The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a great annual event. Founded more than 20 years ago by Melissa Chittick andStephen Salmons,the festival finds silent films from every continent and screens them under ideal circumstances. Now in the hands of Stacey Wisnia(festival director) and Anita Monga(artistic director), what started out as a one-day affair has grown into a five-day immersion, beginning Wednesday, May 1, and concluding Sunday, May 5.
So? Why should I care?
First, you should care because you’re lucky. If you’re reading this, the odds are good that you live in the Bay Area, which means you can get to this festival with little effort. Because here’s the thing: This festival is not just a big local deal. It’s a big national deal. There’s nothing comparable in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles or anywhere else on this continent. The only other silent festival worth talking about in the same breath is the Pordenone silent film festival in October. That’s in the Friuli Venezia Giulia section of Italy, which is more than 11 hours away by plane, plus an hour’s drive. The Friuli wine, however, is very good.
What if I don’t even like silent movies?
Aha! If you don’t like silent movies, that almost always means you haven’t seen one. Or you’ve seen a D.W. Griffith film (my condolences). Or you’ve never seen one under the right circumstances: that is, with a huge screen, a packed house, beautiful projection (at the proper speed) and a musical score played by live musicians. You need to have that experience once in your life, because its effect can’t be imagined. At worst, you will have an interesting one-off experience. At best, you might fall in love and keep coming back.
OK, what should I see?
It depends when you’re free and how much time you want to devote. There are lots of highlights — and different kinds of highlights. There are established, guaranteed crowd-pleasers, and there are interesting films by great directors that are rarely seen. And then there are examples of solid films from the time, which give you an idea of what a good movie experience was like in the 1920s.
“The Cameraman” (1928):Buster Keaton stars in this newly restored comedy, which is still funny all these years later. It plays 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 1.
“West of Zanzibar” (1928):Irresistible, bizarre and deeply twisted. Starring朗Chaney.Directed by Tod Browning (“Dracula,” “Freaks”).It plays 9:20 p.m. Friday, May 3.
“The Wedding March” (1928):Opulent and decadent and a bit long-winded — in other words, it’s an Erich Von Stroheim picture. It plays 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 4.
Are there films by great directors?
There’s “The Oyster Princess,” a 1919 German comedy, set in America, directed by Ernst Lubitsch.I saw this once and remember only that it’s sophisticated and funny and that there is a nude scene — a bit unexpected in a movie from 100 years ago. It screens at 3 p.m. Thursday, May 2.
“You Never Know Women” is a 1926 William Wellman film. Bill Wellman Jr. says that this is the movie that proved to his father’s bosses that he had the stuff to make “Wings,” which won an Academy Award. Bill Wellman Jr., an expert on his father’s work, will be introducing the film, which screens at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 3.
这是我最喜欢的:“灯老百老汇”(1925) was directed by the great Monta Bell and stars Marion Davies in a dual role. It plays at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 4.
Does anything else look interesting?
Yes, there’s “The Love of Jeanne Ney” (1927), playing 7:10 p.m. Friday, May 3, from German director G.W. Pabst and “Sir Arne’s Treasure” (1919), 5 p.m. Sunday, May 5, from Swedish director Mauritz Stiller. Pabst is most remembered for his two movies with Louise Brooks, and Stiller is most remembered for discovering Greta Garbo. But these are major titles, rarely seen and almost never seen under screening conditions as ideal as a packed Castro Theatre.
Oh, yes, and you can’t go wrong with the closing-night film, Buster Keaton’s “Our Hospitality” (1923), about a Northern city slicker (Keaton) who returns to the South to claim his inheritance. It begins at 8 p.m.
How do I see these?
All screenings are at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., in San Francisco. Tickets range from $15 to $22 and can be purchased at the door and at the Silent Film Festival’s website, where more details about the films and the schedule can be found:www.silent.org