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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Parla una spettatrice

This historical reprint was published in conjunction with the screening of Rapsodia Satanica and L'Inferno at SFSFF 2019 PARLA UNA SPETTATRICE In which the author addresses Italy's poets, novelists, and playwrights distressed by the lowbrow fare at the movies. I don’t deny that the novelist … [Read more...] about Parla una spettatrice

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Ozu’s Costumed City

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of An Inn in Tokyo at SFSFF 2018 Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo is more than a setting. Like many actors in his films, it appears again and again, adopting different guises, enriching the story on screen. This is evident in his other earliest … [Read more...] about Ozu’s Costumed City

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Our Actress in Berlin

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Italian Straw Hat at SFSFF 2016 The Mostly True Life of Olga Chekhova When historian Antony Beevor went looking for the truth behind the improbable life of Olga Chekhova, he was frustrated by her misleading autobiography, going so … [Read more...] about Our Actress in Berlin

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Marie Dressler

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Patsy at SFSFF 2013 Marie Dressler had perhaps the most unexpected stardom in all of movie history. At the apex of her popularity during the Great Depression, she was well past 60 and overweight and described her careworn and … [Read more...] about Marie Dressler

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Marguerite Clark: The Biggest and Littlest Lady in the Movies

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Snow White at Silent Winter 2013 “Her skin was as white as snow, her cheeks as rosy as blood, and her hair as black as ebony....” These words from “Little Snow White” (“Sneewittchen” in German), a story from Grimms’ collected fairy … [Read more...] about Marguerite Clark: The Biggest and Littlest Lady in the Movies

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The Little Tramp at 100

On Saturday, January 11, 2014 the beautiful Castro Theatre was the site of our celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp Character. No human being is more responsible for cinema’s ascendance as the dominant form of art and entertainment in the 20th century than … [Read more...] about The Little Tramp at 100