold imitates that movie actor in college, they’ll either break his neck or his heart.” And that’s the last moment of compassion in the picture. From then on, the treatment meted out to Harold is ferocious – particularly in the training sequences."

"Lloyd used real football players in these scenes, one of whom told us Lloyd used a double. But during the making of our documentary The Third Genius we submitted the film to the closest examination, and had no doubt Lloyd did the whole thing himself – perhaps after watching the doubles. “I had some of our own boys in that scene,” said Lloyd, “and they were rough. Boy, when they hit you, you knew about it. But the real footballers didn’t hurt at all.”"

"Lloyd was a great believer in previews. At the first one, everything went well up to the College Ball, where his suit begins to disintegrate. Something was missing. At the second, what was missing was obvious. The gag men (and his close friend, scenarist Frances Marion) insisted Lloyd loses his trousers. “And of course it was one of the high points in the sequence,” said Lloyd. “It’s like slipping on a banana peel. If you don’t step on the banana peel, you’d better have something equally funny for not doing it.”"

"The Ball would have been climax enough for most comedies, but Lloyd still has the football game. Gag after gag convinces us that Harold is an unreconstructed idiot, until there remains just one minute to play. He races after the player with the ball, leaps on him, grabs the ball, and takes off at incredible speed, leaping over opponents in seven-league boots, the camera hurtling across the football field in front of him. “Part of the scene was made at an actual football game,” said Lloyd. “One of the big games of the year, between Stanford and California. It was the only time they had ever allowed a motion picture company to come into a football game. We worked before the game, but with the people there, and in between halves. Instead of having their cards and all their marching, they gave it over to us, and scene after scene that you saw in there was something that we had rehearsed and had all set to go – and shot it at the actual game. You know when I’m running and my shoe comes off, where the whistle blows after me? It was all done actually at the real game.”"

"The big game was filmed at the University of California’s Memorial Stadium in the hills above UC Berkeley. A future film historian, Geoffrey Bell, was in the stands: “You always think of comedy as being casual, and just happening. All of the work and planning that went into this simple scene, the number of technicians, the number of cameras that were set up, and the seriousness of it. They impressed me very much with their dedication."

"“During the 20s I would consider Lloyd at the very top. To me he exceeded the others because of his accessibility. There was something spontaneous and fresh and very, very likeable about him. I think that was one reason he got such a big cheer when he arrived at the game. Everyone identified with him.”" – Kevin Brownlow

The Music. "The spirit of my score for Harold Lloyd’s hilarious and moving comedy is the march: not military, but patriotic in the style of John Philip Sousa, America’s “March King”. This ties in with Harold’s desire to be the most popular man at college, which means he must be a football hero. Around this is the music of the 1920s – a romantic waltz, jolly optimistic tunes, and above all blues and jazz, particularly when Harold throws a party and we see a small band hard at work. At the same time I see this film as large-scale, and now Harold has got a grand orchestra of 40 players." – Carl Davis

AA: The last time I saw The Freshman was five years ago in Harold Lloyd: The Definitive Collection, the 10-dvd box set. Also in that box The Freshman was offered with the splendid Carl Davis score. Initially I had seen The Freshman in the 1970s abridged television version, and it is now puzzling to reflect why such a shortened version had been made in the first place since there is nothing superfluous in the full-length version.

The Freshman is a bold and stunning satire about the emptiness of external success. Harold literally creates for himself a cut-and-paste external identity. In the incredible ball sequence his glued-together tuxedo comes apart. It's a masterful case of a comedy of embarrassment. It can be compared with Charles Chaplin's heartbreaking ball sequence in The Gold Rush, but the psychology of the comedy is entirely different.

The second high point, the football game, is a jaw-dropping showcase of action comedy, both thrilling and funny.

But for me the real climax and turning-point is Harold's moment of self-recognition during the ball sequence. For the first time Harold realizes how others see him. He bursts into tears in Jobyna Ralston's lap. But the moment of the deepest crisis and the biggest embarrassment can also be a turning-point to a new beginning and a new growth. "You have been pretending. Be yourself." Until then Harold has been a stupid clown. Now, after the self-revelation, his true spirit can emerge.

On our way to the Marco Polo airport next morning we discussed The Freshman with another Pordenone regular, and she told that the moment of Harold bursting into tears was cut from the 1970s abridged television version!

This story seems also semi-autobiographical. Harold Lloyd, himself, started by imitating others, and evolved into greatness when he found himself and started to do his own thing. His theme was the American dream of success, and he was also capable of the bitterest satire of its emptiness.

I loved the engrossing performance of Carl Davis's music with the marches and the dances and the currents of emotion which enrich the film experience in a way that is parallel to but different from what Chaplin did to his silent films. Una grande finale to a splendid Festival.

The stills of The Freshman do not do justice to the film. They fail to convey the sense of humour and the gravity of Harold Lloyd's masterpiece.

Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc.

Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc.

Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc.

Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc.

The Blacksmith (the 1921 version = the first version = unreleased in the US)

THE BLACKSMITH (Saltarello fabbro) (Comique Film Corporation, Inc., US, 1921 / 1922) D, SC: Buster Keaton, Mal St. Clair; P: Joseph M. Schenck; DP: Elgin Lessley; tech. dir: Fred Gabourie; C: Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts.

Version 1 (Malec forgeron): 1921; not released in US. DCP (from 35 mm, 496 m.), 20' (22 fps); source: Lobster Films, Paris. No intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), grand piano: Neil Brand, 12 Oct 2013

In the presence of Fernando Peña (Buenos Aires) and Serge Bromberg.
 
Screened earlier: Version 2: 1922; released in US through First National. DCP (from 35 mm, 550 m.), 21' (22 fps); source: Lobster Films, Paris. English intertitles, with French subtitles. Benshi commentary: Ichiro Kataoka; M: John Sweeney.

David Robinson: "For many The Blacksmith remains one of Keaton’s best-loved shorts. The narrative line is casual, but the film has memorable moments: the giant horseshoe magnet that snatches everything in sight, from a cart-wheel to the sheriff’s badge; Buster the horseshoe clerk, deferring to his demanding equine client; a sprung support devised for a saddle-sore equestrienne; the dirtying-up of a patrician white horse and the systematic destruction of a couple of automobiles."

"The film now commands fresh attention, however, with the discovery that it was made in two different versions, probably shot as much as 10 months apart. The revelation comes from Fernando Peña, already celebrated for his part in two major discoveries in the Museo del Cine de Buenos Aires: the complete version of Metropolis and the fragmentary My Son, the only known surviving film of the legendary Yevgeni Cherviakov (it was screened at last year’s Giornate). Peña was not particularly excited to discover The Blacksmith in a cache of 9.5mm films bought by his friend and fellow collector Fabio Manes – until they screened it and found much of the action quite different from the known versions. The film had French subtitles, which led Peña to consult Serge Bromberg. In turn, Bromberg sought out 35 mm prints of The Blacksmith that had survived in France. His hunch was rewarded: two of these – including one in Lobster’s own collection – proved to contain the scenes from Mr. Peña’s version, along with an extra gag, and a further scene which the French distributors probably thought too saucy for home viewers on 9.5mm. Lobster have now restored this version and the Giornate is privileged to present its premiere screening."

"The months since the discovery have led to energetic detective work on both sides of the Atlantic to try to reconstruct the history of the two Blacksmiths. John Bengtson, the undisputed authority on Hollywood silent film locations, has demonstrated that scenes in the two versions were filmed several months apart: in the interim new buildings have appeared and existing ones changed: Hollywood was developing fast in those years (see Bengtson’s “Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd film locations” website)."

"Meanwhile, Susan Buhrman discovered two obscure but vital newspaper reports. On 22 September 1921, the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger reported that Keaton had just finished The Blacksmith, and that it would be forwarded to New York for preview within the next week. Not until January 1922 however was there a report of any preview, when the magazine Photoplay moaned that “There is hardly a smile in his latest comedy, if such it can be called. The situations are forced and his work laborious. His scenario writer should consult Webster and discover that the words silly and funny are not synonymous”. The attack was premature. The Blacksmith was not to be released until 6 months later, and then – as we now know – in a much revised version."

"In speculating on the chronology of the two versions of The Blacksmith, we are helped by knowing that the production schedule at the Keaton studio was fairly regular: generally the time between releases stayed close to an average of 35 days. If the first version of The Blacksmith was ready for shipping on 22 September 1921, therefore, it had presumably been started not later than the second week of August. This followed a period of inactivity. In the spring of 1921 Keaton had to abandon The Electric House when he broke his ankle on a prop escalator, while on 31 May he married Natalie Talmadge – two contrasting distractions. It seems likely that The Blacksmith marked resumption of work in the studio, and it may be significant that Keaton does not undertake any major physical feats in the film, apart from a long shot of his being dragged on the back of a truck."

"Perhaps, however, production had taken place earlier than this speculative August-September dating, and the film, though completed, had already been held back, since by the time The Blacksmith was shipped to New York in the last week of September 1921, The Playhouse must already have been far into production: it was ready for release on 6 October 1921. A complicated production, The Playhouse must have been begun early in September, almost a month before The Blacksmith was deemed ready for shipping to New York. Perhaps Photoplay only corroborated Keaton’s own misgivings about The Blacksmith."

"The very much made-over version that is now familiar was finally issued on 21 July 1922. In the interim the studio had released The Playhouse, The Paleface, Cops, and My Wife’s Relations. We cannot guess when the new work on The Blacksmith was carried out, though there was a 4-month interruption in releases between Cops in February and My Wife’s Relations in June 1922, which might have provided some opportunity."

"So how did the apparently suppressed version get away – to reappear now, after 90 years? The only answer can be that in September 1921, before the need to rework the film had been acknowledged, a negative or prints of The Blacksmith had been optimistically shipped to France, where it was presumably screened commercially, and later reduced to 9.5 mm for the Pathé-Baby home projector market. Though launched in October 1922, it was not until 1927 that the Pathé Baby projector could project films as long as 15-20 minutes: the Argentinian 9.5 mm print is of the complete film, so must have been struck in this later period." – David Robinson

AA: The Blacksmith has been a dear film to me for a long time. As a schoolboy and as a student, when we were running various film societies, including ones based on 16 mm prints, I loved the classic comedies available at 16 mm rental companies such as Viihde-Kuva, and we screened The Blacksmith many times, but I believe it was the general release version of 1922. That was forty years ago so I cannot swear it was that version.

It was very rewarding to see both versions of The Blacksmith within a few days. The first observation is that even the scenes and gags we have always known get better when there is a chance to see them again. Of course also this film is available on dvd, but there is a fundamental difference in seeing a film like this with an appreciative audience. And what audience would not be appreciative to a masterpiece like this.

Joe Roberts plays the hulking blacksmith, and Buster Keaton plays his small but agile assistant.

They told there are some five minutes of unknown material in this rare first version of 1921, unreleased in the US. I believe those five minutes include scenes such as - Buster Keaton driving a motorcar, smoking a cigar, while the blacksmith is in prison - The steering wheel comes unstuck - Having lost control of the car Keaton runs over the blacksmith - The gag with Keaton carrying the long plank - The blacksmith chases Keaton, but when Keaton notices the silhouette of an undressing woman they take a break to watch - The chase goes on around a shack - The sweetheart emerges from the shack, and during the wild chase Keaton uses each fraction of a second to propose. Having locked up the blacksmith inside the shack he can finally focus on the proposing.

As a narrative this early version is more coherent. The happy ending (with a flash-forward to the young family with a child) is abrupt in the general release version, but here it is satisfyingly founded and inevitable.

The Corrick Collection 7, Programme 2 (2013 Pordenone programme from National Film & Sound Archive, Canberra, introductions by Leslie Anne Lewis)

D. W. Griffith: The Lonely Villa (US 1909). Marion Leonard (Mrs. Cullison on the telephone) and behind her, Mary Pickford, Gladys Egan and Adele DeGarde (the children). Photo: National Film & Sound Archive, Canberra.

Cinemazero (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in English and Italian, grand piano: Donald Sosin, 12 Oct 2013

PRINCE OF WALES VISITS LAUNCESTON (Corrick, AU 1920) D: Leonard Corrick; 35 mm, 361 ft, 6'01" (16 fps); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #87). English intertitles.

Leslie Anne Lewis: "Though not technically a Corrick Family Entertainers film, to finish out the story of the Corricks as filmmakers we are presenting the final film in the collection produced by Leonard Corrick himself. Taken in the family’s adopted home town of Launceston, Tasmania, this short film documents the visit of the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor) to the area over four days in late July 1920. The Prince’s visit to Australia was part of a post-World War I tour intended to thank the Dominions for their service and sacrifice in the war; he spent nearly three months in the country, visiting over 110 towns."

"In the 13 years since producing the family’s first films – Bashful Mr. Brown and Street Scenes in Perth, W.A. – Leonard had obviously picked up a few tricks. Unlike these earlier films, Prince of Wales Visits Launceston includes several intertitles, shots taken from multiple angles, and more sophisticated editing. He worked on the film with a Mr. Thomsen, projectionist at the Princess Theatre in Launceston, and it is believed to have been screened at the theatre the night the Prince left Tasmania." – Leslie Anne Lewis

AA: Non-fiction. This film belongs to another period than the other Corrick films. A good composition of the image in the filmed record of a crowd greeting the Prince of Wales. The source is a worn print, but the image is rich in detail

THE LONELY VILLA (Biograph, US 1909) D: D. W. Griffith; DP: G.W. Bitzer, Arthur Marvin; SC: Mack Sennett, Frank E. Woods; C: David Miles, Marion Leonard, Mary Pickford, Gladys Egan, Adele De Garde, Owen Moore, Mack Sennett; 35 mm, 607 ft, 10'07" (16 fps); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #35). English intertitles.

"This well-known Griffith short featuring some of Biograph’s most iconic performers – including Mary Pickford, Owen Moore, and Mack Sennett – is undoubtedly familiar to the Giornate audience. Struck from an original release print, the Corrick Collection copy is unfortunately missing the initial action, picking up the story just prior to the servants leaving for the day while the robbers wait outside for their opportunity to strike." – Leslie Anne Lewis

AA:  See image above. Thriller. An interesting print of one of the most famous films by D. W. Griffith. In Le Giornate del Cinema Muto's screening about early telephone thrillers called "Before The Lonely Villa" the print of The Lonely Villa (The Library of Congress print screened in Pordenone, 2008) had a brilliant image but no titles. This print has titles. The image is fairly good, slightly on the soft side.

[SCENES IN SINGAPORE] (Charles Urban Trading Co., GB, c.1907) D: ?; 35 mm, 140 ft, 2'20" (16 fps); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #104). No intertitles.

"Fragment of a scenic film produced by the Charles Urban Trading Company showing views of Singapore. Any further information the Giornate audience can provide on this title would be much appreciated." – Leslie Anne Lewis

AA: Non-fiction. Singapore street scenes, views from the harbour, an impressive parade, a fine composition, a suave movement of the camera. A fair print.

THE DOCTORED BEER, OR, HOW THE COPPER WAS COPPED (R. W. Paul, GB 1906)
D: J.H. Martin?; 35 mm, 246 ft, 4'06" (16 fps), col. (tinted); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #32). Main title in English, no intertitles.

"Two thieves put the local cop out of commission with a doctored beer, but soon find they have his brothers-in-arms to contend with. This is the third of three R. W. Paul films in the Corrick Collection, along with The Hand of the Artist (1906) and The Fakir and the Footpads (1906)." – Leslie Anne Lewis

AA: A farce. Villains outwit a policeman with spiked beer and even frame him as a drunkard piling more bottles on his side. They also cleverly trap a policeman between two doors.

BRIGANDAGE MODERNE (Modern Brigandage) (Pathé, FR 1905) D: Ferdinand Zecca; 35 mm, 496 ft, 8'16" (16 fps), col. (tinted); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #77). Main title in English, no intertitles.

"Advertised by the Corricks as The Capture of a Highway Robber, Modern Brigandage both conforms to and cracks the mould of the popular chase film. An enterprising highwayman makes his living by robbing passing cars on a deserted section of roadway, then quickly making his getaway by motorcycle. A policeman who happens upon the scene shortly after one robbery gives chase, and as to be expected, the next several shots show the bandit being pursued by an ever-increasing mob of police and victims. This usual pattern is short-circuited, however when the police stop to phone ahead for reinforcements, giving the hunters the opportunity to lay a trap for their prey." – Leslie Anne Lewis

AA: Another clever bandit, equipped with a motorcycle, beats the policeman whose vehicle is a mere bicycle. The bandit is even able to rob a motorcar. This movie must be one of the earliest documentations of a mobile phone. The police has a portable telephone which can be switched into the telephone network at a telephone pole. There is a rope trap, but the final arrest takes place at the river when the bandit tries to cross it on a raft. The camera is immobile. An ok to good print.

LE DÉJEUNER DU SAVANT (The Scholar’s Breakfast) (Pathé, FR 1905) D: ?; 35 mm, 123 ft, 2'03" (16 fps), col. (tinted); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #115). Main title in English, no intertitles.

"Sensing something amiss with his breakfast, a scientist foolishly decides to examine the food under a handy microscope. What he sees turns his stomach and he wisely decides to stick to dry toast."
"The popular craze for scientific films – be they micro-cinematography, stop-motion, X-ray, or high-speed photography – and their unique means of viewing the world fit well into the wide-open range of early cinema, less constrained as it was by the narrative bias that would eventually predominate. As early as 1903, the Urban company’s series The Unseen World brought microcinematography to the public; two years after Le Déjeuner du savant, Pathé set up a dedicated scientific cinema laboratory to allow scientists and the public to explore, as Hannah Landecker describes it, “the realm of the very small and the very slow”. Other firms such as Edison and Gaumont also found success in both the educational and commercial realms with films produced for or inspired by scientific inquiry." – Leslie Anne Lewis

2005 blog remarks on the CNC print: CENTO ANNI FA: I FILM DEL 1905, PROGRAMMA 5: PROTAGONISTI ED EROI (E NIENTE DIVI), Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna.

AA: A comedy parodying a scientific film with displays of microbic life under the microsope. The scientist examines with his microscope first a piece of cheese... full of worms. Even a glass of water is full of living creatures. The scientist sticks to bread.

CIRCUIT DE DIEPPE 1907 (The Dieppe Circuit 1907) (Pathé, FR 1907) D: ?; 35 mm, 739 ft, 12'19" (16 fps), col. (tinted); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #37). English intertitles.

"Motor racing in France began the mid-1890s as a way for auto companies to advertise their products. Held in 1894, one of the first races – advertised as a “Competition for Horseless Carriages” – covered the 128-km distance between Paris and Rouen and lasted nearly 7 hours, with racers reaching an average speed of just 19 km/h (12 mph). By the time Circuit de Dieppe 1907 was filmed, showing the second year of the French Grand Prix, things had definitely changed. Organized by the Automobile Club of France, this race took place on 2 July 1907 and consisted of 10 laps along a 77-km circuit of the city of Dieppe on France’s northern coast. Held on closed public roads, the 38 entrants set off at one-minute intervals. Winner Felice Nazzaro of Italy finished with a time of 6 hours, 47 minutes, averaging a speed of 113.6 km/h (70.6 mph) while driving a Fiat 130HP F2 Racer. Over half of the contestants dropped out during the course of the race because of equipment failure, accidents, or driver injury; of the 17 entrants who finished, the last crossed the finish line nearly 11 hours later."

"Not surprisingly, with cars travelling at such speeds and little-to-no safety equipment, crashes were common and injuries abounded – two accidents occurred in just the first lap of this race. The knowledge that one skilled driver, the son of a well-known auto manufacturer, had died while practicing on the track for this race the month before upped the ante for racers and spectators alike. Certainly, watching the open-topped cars careen around the sharp corners of the triangular-shaped track (where Pathé operators wisely set up their cameras to catch the most dramatic footage possible) is as nail-biting an affair for viewers today as it must have been then."

"This was the first Grand Prix filmed by the Pathé company; similar films were also released in 1908, 1912, and 1913 (the event was suspended from 1909-1911 due to infighting between the car companies). Shown here are competitors preparing for the race, the race itself, and the medals ceremony." – Leslie Anne Lewis

AA: See image below. Non-fiction. A highly important documentation of an early Grand Prix auto race. However, as a film it is slightly boring. The most dramatic incident, as seen in the image below, is of a car toppling by the side of the track. Somewhat clumsy camerawork. An ok print.

[MIDDLE EAST TRAVELOGUE] (Urban?, GB?, c.1907) D: ?; 35 mm, 431 ft, 7'11" (16 fps); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #99). No intertitles.

"Contextual evidence provided by the Corrick family’s scrapbook suggests this film may be a version of Train Journey from Jaffa to Jerusalem, produced by the Charles Urban Company and released under slightly varying titles several times (1904, 1907, and 1908); however, this has not yet been confirmed. Scenes include a steam strain arriving at a station, travelling over a bridge and through a gorge, a religious parade, Roman ruins, and crowd scenes. The first mention of the Jaffa to Jerusalem film in Corrick advertisements comes in 1907, when it was screened as part of their “Trip Round the World” program." – Leslie Anne Lewis

AA: See image below. Travelogue. It starts with a phantom ride on a train. On a square vases are carried on top of the head. There are Christians. A procession. Elephants. A Muslim flag with a crescent. A boy has toothache. On the square people stare at the camera. The shepherds with their sheep. The palms, the camels. An ok print with occasional scratches and damage marks.

CACHE-TOI DANS LA MALLE! (Keep It Straight!) (Pathé, FR 1905) D: ?; C: Fernand Rivers; 35 mm, 301 ft, 5'01" (16 fps), col. (tinted); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #69). Main title in English, no intertitles.

"Advertised by the family as Keep It Straight! or This Side Up With Care, Cache-toi dans la malle! (literally, “Hide in the Trunk!”) follows (as one Corrick reviewer put it), “the terrible adventures of a man who would kiss his friend’s wife”. A man visiting his lover is nearly caught by the woman’s husband. He quickly ducks into a large trunk, but before he can make a clean escape the trunk is picked up by two movers. On their way to delivering the box to the railway station they are anything but gentle – dropping it down the stairs, off the back of a truck, and into the river. When the poor man is at last freed, he is hardly the dapper gentleman he once was – covered in dirt, clothes in tatters, bumped and bruised from his wild ride." – Leslie Anne Lewis

AA: A farce. A wild adventure of an unlucky lover who hides in a trunk, tumbles down the staircase, falls again from a carriage, dips deep down to the river when the carriage is crossing a bridge, and at the railway station falls again down the stairs. An ok print.

LA FÉE AUX PIGEONS (The Pigeon Fairy) (Pathé, FR 1906) D: Gaston Velle; DP, FX: Segundo de Chomón; 35 mm, 137 ft, 2'17" (16 fps), col. (stencil-colour); print source: National Film and Sound Archive, Australia (Corrick Collection #78). Main title in English, no intertitles.

"Pathé stalwart Gaston Velle produced this elaborately-stencilled spectacle of color and special effects with the help of frequent collaborator Segundo de Chomón. Aided by cinematic magic, a woman conjures birds out of thin air and then makes them disappear just as quickly. As her final trick, she herself transforms into a stunning peacock whose colors shift and shimmer before the viewer’s eyes." – Leslie Anne Lewis (The GCM Catalogue)

AA: See image below. A féerie. A transfiguration. The fairy of the pigeons, the rain of plumes. A radiating colour. A brilliant finale to seven fascinating years of opening the Corrick Collection.

Corrick films not surviving
"For all of the fascinating Corrick films that still exist, the list of their prints that are not known to survive is equally compelling. We may never know if they were traded or sold, or simply decomposed over the years, but from the various records available we can see that at some point the Corrick’s repertoire also included the following titles, as well as dozens more mentioned in advertisements and reviews that unfortunately cannot be concretely identified."

ADVENTUROUS VOYAGE OF “THE ARCTIC”, THE (Paul, GB 1903)
BACCHETTA DEL DIAVOLO, LA (Cines, IT 1909)
CASCADES DE FEU (Pathé, FR 1905)
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (?, c.1906)
CHRYSANTHEMUMS (Pathé, FR 1907)
ÉCRIN DU RAJAH, L’ (Pathé, FR 1906)
ÉTERNELLE ROMANCE (Pathé, FR 1909)
ÉVENTAIL, L’ (Pathé, FR 1909)
FERRY, THE HUMAN FROG (?, c.1906)
[HUMAN SQUIB] (Gaumont, FR 1909)
INTERNATIONAL HORSE SHOW AT OLYMPIA (Urban, GB 1907)
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (Edison, US 1902)
JEU DE PATIENCE, LE (Pathé, FR 1909)
LOCATAIRES D’À CÔTÉ, LES (Gaumont, FR 1909)
LOÏE FULLER (Pathé, FR 1905)
[ON THE BANKS OF THE PANUCO RIVER] (?, c.1909)
PATHÉ ANIMATED GAZETTE (October 1910) (Pathé, GB 1910)
PÊCHEUR DE PERLES, LE (Pathé, FR 1907)
RESCUED BY ROVER (Hepworth, GB 1905)
RÊVE À LA LUNE (Pathé, FR 1905)
SANDY MCPHERSON’S QUIET FISHING TRIP (Edison, US 1908)
VOYAGE AUTOUR D’UNE ÉTOILE (Pathé, FR 1906)

La Fée aux pigeons. National Film & Sound Archive, Canberra

[Middle East Travelogue]. National Film & Sound Archive, Canberra

Circuit de Dieppe 1907. National Film & Sound Archive, Canberra

Natan – The Untold Story of French Cinema's Forgotten Genius

David Cairns, Paul Duane: Natan – The Untold Story of French Cinema's Forgotten Genius (IE 2013).

Natan : L'Histoire oubliée.
    IE 2013. Screenworks / The Arts Council / An Chomhaire Ealaíon.
    D, SC: David Cairns, Paul Duane; EX: Craig McCall; DP: David Cairns, Paul Duane, Rob Cawley, Louis-Joseph Auguste, Simone Fanthorpe, John Ebright; lighting camera: Scott Wald; ED: Eoin McDonagh; AD: Charles Suddaby; effetti grafici/graphic effects: Enda O’Connor; M: Seti the First; narr. (Natan voice-over): Gavin Mitchell;
    with: Lenny Borger, Serge Bromberg, Serge Klarsfeld, Françoise Ickowicz, Lenick Philippot [granddaughters of Natan], Gilles Willems, Frédéric Tachou, Bart Bull, Gisèle Casadeus, Joseph W. Slade - and with: Sophie Seydoux
    DCP
    66 min
    Source: Screenworks, Dublin, Ireland. English and French dialogue with English subtitles.
    Cinemazero (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in Italian, 12 Oct 2013

David Robinson: "Bernard Natan, says one of the witnesses in this documentary, “has not been airbrushed out of history. He has been actively destroyed.” Natan Tanenzaft arrived in Paris from his native Romania in 1905, at the age of 19. Already crazy about the cinema, he worked as a projectionist and technician (briefly at Pathé), and was soon involved in independent production. In 1911 he had a set-back when he was one of a group of newsreel-makers convicted for “outrage des bonnes mœurs”: the nature of the offence was not specified, though later it was supposed it might have involved distribution of “gentlemen-only” films. He volunteered to fight in the First World War, and took on French citizenship as well as the name Bernard Natan. His company Rapid Film enjoyed success: its productions included the official filming of the 1924 Olympics and the spectacular La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d’Arc, directed by the painter Marco de Gastyne. In 1929 he established France’s first television company, Télévision Baird-Natan. By the end of the 1920s Natan was able to take over Pathé, which was in a state of hastened decline, mainly thanks to Charles Pathé’s lack of confidence in the film business following the coming of sound. The company now became “Pathé-Natan”."

"Serge Bromberg compares Natan’s entrepreneurial genius to DeMille. Marcus Loew had said that talking films would permanently establish English as the universal language; but the confident and prolific production of Pathé-Natan in the early 1930s consolidated a powerful French-language cinema, which was to define and shape the whole future of the national cinema. Natan was tirelessly innovative. He revived Pathé’s defunct newsreel, but now with sound. He built new cinemas. He developed the home cinema market. Two decades before CinemaScope, Pathé-Natan exploited Henri Chrétien’s anamorphic lens, as “Hypergonar”, to make vertical as well as horizontal panoramic films. Natan’s initiative, skills, and success inevitably brought enemies, and by the mid-1930s he was the victim of vicious xenophobic and anti-Semitic campaigns, whose publications were comparable to those of the Nazis in Germany. It did not help that Pathé-Natan’s production of René Clair’s Le Dernier Milliardaire was seen as anti-Nazi and was banned in Germany. Not only was Natan attacked personally and racially, but the ambiguous conviction of 1911 was expanded into a mythical career as a pornographic producer and actor spanning the 1910s and 20s, unconvincingly demonstrated with frame stills purporting to show Natan himself as an erotic performer. This documentary shows how the story is perpetuated to the present by an Ohio academic, Joseph Slade – who states, with cautious afterthought, that his lovingly collected evidence proves that Natan “may or may not” have been a pornographer! Nevertheless, thanks largely to Slade, Natan is now generally written into the history of screen pornography."

"In 1935 the effects of the Great Depression finally hit Pathé, and left Natan to seek desperate and often injudicious strategies to save the day. A revolt of the shareholders was led by a certain Dirler, who was known to have connections with German cinema. Natan was charged with fraud on the strength of convoluted evidence of his handling of Pathé-Natan’s finances, and in 1939 was sentenced to imprisonment. He was released in 1942 and his French citizenship was withdrawn. Sent to the French holding camp at Drancy, Natan was considered an important enough detainee for special notification to be sent to Eichmann when he was transferred to Auschwitz, where he was to die, most likely in late 1943."

"Paul Duane and David Cairns’ film is determined to correct the still too easily received image of Bernard Natan as a cheat and pornographer – a person “actively destroyed” by history. The film takes stylistic risks in making Natan the autobiographical narrator, and intermittently representing him as a grotesquely masked personage. But this is only a link for a line-up of witnesses for his defence who are impressive and wholly convincing – notably Serge Bromberg, who can categorically contradict the “stag-film” attributions, while his own grandfather was sent, like Natan, to the notorious holding centre at Drancy. For all devotees of the golden age, however, the most moving moment of this tragic tale – and the last word on Natan – is the closing title, a simple statement by the granddaughter of Georges Méliès, Madeleine Malthête-Méliès." – David Robinson

AA: Bernard Natan belongs to the giants of French film history, perhaps not quite as forgotten as the film-makers say. A WWI hero, he founded Rapid Film, produced the first Olympic feature film (Les Jeux Olympiques 1924, in many ways one of the models for Leni Riefenstahl), was a pioneer of the "making of" (Autour de L'Argent), made commercials, newsreels, believed in television already in the 1920s, financed the original CinemaScope technology (Hypergonar), produced the epic La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d'Arc, completely different from Carl Th. Dreyer's intimate and ascetic interpretation, believed in colour (Les Gaîtés de l'escadron with Raimu, Gabin, and Fernandel, in Pathécolor), and produced the most formidable French epics of the 1930s, Les Croix de bois and Les Misérables, both directed by Raymond Bernard. Serge Bromberg makes a strong case here that both films were personal projects for Bernard Natan. When Charles Pathé lost faith in the cinema Natan bought his company and made it successful during the adversities of the great crash and depression.

The perhaps most evil conspiracy in the history of cinema was then first the character assassination of Bernard Natan, followed by his physical destruction in the holocaust. He was framed as a pornographer and a swindler, and even his voice was distorted in newsreels to make him sound ridiculous. This movie is a strong entry in the history of the Jewish contribution to the cinema, and about the persecution of Jews in the cinema. The most moving moments are about the German occupation, the "Le Juif et la France" exhibition, and the Drancy story (Serge Bromberg: "my grandfather was there").

The film-makers have seen Gainsbourg by Joann Sfar and copied the idea of a masked Bernard Natan speaking in the first person from there. This device I find unnecessary. Although the film-makers rebut the accusations of Bernard Natan as a pornographer they devote quite a bit of screen time to juicy excerpts from pornographic films such as Sœur vaseline, Un cocktail bien servi, and Le Canard. Why?

Madeleine Malthête-Méliès tells that a stranger sent a check in 1922 to his impoverished grandfather Georges. That was the "discreet, generous, and practical Natan".

A perplexing, magnificent, and upsetting story.

Shkurnyk / [The Self-Seeker] (2011 digital restoration in 2K)

Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre, Kiev

SHKURNYK. Satiritshka povist / Шкурник. Сатірітшка повість / [a film unreleased at the time] / [L’opportunista / The Self-Seeker] (VUFKU, Kyiv, SU / UkrSSR 1929). Working titles: Tsybala / Znayome oblychchia [Una faccia familiare / Familiar Face] / Istoriya odnoho obyvatelia [Storia di un filisteo / The Story of a Philistine]. D, P: Mykola Shpykovskyi; prod. asst: Luka Liashenko; SC: Vadym Okhrymenko, Mykola Shpykovskyi, Boris Rosenzweig, based on the short story “Tsybala” by Vadym Okhrymenko; DP: Oleksii Pankratiev; AD: Solomon Zarytskyi; prod. mgr: M. Zghoda; M: Marcin Pukaluk (2012), Vyacheslav Nazarov (2012); C: Ivan Sadovskyi (Apollon Shmyhuev, il filisteo/ the Philistine), Luka Liashenko (capo partigiano/Partisan Leader), Dora Feller (comandante/Commandant), Dmytro Kapka (colonello/ Colonel), S. Vlasenko (capo dell’ufficio contro i liquori fatti in casa/ Head of the Office for the Struggle against Homemade Liquor); filmed: early 1929; banned by the censor: 27.4.1929 (not released); orig. l: 2158 m.; restored edition: 2200.4 m.; DCP (from 35 mm), 77' (24 fps); print source: Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Centre, Kyiv. Ukrainian intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in English and Italian, grand piano: Marcin Pukaluk, 11 Oct 2013

Ivan Kozlenko: "The Self-Seeker is the story of an enterprising Ukrainian “philistine”, Apollon Shmyhuev, whose peaceful bourgeois existence is upset by the 1917-1921 Civil War. He accidentally joins a Bolshevik military regiment that leaves the city, and is made responsible for the regiment’s “vehicle” – a camel. Escaping from the regiment, he finds himself in a locale occupied by the Bolsheviks. Zealous and adaptable, Apollon quickly becomes the head of the local commissariat. However, his unquenchable thirst for profit puts his life in danger, and he has to flee. When the Whites capture him as a spy for the Reds, he quickly gains their confidence. Travelling on the camel to hostile camps of the Bolsheviks, royalists, and “neutrals”, Shmyhuev succeeds in making friends with everybody, until the Bolsheviks ultimately consolidate their rule."

"In 1917, after graduating from the Faculty of Law at Novorossiysk University in Odessa, the Kyiv resident Mykola Shpykovskyi found himself in Moscow. In 1925 he made his film début as the screenwriter and co-director (with Vsevolod Pudovkin) of Chess Fever (Shakhmatnaya goryachka), a short comedy whose action took place during an international chess tournament in Moscow. After filming another satire on bourgeois life, A Cup of Tea (Chashka chaya, 1927), for Sovkino, Shpykovskyi returned to Ukraine, where he made one more satirical comedy, Three Rooms with a Kitchen (Try kimnaty z kukhneyu, 1928), based on Vladimir Mayakovsky’s script How Are You? (Kak pozhyvayete?)."

"The Proletkult experimental movement in Soviet Russia enjoyed a widespread revival in the early days of “War” Communism, up to 1922, but by the second half of the 1920s it was increasingly criticized by the Party and its leaders sought refuge in Ukraine. There the People’s Commissariat of Education, headed by Mykola Skrypnyk, the ideologist of the strategy of Ukrainianization, provided an independent liberal policy of national protectionism, encouraging experiments by Vladimir Mayakovsky, Dziga Vertov, Nilolai Okhlopkov, and Mykola Shpykovskyi. It was in this cultural climate that VUFKU commissioned from Mayakovsky 10 scripts, 3 of which were filmed in 1928: Shpykovskyi’s Three Rooms with a Kitchen, Oktiabriuhov and Dekabriuhov (Oktiabriuhov i Dekabriuhov), directed by Oleksii Smirnov and Oleksandra Smirnova, and The Three (Troye), directed by Oleksandr Solovyov."

"Shpykovskyi’s film satires took particular aim at the “philistines” of the NEP (New Economic Policy), the apolitical and zealous petty bourgeoisie who were not ready to accept Soviet austerity. The Self- Seeker, filmed by Shpykovskyi in 1929, is an adventure road-movie with touches of the absurd. Featuring a camel as one of the main characters and mocking Bolshevik bureaucracy and fanaticism, as well as the White Army’s kleptocratic pomposity in the Civil War, this adroit farce is one of the best examples of early Ukrainian comedy. The revolutionary agitation of the Red Army is depicted in an openly sarcastic way. When the Soviet government saw itself caricatured, the film was banned, on the grounds described in report No. 2974 of the Senior Repertoire Committee of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, dated 27 April 1929: “The Civil War is presented in the film only in terms of its dark ugly side. It shows only robbery, dirt, the stupidity of the Red Army and the local Soviet authorities, etc. As a result, a nasty lampoon on the reality of that time was produced.” However, the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam evaluated The Self-Seeker differently in his essay “The Spy”, dedicated to the film: “The more perfect the film language is, the closer it is to the not-yet-implemented thinking of the future, which we call film prose with its powerful syntax, the more valuable is the cinematographer’s work in the film. From this perspective, Shpykovskyi’s work of art, despite its modest realistic ‘appearance’, is an achievement of a very high quality.”"

"Since the film was never screened until the 1990s, it had to wait to be rediscovered by the Russian scholar Naum Kleiman and introduced to the academic public by another Russian scholar, Yevgenii Margolit, in his 1995 book Izyatoe kino (The Withdrawn Cinema, 1924-1953). As with most Ukrainian films, the negative and prints of The Self- Seeker were removed from Ukraine and transported to the USSR’s newly created Gosfilmofond in 1938. Since neither Shkurnyk nor Shpykovskyi’s next film, Bread (Khlib), were distributed in Soviet Russia, their original Ukrainian intertitles were retained."

"Restoration. A 2K digital restoration of the film was implemented in 2011 by the Dovzhenko National Film Studios on the orders of the State Film Agency of Ukraine."

"Music. In 2012, a new orchestral score for the film was created by the cinema composer Vyacheslav Nazarov at the request of the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Centre. The restored version of The Self- Seeker was screened with live accompaniment by the Symphony Orchestra of the National Opera of Ukraine as the opening film of the 42nd Molodist International Film Festival in Kiev in October 2012. The film will be accompanied live at the Giornate by the Polish composer, musicologist, and performer Marcin Pukaluk, whose varied career has included an enthusiastic involvement in silent film accompaniment. His scores include Metropolis, The General, and Earth (Zemlya), which he has already performed upwards of a hundred times in Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. His music for Shkurnyk was commissioned by the 3rd Odessa Mute Nights Festival." Ivan Kozlenko

AA: A rich sense of milieu and juicy characters are strengths of this movie full of funny details. The civil war is seen from the viewpoint of a coward and a turncoat. There are memorable scenes of making moonshine liquor and making hay. Maybe there was not a feeling of an irresistible force in the total vision of this movie. There was a royal disregard to the images in the live music. A movie that occurred to me during the screening was Andrzej Munk's Zezowate szczęście / Bad Luck, also a film with the sum less impressive than the parts. Or perhaps I am suffering from festival fatigue.

Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre, Kiev