As I mentioned in my last post, I chose Danny Glover on Saturday over Mel Novikoff Award winner Kevin Brownlow, one of the world’s foremost experts on silent films, because I was seeing Brownlow on Sunday. I just did.
Billed as an “Introduction to Silents,– Brownlow’s presentation probably would have confused anyone truly unfamiliar with the medium. But I doubt such a person was in the audience. Everyone was an enthusiast. Brownlow showed a selection of short films and feature excerpts from his personal collection, all in 35mm, many in excellent condition. He introduced each clip with a bit of its historical importance, some context, or how that film was saved from the ravages of time that have destroyed maybe 80% of all silent films.
He showed one complete, legitimate masterpiece: Buster Keaton’s early two-reeler, “One Week.– Keaton’s little tale of a marriage’s first seven days–as the couple builds and tries to live in a do-it-yourself-house–overflows with original, ambitious, visually breath-taking, and hilarious gags. To see it in 35mm, with an enthusiastic audience and live accompaniment, is a very special treat, indeed.
Other highlights included a 1900 “actuality” of a New York street, a Broncho Billy adventure shot in San Rafael, and a thrilling burning orphanage climax to a minor 1926 MGM feature.
As usual, local treasure Judith Rosenberg–a fixture at the Pacific Film Archive and the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum–kept the wide variety of movies alive with her expertise at the piano.
Brownlow answered a few questions after the presentation. Someone asked him if the coming of sound ruined the art of film. Brownlow said it hadn’t; that sound added an important dimension that took film in new and better directions. But in doing so, it destroyed an art form.
Bayflicks 