At the turn of the century, while others were worrying about the millennium bug, San Francisco filmmaker Rock Ross was creating a short film (Stupor Mundi) in defiance of the new age, and producer-director Milford Thomas was making a silent movie with the same type of camera used by cinematographer … [Read more...] about Claire
The Circus
Often imitated yet never equaled, Charles Spencer Chaplin remains the most recognized of all the silent movie stars, thanks to the iconic character he created — “The Tramp.” A key factor in his films is their poignant blend of laughter and sorrow; reflections, perhaps, of the joys and hardships of … [Read more...] about The Circus
Cinema Rediscovered, Italian Style
This interview was published in conjunction with the screening of the restoration of The Cameraman at SFSFF 2019. The Cineteca was the recipient of the 2019 SFSFF Award. Summer nights in Bologna provide wonderful opportunities to watch the Bolognese enjoy their passeggiata or join them in this … [Read more...] about Cinema Rediscovered, Italian Style
Cinema’s First Virtuoso: Georges Méliès
A selection of Georges Méliès short films played throughout the festival. Special thanks to Lobster Films. On December 28, 1895, in the Grand Café on le boulevard des Capucines in Paris, a 34-year-old magician sat among the other 30-odd guests, which included the directors of the Folies Bergère … [Read more...] about Cinema’s First Virtuoso: Georges Méliès
Chopin in the Dark: An Interview with Donald Sosin
By any estimation, Donald Sosin has a pretty terrific job. “It beats selling vacuum cleaners,” he joyfully admits. As one of the most accomplished, in-demand, and highly respected composers and performers of silent film scores, his fingers have danced over the piano’s 88 keys in ideal accompaniment … [Read more...] about Chopin in the Dark: An Interview with Donald Sosin
Chicago
An attractive and scantily clad woman with shiny bobbed hair lounges in her apartment, sipping a cocktail while listening to a Victrola recording of “Hula Lou.” It’s a typical setting for a modern woman of the 1920s—except, perhaps, for the man lying at her feet, dying of a gunshot wound. The … [Read more...] about Chicago
Chaplin at Essanay
If the early slapstick comedy of the Keystone Film Company represents Charles Chaplin’s cinematic infancy, the films he made for the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company are his adolescence. The Essanays find Chaplin in transition, taking greater time and care with each film, experimenting with new … [Read more...] about Chaplin at Essanay
Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness
Carrying 20,000 feet of undeveloped film from Isfahan in central Persia across the Mediterranean to Paris, Merian Coldwell Cooper and Ernest Beaumont Schoedsack already knew what was missing from their picture. After 18 months trekking around Eurasia, they had found a nomadic tribe to follow and … [Read more...] about Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness