Silent Sundays
TORONTO'S CELEBRATED ONGOING EXPLORATION OF SILENT CINEMA!
Coming Next: The Gold Rush (1925)
SUNDAY, JAN. 27, 2013, 4 P.M.
The Little Tramp heads to the Yukon in this great Charlie Chaplin favorite with some unforgettable scenes: the ingenious dancing rolls and the Thanksgiving dinner of an old boiled boot (actually liquorice). Come and enjoy Chaplin's comedic genius, accompanied by live piano, in the Revue's Silent Sunday celebration of silent cinema. Tickets: $10/$13.
The Lost World (1925)
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2011, 4 P.M.
Our Silent Sunday celebration of early cinema presents the pioneering silent The Lost World from 1925, which features some remarkable stop-motion special effects by animator Willis O'Brien.
Composer and pianist Tania Gill of the Tania Gill Quartent will accompany the silent screening on the piano for the Sunday, December 9, 4 p.m. foray into a land of dinosaurs.
Simulating action by moving models and puppets and photographing the small changes frame by frame on film can be traced to 1897. During the first decades of the 20th century, there were some remarkable stop-motion creations, including Wladyslaw Starewicz’s insect-puppet dramas.
The Lost World, starring Wallace Beery, takes place on a Venezuelan plateau where dinosaurs roam. O’Brien made the prehistoric creatures come alive, honing his skills for his later work on King Kong.
This Silent Sunday program will include a very special screening of the animated 1914 short Gertie the Dinosaur. Its creator, Winsor McKay, used to accompany the film on the vaudeville circuit and interact with the action. We'll have some special live action of our own to accompany the film.
The Silent Film series, now in its fourth season, is curated by media archivist Alicia Fletcher and journalist Eric Veillette.
THE LOST WORLD (1925)
Dir. by Harry O. Hoyt
Based on the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Starring Wallace Beery, Bessie Love, Lewis Stone
Special Effects by Willis O'Brien
16mm | 106 mins.
Members - $10
Non Members - $13
Past Silent Sundays Screenings:
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920)
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 4 P.M.
- Directed by John S. Robertson
- Starring John Barrymore, Brandon Hurst, Nita Naldi
- Based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson
- B&W | 16mm
- Program length: 95 min.
Silent Sundays, which is organized by journalist and film buff Eric Veillette, returns for the Halloween season with John Barrymore's bravura performance in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella about man's internal struggle with good and evil.
The celebrated actor, who had his own persoanl demons to contend with, played the character without the use of prosthetics or heavy makeup, instead relying on the ability to contort his face to chilling effect.
Barrymore's 1920 turn as the dual characters was not the first film adaptation of Stevenson's story -- five earlier versions had been released, among them a lost 1908 version by William Selig. The same year that Barrymore played the role, Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Casablanca) also played the characters in Der Januskopf, directed by F.W. Murnau.
The feature will be preceded by a short, silent adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher.
Featuring live piano accompaniment by William O'Meara.
Sunday, April 29, 4 p.m.
THE LAST LAUGH (Der Letzte Mann – 1924)
- Directed by F.W. Murnau
- Written by Carl Mayer
- Starring Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft
- 75 mins | 16mm
Introduced by Charlie Keil, associate professor of Cinema Studies, University of Toronto.
Accompanied live on the piano by Laura Silberberg.
As well as this masterpiece of German silent cinema, you'll see Glimpses of Toronto, a late 1920s silent travelogue showing Toronto at the time of The Last Laugh's Ontario premiere in 1928.
The Silent Sundays program is curated by Eric Veillette, journalist, film historian and collector.
WINGS
Sunday, February 26, 4 p.m.
- Directed by William A. Wellman
- Starring Clara Bow, Charles Rogers, Richard Arlen, Gary Cooper
- Written by John Monk Sanders & Hope Loring
- 1927
- 139 min (plus intermission)
- 16mm
Featuring live piano accompaniment by William O’Meara.
This film won the first Best Picture Academy Award ever given out. It was the only silent film ever to have taken that coveted top spot.
The film helped launch Gary Cooper on his way to super stardom.
Director Wellman, Arlen and John Monk Saunders, all had experience as aviators. Arlen did his own flying and Rogers was trained to fly so that he, too, could do his airborn closeup. There was one fatal crash during the filming.
Toronto Star critic Peter Howell recently wrote about Wings in his column.
After you watch this first Best Film Oscar winner, why not stay at The Revue for the full Academy Awards on the big screen! With popcorn!
The Cat and the Canary
Sunday, October 30 at 4:00 p.m.
- Directed by Paul Leni
- Starring Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Gertrude Astor
- Live piano accompaniment by Laura Silberberg
- 82 mins
- Unrated
Silent Sundays returns just in time for Halloween with this classic, spooky gem which features just enough laughs to entertain the kids! The Cat and the Canary was dubbed "The Mystery Thriller of the stage filmed with new effects!"
Pianist Laura Silberberg accompanies this moody yet funny silent film which introduces Annabelle West (La Plante) as the sole inheritor of a family will, provided she is deemed sane. Events take a mysterious turn when the lawyer disappears and Annabelle's sanity comes into question.
Admission: $7 for kids 12 and under
$10 for seniors and Revue members
$12 for non-members
Earlier Silent Sundays:
Don Q Son of Zorro
Sunday, May 26 at 4:00 p.m.
- Directed by Donald Crisp
- Starring Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Astor
- Live piano accompaniment by William O’Meara
- 111 mins
- Rated G
Don Cesar (Fairbanks), son of Zorro, is framed for murder while visiting Spain, and becomes the whip-wielding outlaw Don Q.
Pianist Bill O'Meara accompanies this 1925 swashbuckler, the sequel to the Mark of Zorro (1920), which cemented Fairbanks' status as a star.
Sergei Eisenstein's STRIKE and Charlie Chaplin's WORK
May 1, 4:00 p.m.
Strike (1925)
- Directed by Sergei Eisenstein
- Starring Mikhail Gomorov, Maksim Shtraukh, Grigori Aleksandrov
- Live piano accompaniment by William O’Meara
- 82 mins
- Rated G
Work (1915)
- Directed by Charlie Chaplin
- Starring Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Charles Inslee
- Live piano accompaniment by William O’Meara
- Rated G
Silent Sundays returns just in time for May Day! Strike, the ambitious first feature by the renown director of The Battleship Potemkin (1925) tells the story of a factory workers revolt in pre-revolutionary Russia.
In this look at oppression and individualism, Eisenstein's sweeping camera motifs and juxtaposed montages innovated upon the cinematic language created by his fore-runners.
The feature will be preceded by a short, Work (1915), where Charlie Chaplin—who would later be no stranger to the plight of the labour movement—plays a paperhanger who causes nothing but grief for his rich bos.
Featuring live piano accompaniment by the acclaimed William O'Meara.
Programme length: 104 min.
Here's what people are saying about Silent Sundays:
"Silent Sundays transport moviegoers back to a time when films had no sound and stop-motion was as cutting-edge as 3-D is today!"
"... the atmosphere is so convincing it makes you want to check that your bonnet isn't blocking anyone's view."
"The audience roars with laughter."
"For all that this Silent Sunday lacks in technical wizardry, it makes up for with a simple charm rarely duplicated in cinema today."
For more on silent film, visit curator and programmer Eric Veillette's Silent Toronto website.