This is topic Glory of the Silents in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=001101
Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 08-03-2002, 07:13 PM:
I had the opportunity to see the 1925 version of BEN HUR last night in a beautiful restored motion picture palace with a magnificent Robert Morton pipe organ. Highest compliments to Clark Wilson who created and performed the score. If any of you get the opportunity to see a silent film with a musical accompaniment, I would highly recommend it. It is a unique art form that is disappearing, since there are so few organists who can do the job. Most of the greats, like the incredible Gaylord Carter, have died, so this is becoming a lost art.
And, seeing it live DOES make a difference. Recorded scores are nice, but there is nothing to compare to a live performance, either by an organist or an orchestra.
Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 08-04-2002, 11:01 PM:
I attended a screening of Sergie Eisenstein's Potemkin, with only a single live pianist for sound. Although I had seen the film several times and used it in my teaching, during this showing my eyes flooded my face with tears.Once I projected a John Barrymore film at the Carnegie Hall Cinema
from a silent 16mm print on a Hortson projector. A famous organist
supplied the sound. At the end, I shone a pink spotlight on him as he took his bows to a thunderous, standing ovation.
Yes, nothing compares, for emotional evocativeness, to a classic silent film with expert live music.
Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 08-04-2002, 11:07 PM:
Last year I ran Lang's Die Nibelungen, and the only way the archive in Germany would allow us to get the restored print was if we would agree to fly in the German pianist that painstakingly reworked the original score for solo piano. I put a mic in the house so that I could hear his performance, and it was mindblowing. I've seen silents accompanied before, but that was incredible. It made me yearn for the days when such efforts were more commonplace.
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-05-2002, 02:18 AM:
Is that a recent restoration? The BFI's current print consists of part 1 from an element held by the New Zealand film archive with English intertitles, which had sections missing (e.g. the animated sequence) and looked pretty duped and washed out. Part 2 was a Stiftung Deutsches Kinemathek restoration, lovely picture quality and German intertitles. Both are b/w, though I understand that tint records survive for the entire film.
Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 08-05-2002, 04:58 AM:
The 1925 version of BEN HUR had several showings at the London Palladium just a few years ago. I have no idea who did the musical accompaniment. There must have been a terrific atmosphere in this very old famous theatre. I seem to remember reading that the Palladium Theatre did also show a few films in its early days.The chief projectionist, Joe Quick, who I worked under at the Regal (ABC), Kingston-upon-Thames, previously was the chief operator (as they were called in those days) at the Regal, Marble Arch, did the first London premiere run of BEN HUR.
The Regal, Marble Arch, later renamed Odeon, during the 1950s was equipped with four BTH projectors for 3D. Later demolished for a new build Odeon with a D-150 screen. Now converted into a multi 5 screen
I have actually shown one silent 35mm film, which was for the BFI at Cinema City, Chalk Farm, a temporary cinema & exhibition at the Roundhouse Theatre. I think the film title was NURSE CAVELL, anyway it was about Florence Nightingale. Projected at 18 fps on Kalee 20 projectors, with live piano accompaniment.
Gerard,
The Projected Picture Trust have just installed a 16mm Hortson projector, replacing a Philips in the projection box of the Enigma Cinema, Bletchley Park.
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-05-2002, 06:09 AM:
If it was silent, the film would probably have been Dawn (1928), directed by Herbert Wilcox. It caused quite a controversy at the time, because the German Embassy tried to get it banned. Some quite intense behind-the-scenes lobbying took place between the Home Office, the BBFC and several major distribution companies, as a result of which the film was drastically cut (including all of the execution scene) and its distribution curtailed. It seems that the British government didn't want to give Germany any excuse to walk away from quite sensitive renegotiations of two of the key provisions of the Versailles treaty, dealing with rearmament.The film was remade by Wilcox as Nurse Edith Cavell in September 1939, starrring his wife Anna Neagle. Needless to say there was a lot less political controversy over antagonising the Germans!
Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 08-05-2002, 07:53 AM:
In the spring of 1966 we ran a series called "Tuesday Nights at the Trans-Lux" which was held in the Trans-Lux 85th Street Theatre on Madison Avenue. This was an Art Deco Theatre with a total of 544 seats. Subscriptions were sold for a period of 12 weeks. All silent films were shown and the accompanist, on the piano, was the musical director from the New York Metropolitan Opera. The series sold out and the films were fantastic. It was a thrilling series.
Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 08-05-2002, 07:58 AM:
Thank you Leo, for your most interesting and informative post (as always). I knew I would have a problem with the correct title.I have in fact shown another ‘silent’ but it did have a soundtrack. Pasted from 12.23.2001.
quote:
A nice surprise for me some 30 years ago was when I was helping out the British Film Institute at the converted Roundhouse Theatre Chalk Farm, London (formally a steam engine train depot with turntable), for the BFI Cinema City Exhibition. One night I showed Harold Lloyd’s film “Safety Last “ plus a couple of shorts, the prints were Mr Lloyd’s personal ones, they were also struck special with academy ratio within 1.85:1 wide frame, the mono soundtrack was magnetic in place of the optical track although still coated 4 track but with standard perforations and not foxhole, most unusual. After the screening Harold Lloyd visited the projection box and thanked me for the presentation. The equipment at the Roundhouse, Kalee 20 projectors, Kalee xenons, Kalee Duosonic sound with 4 track magnetic penthouses to mono only.
Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 08-05-2002, 12:47 PM:
Leo,
I believe that it was a recent restoration, but I am not sure. The prints {Parts I & II) were wonderful as I remember, and if memory serves me right, they were neither tinted nor toned. The prints came from the Munich Filmmuseum.