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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

Mark Burton and Richard Starzak — Puns, Cryptomnesia, and Dreams with SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

August 6, 2015 By 1 Comment

Mark Burton and Richard Starzak — Puns, Cryptomnesia, and Dreams with SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

Aardman Animation.  For hordes of animation fans, you don’t need to say anything else about a film in order to get them to pack a theater. I, however, will add that the latest from that storied studio, the SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE, is everything that not just a great Aardman film should be, but also… Read More »

Tagged With: A Close Shave, Aardman Animation, animation, animators, cinema, Cryptomnesia, film, Mark Burton, movie, Nick Park, Peter Lord, plasticine, puns, puppet runner, Richard Starzak, Shaun the Sheep, sheep, silent film, stop-frame animation, stop-motion, Tom and Jerry cartoons, Vladimir Putin, Wallace and Gromit

20 Years of Glorious Silence — Anita Monga on the 2015 San Francisco Silent Film Festival

May 28, 2015 By 1 Comment

20 Years of Glorious Silence — Anita Monga on the 2015 San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Anita Monga, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, is a treasure trove of all things to do with silent cinema. Every time I talk with her, I learn something new, and every year at the festival that she oversees so lovingly, I see a selection of films that are the perfect distillation… Read More »

Tagged With: African-American cinema, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, Anita Monga, avante-garde, BEN-HUR, Bert Williams, BFI, Blanche Sweet, Boris Karloff, British Film Institute, Bruce Goldstein, Carl Davis, Castro Theatre, CAVE OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, Charley Bowers, Cinematique Francaise, Clarence Brown, Colleen Moore, Dimitri Kirsanoff, EarPlay, EMAK-BAKIA, Film Forum, Frank Capra, Greta Garbo, Hearst Castle, John Gilbert, Julia Morgan, Knut Hamsun, Lars Hansen, LIME KILN CLUB FIELD DAY, Louis B Mayer. Matti Bye Ensemble, Lusitania, Man Ray, MÉNILMONTANT, MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, NORRTULLSLIGAN, Palace of Fine Arts, Panama Pacific International Exhibition, Paul McGann, Pauline Kael, PPIE, Rob Byrne, San Francisco earthquake, Serge Bromberg, SF Silent Film Festival, silent film, Stephen Horne, Surrealists, Technicolor, THE ARTIST, THE DEADLIER SEX, THE DONOVAN AFFAIR, THE GHOST TRAIN, VISAGE D’ENFANTS, WHEN THE EARTH TREMBLED, William Gillette, William Randolph Hearst

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

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!

October 21, 2014 By Leave a Comment

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!

Guy Maddin’s BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! is such a purely, viscerally visual experience that, like trying to describe a dream, much is lost when trying to put the language of the subconscious into words. And that is what Maddin is working with here. Boasting no spoken dialogue, eccentric black-and-white exposures, he bills this as a… Read More »

Tagged With: black and white cinematography, Guy Maddin, lighthouse, memoir, memory, mother-son relationship, silent film, tortured sexuality

Michel Hazanavicius is THE ARTIST

September 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Michel Hazanavicius is THE ARTIST

Michel Hazanavicius enjoys evoking bygone cinematic eras, as in his spy spoof set in the 1950s, OSS 117 – NEST OF SPIES. When he decided the time was right to make THE ARTIST, a silent film, the first person he had to convince about the viability of his idea was himself. When I spoke to him on… Read More »

Tagged With: Berenice Bejo, cinema, French Cinema, James Cromwell, Jean DuJardin, John Goodman, Michel Hazanavicius, Missy Pyle, movie, narrative, Oscar-winner, Penelope Ann Miller, silent film, Uggo

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

Stephen Salmons and The 2003 SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL

September 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Stephen Salmons and The 2003 SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL

With co-founder Melissa Chittick, Steve Salmons started the San Francisco Silent Film Festival with a dream, excellent organizational skills, and a firm belief that there was a whole new audience just waiting to rediscover this exquisite art form. To judge by the the way the festival always packs the Castro Theater, a vintage silent movie palace seating… Read More »

Tagged With: Buster Keaton, Castro Theater, CLAIRE, Disney cartoon, Eleanor Boardman, film festival, film history, GO WEST, James Murray, King Vidor, Lon Chaney, Melissa Chittick, movie palace, San Francisco, silent film, Steve Salmons, THE CROWD, Thomas Milford, Virginia Davis

Guy Maddin Imprints His BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!

September 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Guy Maddin Imprints His BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!

Guy Maddin’s appearance at the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival marked the second consecutive year that he had brought his unique vision to that event. Last year, it was to receive the festival’s Persistance of Vision Award. This year, it was to present his latest film, BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! in its live event incarnation, complete with orchestra,… Read More »

Tagged With: Avant-garde, BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!, Canada, Canadian cinema, castrato, director, Family, foley artist, Guy Maddin, Joan Chen, lighthouse, melodrama, orphanage, screenwriter, silent film, Spike Lee, Winnipeg

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