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San Francisco Silent Film Festival

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about silent film as an art form and as a culturally valuable historical record.

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2022

December 29, 2022 By anita

Buster’s Mechanized Mayhem

What a magical place Buster Keaton’s mind must have been. Most people might be tempted to regard a chair as merely a chair, or an automobile as simply an automobile. Keaton looked at them and beheld endless comic possibilities. And not only possibilities for the objects themselves, but also for the … [Read more...] about Buster’s Mechanized Mayhem

Filed Under: Essay

December 20, 2022 By anita

Pour Don Carlos

In 1920, when Musidora, beloved worldwide as the villainous Irma Vep, announced her plans to adapt the popular novel Pour Don Carlos and play its heroine Allegria, she took pains to assure her fans that she would deliver the thrills they’d come to expect. “I promise you that Allegria will kill at … [Read more...] about Pour Don Carlos

Filed Under: Essay

December 20, 2022 By anita

The Cheat

On December 13, 1915, The Cheat, produced at the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, directed by acclaimed theater director Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Fannie Ward, renowned actress from the London and New York stages, made its debut in the United States. Depicting an interracial relationship … [Read more...] about The Cheat

Filed Under: Essay

December 20, 2022 By anita

Show People

1928 was a frightening year for the film industry. The first feature with synchronized dialogue, The Jazz Singer, had premiered the previous October, casting doubt on the ability of silent films to endure as an art form. Stars feared for their careers while studio bosses worried about their bottom … [Read more...] about Show People

Filed Under: Essay

December 20, 2022 By anita

The Toll of the Sea

The greatest depiction of a woman crying on the silver screen is one you’ve likely never seen. You may be tempted to call up the image of Renée Jeanne Falconetti’s stoic tears in The Passion of Joan of Arc, or the mesmeric power of the saline streams down Anna Karina’s face in Vivre Sa Vie. Both … [Read more...] about The Toll of the Sea

Filed Under: Essay

December 20, 2022 By anita

Forbidden Paradise

It's nothing short of scandalous how poorly treated Ernst Lubitsch’s American silent period has been. Fortunately that has begun to change with the Museum of Modern Art’s recent restorations of Rosita (1923) and Forbidden Paradise (1924), the fourth film he made in Hollywood. Lubitsch came to … [Read more...] about Forbidden Paradise

Filed Under: Essay

September 2, 2022 By

The Toll of the Sea

… [Read more...] about The Toll of the Sea

September 2, 2022 By

The Cheat

… [Read more...] about The Cheat

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