Silent Treatment
In addition to its annual showcase of pre-talkie cinema, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents smaller events, and they, too, are a treat. Coming up, on that note, is
A Day of Silents, a diverse and sure-to-be fun five-program bill.
The Black Pirate (1926), starring a swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks, has been noted for its exhilarating swordplay and impressive underwater choreography.
Around China with a Movie Camera (compiled in 2015) features shorts, travelogues, and newsreels picturing early 20th-century China. The supernatural proto-noir
The Inhuman Woman (1924) stars soprano Georgette Leblanc as an alluring singer whose fans abandon her when she appears to have caused a suicide. Other films on the star-packed slate feature Anna May Wong and Harry Houdini. Live music, of course, will accompany the silents, provided by Donald Sosin and the Alloy Orchestra. Special guests will include Tracey Goessel, author of
The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks, and Rick Schmidlin, restorer of
The Grim Game, the Houdini adventure.
— Anita Katz
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