'SILENTS PLEASE' AT THE SOMERVILLE

The Somerville theatre kicks off a marvelous collection of silent gems in their ongoing monthly series 'SILENTS PLEASE'. All features are projected in glorious 35mm with live music accompaniment. Check the lineup below;

Sunday May 14th 2pm
GREED (1924, 35mm)
When housewife Trina McTeague (ZaSu Pitts) wins the lottery, her comfortable life with her dentist husband, John (Gibson Gowland), is slowly destroyed, in part by her own increasing paranoia and in part by the machinations of a villainous friend, Marcus (Jean Hersholt). Director Erich von Stroheim shot the film, based on the Frank Norris novel "McTeague", on location in and around San Francisco, an extravagance unheard of in the 1920s. His original version, since lost, ran for nearly 10 hours. With live music by Jeff Rapsis


Sunday June 18th 2pm
SO THIS IS PARIS (1926, 35mm)
When Dr. Giraud (Monte Blue) goes to a neighboring apartment to make a complaint, he is shocked to find his old flame, dancer Georgette Lalle (Lilyan Tashman). The chance encounter rekindles a romance, and as Giraud and Georgette start to meet, he tells various cover stories to his wife, Suzanne (Patsy Ruth Miller), about needy patients. After Suzanne hears on the radio that Georgette and Giraud have won a Charleston dance contest, she finally starts to see the truth. With live music by Jeff Rapsis.

Sunday July 9th 2pm
SAFETY LAST! (1923, 35mm)
A boy (Harold Lloyd) moves to New York City to make enough money to support his loving girlfriend (Mildred Davis), but soon discovers that making it in the big city is harder than it looks. When he hears that a store manager will pay $1,000 to anyone who can draw people to his store, he convinces his friend, the "human fly," (Bill Strother) to climb the building and split the profit with him. But when his pal gets in trouble with the law, he must complete the crazy stunt on his own. With live music by Jeff Rapsis.

Sunday August 27th 2pm
GET YOUR MAN (1927, 35mm)
Screenplay by Agnes Brand Leahy, Hope Loring, George Marion, Jr., based on a play by Louis Verneuil. With Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Josef Swickard, Josephine Dunn. After spending an accidental night together in a Paris wax museum, Clara Bow and Charles Rogers find themselves in love, to the secret relief of Rogers’s aristocratic fiancée, Josephine Dunn. The irresistible Bow was at the height of her popularity when she made this comedy with Hollywood’s leading female director, Dorothy Arzner. Missing scenes have been filled out by stills and newly discovered footage in this 35mm restoration from The Library of Congress. With live music by Jeff Rapsis.


Sunday September 10th 2pm
SHERLOCK HOLMES (1916, 35mm)
Long considered lost until a complete dupe negative was identified in the vaults of la Cinémathèque française last year, this William Gillette film is a vital missing link in the history of Sherlock Holmes on screen. By the time it was produced at Essanay Studios in 1916, Gillette had been established as the world’s foremost interpreter of Holmes on stage—having played him approximately 1300 times since his 1899 debut. This newly-restored edition, thanks to the monumental efforts of both the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and la Cinémathèque française, represents the sole surviving appearance of Gillette’s Holmes on film.

The film faithfully retains the play’s famous set pieces—Holmes’s encounter with Professor Moriarty, his daring escape from the Stepney Gas Chamber, and the tour-de-force deductions. It also illustrates how Gillette, who wrote the adaptation himself, wove bits from Conan Doyle’s stories ranging from “A Scandal in Bohemia” to “The Final Problem,” into an original, innovative mystery play.

Film restorer Robert Byrne says, “It’s an amazing privilege to work with these reels that have been lost for generations. William Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes has ranked among the holy grails of lost film and my first glimpse of the footage confirms Gillette’s magnetism. Audiences are going to be blown away when they see the original Sherlock Holmes on screen for the first time.”

With live music by Jeff Rapsis.

Program notes by The Somerville. More info HERE.

SILENT CLASSICS, AUSSIE HORROR & MORE AT THE MUSIC BOX CHICAGO

Chicago's gorgeous Music Box Theatre is serving up some rare silent era goodness, complete with live score, and an infamous Australian outback horror classic in 35mm. Here's what's in store this week for fans of the classics....

Saturday March 11th 11:30am
BEGGARS OF LIFE (1928)
35mm print courtesy of the George Eastman Museum, permission Paramount Pictures. Preservation Funded by the Film Foundation.
After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl (Louise Brooks) tries to escape the country with a young vagabond (Richard Arlen). She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal a car in their attempt to escape the police, and reach Canada. Released more than a year before The Great Depression, the film was loosely based on Jim Tully’s novel Beggars of Life: A Hobo Autobiography,published in 1924, which describes his hardscrabble existence on the rails during the recession years of the 1890s and 1900s.

Friday March 10th & Saturday March 11th Midnight
RAZORBACK (1984 / 35mm Print)
The Australian Outback is already a region not exactly known for its hospitatly, but life there is looking all the more perilous for hunter Jake Cullen as he races to take out a wild boar - the size of a car and with a taste for human flesh - before it kills again. A down under entry in the post-JAWS cycle of killer animal flicks, RAZORBACK hits all the mid-'80s genre sweet spots, including a killer synth soundtrack and beefy, attractive effects work. As outsized and nasty as its title monster, RAZORBACK is an unthrottled Ozploitation classic, meaner than any other pig in the bush. Co presented by The Chicago Film Society

Monday March 13th 7pm
BABE: PIG IN THE CITY (1998 / 35mm Print)
Plot takes a backseat in George Miller’s (Mad Max) disorderly and psychedelic sequel, which has more in common with films like WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and THE WIZARD OF OZ than it does with its heartwarming predecessor. When circumstances force our little pink hero to leave his idyllic home for the city, he finds himself in a twisted Frankenstein of a place, a mix of Baz Luhrmann’s Paris and all the cities you’ve ever known. Babe is quickly severed from his companion Mrs. Hoggett (Magda Szubanski) and left to discover the city’s untold wonders (and horrors) alone. Bizarre characters abound in this bestial MAD MAX: a pregnant chimp in a dress, a paraplegic Jack Russell Terrier (Adam Goldberg), a poodle the color of cotton candy, and a ghastly clown (played by Mickey Rooney, of course). It’s a film that delighted critics (it was Gene Siskel’s best film pick of 1998), horrified parents, and developed a deserved cult following since its release. One website that rates media for kids produced such choice parental reviews as “It’s dark, depressing, scary, sad…How ANYONE (let alone Roger Ebert) could say this is BETTER than the first, I will never know.” I think Bob the chimpanzee (voiced by the great Steven Wright) would respond, “It’s all illusory – it’s ill, and it’s for losers.” (RL)

Includes Short Film: THE DANCING PIG (“Le cochon danseur”) (Pathé Frères, 1907) – 35mm – 4 min

Tuesday March 14th 7:00PM
SHARKNADO (2013 / DCP)
Features a discussion with SHARKNADO writer Thunder Levin & Field Museum expert Kevin Feldheim. CH Vodka will present tastings, including a delicious hurricane cocktail in The Music Box Theatre Lounge.

When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, nature's deadliest killer rules sea, land, and air as thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace.

Thunder Levin is a feature film and television director and writer. He was born and raised in New York City and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Film from NYU before moving to Los Angeles to take over Hollywood at age 23. He has written and directed three films: “Mutant Vampire Zombies From The ‘Hood!”, an independent horror/comedy starring C. Thomas Howell; “American Warships” a military action film starring Mario Van Peebles & Carl Weathers which premiered on the Syfy Channel in May 2012; and “AE Apocalypse Earth”, a science fiction film starring Adrian Paul & Richard Grieco released in May 2013. Additionally, he wrote the screenplays for the street racing action film “200 MPH”, and the pop culture phenomenon “Sharknado” series of TV movies for the Syfy Channel. He lives in Santa Monica, CA and is developing several TV series, feature film projects, and a comic book series. He is a lifelong sailor and car enthusiast who’s recently taken up motorcycle riding and is at work on his first novel. Thunder is his real name. Please don’t ask why.

Kevin Feldheim is the A. Watson III Manager of the Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution. His research focuses on inferring the mating system and population biology of sharks using genetic markers called microsatellites, although he is broadly interested in many organisms. Microsatellites are short, tandem repeats in DNA that are extremely useful in identifying individuals. In fact, these are the same types of genetic markers that are used in court cases and paternity tests. The Field Museum use these markers in their DNA lab to answer similar questions in other animals, plants, and fungi.

Program Notes by The Music Box Theatre.