Silent Sundays returns: Sunday, Jan. 15
Lillian Gish stars in La Boheme
by Staff
Featuring live piano accompaniment by William O’Meara.
About the Film:
With the modern-day silent film The Artist in full Oscar contention, Silent Sundays returns with a true gem from the silent era. Two of its greatest stars (Gish, Gilbert) and one of its greatest directors (Vidor) presented the screen’s first adaptation of Puccini’s opera, La Boheme. Gish, at the height of her stardom, plays Mimi, an orphaned embroiderer about to lose her Paris apartment, who falls in love with Rodolphe (Gilbert), a playwright in the same predicament. Rarely screened and unavailable on DVD in Canada, this devastating love story was a box office smash for Metro Goldwyn Mayer upon its release and played to packed houses for two solid weeks in Toronto’s Regent Theatre in May, 1926.
About the Accompanist:
Musical accompaniment was an integral part of the silent era. The Revue once again welcomes pianist William O’Meara, who has gained worldwide recognition for his silent film work. He has performed at the TIFF Cinematheque, Nuit Blanche, the Toronto Silent Film Festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Podenone, Italy and as far east as Perm, Russia, where he played the organ to the noted Russian silent, Man with a Movie Camera.
About the Series
Silent Sundays launched in 2009 with the intention of screening silent films in an authentic silent movie house like The Revue, which opened in 1912. By selecting family-friendly comedies and adventure films, the series caters to the Revue’s neighbourhood crowd, and the results have consistently filled the Revue’s seats with cinephiles, families and the uninitiated alike. The National Post‘s Lia Grainger says the atmosphere “is so convincing it makes you want to check that your bonnet isn’t blocking anyone’s view” and that it showcases “a simple charm rarely duplicated in cinema today.”
Silent Sundays screens at the Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles, on Sunday, January 15, 4pm. Admission is $12 for non-members, $10 members, and $7 for seniors and children. Doors open at 3:45PM. Come early and enjoy our silent era slideshow and hear the top musical hits of 1926!