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ACTORS OF SOUND

February 28, 2018 By Leave a Comment

ACTORS OF SOUND

One of my favorite cinema stories is about KING KONG and the trouble it ran into with the censors even in that pre-Code time of 1933. It wasn’t Fay Wray in her slinky satin negligee, it wasn’t dinosaurs tearing each other apart. No, the only censored bit of KING KONG was the sound of Kong… Read More »

Tagged With: cinema history, digital sound, film history, foley artist, Foley sound, John Foley, King Kong, movie history, sound effects

2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival — Anita Monga Interview

May 30, 2017 By 1 Comment

2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival — Anita Monga Interview

I always look forward to my annual interview with Anita Monga, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. A genteel woman with a sly sense of humor and a wealth of knowledge about cinema history, she never fails to delight in both her conversation and the dynamic cross-section of films that she programs… Read More »

Tagged With: Ana Pavlova, Anita Monga, BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, Cecil B. DeMille, cinema history, Cinémathèque Française, Clara Bow, D.W. Griffith, DJ Spooky, Douglas Fairbanks, Ernst Lubitsch, film preservation, film restoration, Georges Meliès, Harold Lloyd, Library of Congress, Lois Weber, Max Fleischer, Oscar Micheaux, Paul Robeson, Rob Byrne, Serge Bromberg, Sergei Eisenstein, silent film, THE FRESHMAN, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, Universal Pictures

Anita Monga on the 2016 San Francisco Silent Film Festival

June 1, 2016 By 1 Comment

Anita Monga on the 2016 San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Few people speak about silent cinema with such authority and such affection as Anita Monga, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. When we spoke on May 16, 2016, it was to discuss not just the dynamic slate of films at this year’s festival, its 21st, but also the work that the festival… Read More »

Tagged With: Abel Gance, Albatross Studios, Anthony Asquith, BFI, Bryony Dixon, Castro Theatre, cinema history, Cinemateque Francais, Douglas Fairbanks Sr, Emil Jannings, Ernst Lubitsch, film history, film restoration, Guenter Buchwald, Hal Roach, Hayes Code, John Mirsalis, Laurel and Hardy, Louise Brooks, Nanook of the North, Oakland Symphony chorus, Oscar Micheaux, Ozu, pie fight, Pola Negri, Rene Clair, Rob Byrne, San Francisco, silent cinema, silent film, Silent Film Festival, The Battle of the Century, Universal Pictures, Within Our Gates

HOLLYWOOD BEFORE THE CODE: SEX! CRIME! HORROR! with Elliot Lavine, Tourguide

February 23, 2016 By Leave a Comment

HOLLYWOOD BEFORE THE CODE: SEX! CRIME! HORROR! with Elliot Lavine, Tourguide

If you had to sum up what it’s like to talk with Elliot Lavine, cinema programmer extraordinaire, scholar of film history and engaging raconteur, it might be the moment when an emergency vehicle went by the room where I was interviewing him on February 17, 2106. While ruminating on studio policies about film restoration, he… Read More »

Tagged With: African-American, Al Capone, Barbara Stanwyck, Cecil B. DeMille, censorship, cinema history, cultural upheaval, DOWNSTAIRS, economic upheaval, Edward G. Robinson, film history, FREAKS, gambling addiction, GONE WITH THE WIND, Great Depression, Greta Garbo, Howard Hawks, Howard Hughes, Irving Pichel, Joan Blondell, John Gilbert, Lee Garmes, licentiousness, Louis B. Meyer, miscegenation, Paul Muni, pre-code Hollywood, race relations, SAFE IN HELL, SCARFACE, Sessue Hayakawa, sex addiction, Tallulah Bankhead, THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN, THE CHEAT, THREE ON A MATCH, Todd Browning, TWO SECONDS, WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD, WIlliam Wellman

Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films talks paternal influences, cocktail-swilling elephants, and when a lobster is not a lobster.

May 26, 2015 By 1 Comment

Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films talks paternal influences, cocktail-swilling elephants, and when a lobster is not a lobster.

Serge Bromberg, courtesy of the company he founded, Lobster Films, has been discovering and restoring films from the silent era through the 1960s for 25 years. The excuse for myinterview (I’ve wanted to talk to him for years) was his imminent appearance at the 20th anniversary of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which had… Read More »

Tagged With: 1920s Paris, Buster Keaton, Charley Bowers, cinema, cinema history, film archivist, film historian, film preservation, film restoration, French Surrealists, Lobster Films, San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Serge Bromberg, silent film

Paul Mariano & Kurt Norton Reveal THESE AMAZING SHADOWS

September 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Paul Mariano & Kurt Norton Reveal THESE AMAZING SHADOWS

Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton brought their love of film to their documentary, THESE AMAZING SHADOWS, but they were interested in doing more than paying tribute to an art from that they loved, they wanted to put it into the context of the larger culture, hence using The National Film Registry as the framework. The… Read More »

Tagged With: Christopher Nolan, cinema history, culture, D.W. Griffith, documentary, film preservation, film stock, John Singleton, Kurt Norton, media, movie history, National Film Registery, Paul Mariano, Rob Reiner, society, THE BIRTH OF A NATION, THESE AMAZING SHADOWS

Sacha Gervasi Dissects HITCHCOCK

September 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Sacha Gervasi Dissects HITCHCOCK

Sacha Gervasi had the advantage of knowing for a fact that he would not be getting the job when he went to talk to the studio about directing HITCHCOCK, so he was completely relaxed and honest as he took the meeting. When I spoke with Sacha Gervasi on November 6, 2012, that’s where I wanted to… Read More »

Tagged With: "Making of Psycho", Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reveille, Anthony Hopkins, ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL, based on a true story, book to film, cinema, cinema history, director, film, getting the job, Helen Mirren, Hollywood legend, Jamie Leigh Curtis, Janet Leigh, marriage, movie, narrative, pigeonhole, PSYCHO, Sacha Gervasi, Stephen Rebello

Anita Monga and the 2013 Silent Film Festival Winter Program

September 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Anita Monga and the 2013 Silent Film Festival Winter Program

For Anita Monga, silent film is more than just a quaint curiosity. It’s as vibrant and immediate an art form as any other, as well as the mainspring of modern cinema. When I spoke to her on February 1, 2013, she pointed this out with something I had not thought of before. The first section… Read More »

Tagged With: Anita Monga, Buster Keaton, Castro Theater, cinema, cinema history, Douglas Farirbanks, Faust, film festival, Mary Pickford, San Francisco Silent Film Festival, silent film, Snow White, WALL-E, Walt Disney

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