The Silent Treatment
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ALL THE NEWS FIT TO HEAR • VOLUME 09 • NUMBER 04 • WINTER 2015 BAMPFA GRAND OPENING New Facility Will Screen Retro of Jean Epstein's Silent Classics BERKELEY, CA. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is renowned internationally as one of the best venues for experiencing his- torical and contemporary world cin- ema. Totaling 83,000 square feet, the new BAMPFA combines serene spac- es for viewing art and film with pub- lic areas that will inspire with fresh, imaginative design. Forward-looking and versatile, the project integrates a repurposed building—the former UC Berkeley printing plant, at the corner of Oxford and Center Streets—with a dramatic new structure. BAMPFA opened its new down- town Berkeley building to the public on January 31, 2016, and its state-of- the-art film theater will continue to honor cinema in the widest possible their love of the movies in the series Study Center, galleries, store, and sense. During the inaugural year in Cinema Mon Amour. cafe. (For additional information, the new building, international and During March and April, cinema vist http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/) local filmmakers, critics, special fans will be treated to a number of guests, and experts on film willshare Jean Epstein’s innovative and thought provoking silent films such as Coeur MOTHERS OF MEN Fidèle (The Faithful Heart, 1923), The Restoration of an Early L'auberge Rouge (The Red Inn, Women's Suffrage Film 1923), Le Lion Des Mogols (The Lion of the Moguls, 1924), Le Dou- Mothers of Men, made in 1917, ble Amour (Double Love, 1925), Six is one the few surviving women’s Et Demin, Onze (Six and a Half by suffrage films with the added distinc- Eleven, 1927), La Chute de la Mâi- tion that it was made in the San Fran- son Usher (The Fall of the House of cisco Bay Area. Usher, 1928), and Finis Terrae (End Starring Dorothy Davenport, of the Earth, 1929), most of which Mothers of Men (a.k.a. Every Wom- will feature Judith Rosenberg playing an’s Problem) was penned by no- live accompaniment on the piano. table playwright Hal Reid (father of BAMPFA patrons will enjoy two silent film actor Wallace Reid) and cutting edge film theaters (232 and depicts the first woman to be elected 33 seats, respectively), an exterior governor in the United States. LED screen for occasional outdoor A film made just three years be- La Chute de la Maison Usher programs, and easier accessibility to fore the 19th Amendment was rati- the well-appointed Film Library and fied (which allowed women to vote), Mothers of Men attempted to enter world premiere at the BFI in London into the suffrage campaign by show- in December 2015. PEOPLE WITH ing the nation how strong women can Robin Baker, the BFI National be if allowed to hold political office. Archive head curator, said the film NO TOMORROW “demonstrated the vitality and imagi- Rediscovered Polish Silent Film nation of Disney’s animation at a key point in his early career,” add- ing “What a joyful treat to discover POLAND. People With No To- a long-lost Walt Disney film in the morrow (Ludzie Bez Jutra) explores BFI national archive, and to be able actual events that took place 125 to show it to a whole new audience years ago, namely the ill-starred love 87 years after it was made.” affair between Polish actress Maria The film entered the archive 34 Wisnowska and Russian cavalry offi- Dorothy Davenport years ago, part of a job lot from a cer Alexander Bartenev. The Russian Soho film laboratory that had gone hussar killed his lover in a notorious The only known film elements out of business. The stock was dated crime of passion in June 1890 at the are held outside the United States, 1931 and there was nothing to indi- actress’s Warsaw apartment. so a collaboration between the Brit- cate it was an important lost film. The ish Film Institute, the San Francisco discovery was made by a researcher Silent Film Festival, and the Library browsing the BFI archive catalogue of Congress was formed to save what for lost Disney titles, recognizing was remaining of the deteriorating that the words “Sleigh Bells” could film. All that is required is to raise mean it was the missing short film. the funds for the laboratory work, so Sleigh Bells features Oswald in a campaign goal of $60,000 has been an ice hockey game against a winter set, and so far more than half of that wonderland backdrop and has surreal money has been pledged to complete touches with the rabbit at one point the restoration. removing his ear to make a balloon. Rescuing and resurrecting Moth- There’s also an elephant and a laugh- The film, by noted director Alek- ing donkey, who gets the puck stuck ers of Men presents an incredible sander Hertz, premiered in 1921, but in his mouth. it was only recently rediscovered in opportunity to save and share this Andrew Millstein, president of Germany’s Bundesarchiv. A fresh important film. Please visit the offi- Walt Disney Animation Studios, said restoration of the feature premiered cial website www.mothersfilm.com the company was thrilled to be col- on December 15th and 16th, 2015, for up-to-date info on the project, its laborating with the BFI on restora- in the cities of Warsaw and Kraków. progress, and how to help reach the tion of the short Oswald film. “The (http://www.thenews.pl/1/11/ campaign goal. Oswald shorts are an important part Artykul/232474,Rediscovered- of our studios’ history and we have Polish-film-set-for-21st-century- been working with film archives and premiere#sthash.2U5G3kIj.dpuf) Lost Walt Disney Film private collectors all around the world Discovered at BFI to research the missing titles.” (http:// TST BOOKCORNER www.theguardian.com/film/2015/ By Mark Brown (Excerpted Article) nov/03/lost-walt-disney-film-discov- The Ice Cream Blonde: ered-in-british-film-institute-archive) A long-lost Walt Disney film The Whirlwind Life and Mysterious featuring his first animated charac- ter, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, has Death of Thelma Todd been discovered tucked away in the national archive of the British Film By Michelle Morgan Institute. A beloved film comedienne who The BFI announced the remark- able discovery of the six-minute film worked alongside the Marx Brothers, Sleigh Bells, unseen since its release Laurel and Hardy, and dozens of oth- in 1928, and feared lost forever. The ers, Thelma Todd was a rare Golden film has since been restored by Walt Age star who successfully crossed Disney Animation Studios and had a over from silent films to talkies. This authoritative new biography traces HOME ENTERTAINMENT Todd’s life from a vivacious little The Hirschfeld Century: girl who tried to assuage her parents’ grief over her brother’s death, to an Portrait of an Artist and His Age The Undesirable (1915) aspiring teacher turned reluctant beauty queen, to an outspoken movie By Al Hirschfeld. The Undesirable, a silent film starlet and restaurateur. Al Hirschfeld redefined carica- treasure thought to be lost forever, ture and exemplified Broadway and was recently discovered in the base- Hollywood, enchanting generations ment of the Hungarian House cultur- with his mastery of line. His art ap- al center in New York and returned peared in every major publication to Hungary for restoration. An eight- during nine decades of the twentieth month restoration and digitization and twenty-first centuries, as well as process was completed by the Hun- on numerous book, record, and pro- garian Filmlab, with support from the gram covers; film posters and public- Hungarian National Digital Archive ity art; and on fifteen U.S. postage and Film Institute, the Hungarian stamps. National Film Fund, and the Hungar- Now, The Hirschfeld Century ian National Film Foundation. brings together for the first time the artist’s extraordinary eighty-two- year career, revealed in more than 360 of his iconic black-and-white and color drawings, illustrations, and photographs. The book also ex- plores his influences, his techniques, his evolution from his earliest works to his last drawings, and includes a Increasingly disenchanted with biographical text by David Leopold, Hollywood, Todd opened Thelma who, as archivist to the artist, worked side by side with him and has spent Noted Hollywood producer An- Todd's Sidewalk Café in 1934, a hot drew Vajna (Terminator, Rambo, spot that attracted fans, tourists, and more than twenty years document- ing the artist’s extraordinary output. Nixon, Angel Heart) played a ma- celebrities. Despite her success in jor role in overseeing the restoration (www.AlHirschfeldFoundation.org). film and business, the beautiful ac- process of The Undesirable, which tress was privately having a difficult features a newly commissioned score year—receiving disturbing threats by Attila Pacsay (the renowned com- from a stranger known as “the Ace” poser of the Academy Award nomi- and having her home ransacked. nated short, The Maestro) performed When she was found dead in a by the Pannonia Symphony Orches- garage near her café, an inquest con- tra and conducted by Peter Illenyi. cluded that her death, at age twenty- Available now in DVD and Blu-ray. nine, was accidental. In a thorough (www.olivefilms.com) new investigation that draws on in- terviews, photographs, documents, TST EDITED & PUBLISHED BY: and extortion notes—much of which have not been previously available to Brandee B. Cox: the public—the author offers a com- Co-founder & Content Manager pelling new theory, suggesting the se- Steven K. Hill: quence of events on the night of her Co-founder & Graphic Design death and arguing what many people Contact us at: [email protected] have long suspected: that Thelma Website: www.tstnews.net was murdered.