Download Catalogue
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Charlie Chaplin the Mutual Comedies with Music by Carl Davis
Charlie Chaplin The Mutual Comedies With music by Carl Davis A Limited Edition 2-disc Blu-ray set and a 2- disc DVD set of Charlie Chaplin’s Mutual Comedies will be released by the BFI on 18 May 2015. Previously only available on two DVD volumes from the BFI, the films have been fully restored in High Definition and brought together in a single edition for the first time. The collection features music by acclaimed silent film composer Carl Davis and a raft of special features. Charlie Chaplin entered the film industry in 1914. By 1916 he was the highest paid entertainer in the world after signing a contract with the Mutual Film Corporation for a salary of $670,000. Mutual built Chaplin his very own studio and allowed him total freedom to make 12 two-reel films during a 12-month period. Chaplin subsequently recognized that time as the most inventive and liberating of his career. These 12 films demonstrate the breadth of his abilities as both a physical entertainer and a subtle, endearing character actor. Among the classics included here are The Immigrant, which endures as a comic masterpiece; Easy Street – a watershed moment in Chaplin’s career; The Floorwalker, which shows his inventive and balletic use of mechanical props; The Vagabond, where he successfully combines pathos and comedy to create a lyrical love story and The Pawnshop which is famous for the hilarious routine in which he dissects an alarm clock. Composer Carl Davis is available for interview. The Mutual Comedies The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., The -
Feminine Charm
THE GREAT DYING A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing by Amy Purcell August, 2013 Thesis written by Amy Purcell B.S., Ohio University, 1989 M.F.A., Kent State University, 2013 Approved by Varley O’Connor, Advisor Robert W. Trogdon, Chair, Department of Psychology Raymond A. Craig, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii CHAPTER ONE Lucy Sullivan first noticed she was disappearing on Monday morning as she prepared to return to work at the Field Museum. This was two weeks after Sean had died, at the peak of Chicago’s worst heat wave in history, and two weeks after she had asked, politely, for time and space alone. The apartment smelled of the worn-out sympathies of friends. Baskets of shriveled oranges and pears and wilting lilies and roses moldered on the coffee table and mantle above the fireplace in the living room and anywhere else Lucy had found room to place them. She was certain there were even more baskets waiting for her outside the door of the apartment. She hadn’t opened the door during her seclusion, hadn’t touched the fruit or watered the plants. The idea that a dozen oranges or a clichéd peace plant would alleviate her grief brought on such an unreasonable rage that she’d decided it was best to ignore the whole lot. Outside it was pitch black, except for the sickly yellow-white pools of light illuminating the empty, elevated train tracks above North Sedgwick Avenue. -
Film Essay for "Modern Times"
Modern Times By Jeffrey Vance No human being is more responsible for cinema’s ascendance as the domi- nant form of art and entertainment in the twentieth century than Charles Chaplin. Yet, Chaplin’s importance as a historic figure is eclipsed only by his creation, the Little Tramp, who be- came an iconic figure in world cinema and culture. Chaplin translated tradi- tional theatrical forms into an emerg- ing medium and changed both cinema and culture in the process. Modern screen comedy began the moment Chaplin donned his derby hat, affixed his toothbrush moustache, and Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp character finds he has become a cog in the stepped into his impossibly large wheels of industry. Courtesy Library of Congress Collection. shoes for the first time. “Modern Times” is Chaplin’s self-conscious subjects such as strikes, riots, unemployment, pov- valedictory to the pantomime of silent film he had pio- erty, and the tyranny of automation. neered and nurtured into one of the great art forms of the twentieth century. Although technically a sound The opening title to the film reads, “Modern Times: a film, very little of the soundtrack to “Modern Times” story of industry, of individual enterprise, humanity contains dialogue. The soundtrack is primarily crusading in the pursuit of happiness.” At the Electro Chaplin’s own musical score and sound effects, as Steel Corporation, the Tramp is a worker on a factory well as a performance of a song by the Tramp in gib- conveyor belt. The little fellow’s early misadventures berish. This remarkable performance marks the only at the factory include being volunteered for a feeding time the Tramp ever spoke. -
THE ANIMATED TRAMP Charlie Chaplin's Influence on American
THE ANIMATED TRAMP Charlie Chaplin’s Influence on American Animation By Nancy Beiman SLIDE 1: Joe Grant trading card of Chaplin and Mickey Mouse Charles Chaplin became an international star concurrently with the birth and development of the animated cartoon. His influence on the animation medium was immense and continues to this day. I will discuss how American character animators, past and present, have been inspired by Chaplin’s work. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (SLIDE 2) Jeffrey Vance described Chaplin as “the pioneer subject of today’s modern multimedia marketing and merchandising tactics”, 1 “(SLIDE 3). Charlie Chaplin” comic strips began in 1915 and it was a short step from comic strips to animation. (SLIDE 4) One of two animated Chaplin series was produced by Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan Studios in 1918-19. 2 Immediately after completing the Chaplin cartoons, (SLIDE 5) Otto Messmer created Felix the Cat who was, by 1925, the most popular animated character in America. Messmer, by his own admission, based Felix’s timing and distinctive pantomime acting on Chaplin’s. 3 But no other animators of the time followed Messmer’s lead. (SLIDE 6) Animator Shamus Culhane wrote that “Right through the transition from silent films to sound cartoons none of the producers of animation paid the slightest attention to… improvements in the quality of live action comedy. Trapped by the belief that animated cartoons should be a kind of moving comic strip, all the producers, (including Walt Disney) continued to turn out films that consisted of a loose story line that supported a group of slapstick gags which were often only vaguely related to the plot….The most astonishing thing is that Walt Disney took so long to decide to break the narrow confines of slapstick, because for several decades Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton had demonstrated the superiority of good pantomime.” 4 1 Jeffrey Vance, CHAPLIN: GENIUS OF THE CINEMA, p. -
Glenn Mitchell the TRUE FAREWELL of the TRAMP
Glenn Mitchell THE TRUE FAREWELL OF THE TRAMP Good afternoon. I’d like to begin with an ending ... which we might call `the Tramp’s First Farewell’. CLIP: FINAL SCENE OF `THE TRAMP’ That, of course, was the finale to Chaplin’s 1915 short film THE TRAMP. Among Chaplin scholars – and I think there may be one or two here today! - one of the topics that often divides opinion is that concerning the first and last appearances of Chaplin’s Tramp character. It seems fair to suggest that Chaplin’s assembly of the costume for MABEL’S STRANGE PREDICAMENT marks his first appearance, even though he has money to dispose of and is therefore technically not a tramp. KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE, shot during its production, narrowly beat the film into release. Altogether more difficult is to pinpoint where Chaplin’s Tramp character appears for the last time. For many years, the general view was that the Tramp made his farewell at the end of MODERN TIMES. As everyone here will know, it was a revision of that famous conclusion to THE TRAMP, which we saw just now ... only this time he walks into the distance not alone, but with a female companion, one who’s as resourceful, and almost as resilient, as he is. CLIP: END OF `MODERN TIMES’ When I was a young collector starting out, one of the key studies of Chaplin’s work was The Films of Charlie Chaplin, published in 1965. Its authors, Gerald D. McDonald, Michael Conway and Mark Ricci said this of the end of MODERN TIMES: - No one realized it at the time, but in that moment of hopefulness we were seeing Charlie the Little Tramp for the last time. -
Lecture Outlines
21L011 The Film Experience Professor David Thorburn Lecture 1 - Introduction I. What is Film? Chemistry Novelty Manufactured object Social formation II. Think Away iPods The novelty of movement Early films and early audiences III. The Fred Ott Principle IV. Three Phases of Media Evolution Imitation Technical Advance Maturity V. "And there was Charlie" - Film as a cultural form Reference: James Agee, A Death in the Family (1957) Lecture 2 - Keaton I. The Fred Ott Principle, continued The myth of technological determinism A paradox: capitalism and the movies II. The Great Train Robbery (1903) III. The Lonedale Operator (1911) Reference: Tom Gunning, "Systematizing the Electronic Message: Narrative Form, Gender and Modernity in 'The Lonedale Operator'." In American Cinema's Transitional Era, ed. Charlie Keil and Shelley Stamp. Univ. of California Press, 1994, pp. 15-50. IV. Buster Keaton Acrobat / actor Technician / director Metaphysician / artist V. The multiplicity principle: entertainment vs. art VI. The General (1927) "A culminating text" Structure The Keaton hero: steadfast, muddling The Keaton universe: contingency Lecture 3 - Chaplin 1 I. Movies before Chaplin II. Enter Chaplin III. Chaplin's career The multiplicity principle, continued IV. The Tramp as myth V. Chaplin's world - elemental themes Lecture 4 - Chaplin 2 I. Keaton vs. Chaplin II. Three passages Cops (1922) The Gold Rush (1925) City Lights (1931) III. Modern Times (1936) Context A culminating film The gamin Sound Structure Chaplin's complexity Lecture 5 - Film as a global and cultural form I. Film as a cultural form Global vs. national cinema American vs. European cinema High culture vs. Hollywood II. -
2019-BENNY-AND-JOON.Pdf
CREATIVE TEAM KIRSTEN GUENTHER (Book) is the recipient of a Richard Rodgers Award, Rockefeller Grant, Dramatists Guild Fellowship, and a Lincoln Center Honorarium. Current projects include Universal’s Heart and Souls, Measure of Success (Amanda Lipitz Productions), Mrs. Sharp (Richard Rodgers Award workshop; Playwrights Horizons, starring Jane Krakowski, dir. Michael Greif), and writing a new book to Paramount’s Roman Holiday. She wrote the book and lyrics for Little Miss Fix-it (as seen on NBC), among others. Previously, Kirsten lived in Paris, where she worked as a Paris correspondent (usatoday.com). MFA, NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. ASCAP and Dramatists Guild. For my brother, Travis. NOLAN GASSER (Music) is a critically acclaimed composer, pianist, and musicologist—notably, the architect of Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project. He holds a PhD in Musicology from Stanford University. His original compositions have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, among others. Theatrical projects include the musicals Benny & Joon and Start Me Up and the opera The Secret Garden. His book, Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste (Macmillan), will be released on April 30, 2019, followed by his rock/world CD Border Crossing in June 2019. His TEDx Talk, “Empowering Your Musical Taste,” is available on YouTube. MINDI DICKSTEIN (Lyrics) wrote the lyrics for the Broadway musical Little Women (MTI; Ghostlight/Sh-k-boom). Benny & Joon, based on the MGM film, was a NAMT selection (2016) and had its world premiere at The Old Globe (2017). Mindi’s work has been commissioned, produced, and developed widely, including by Disney (Toy Story: The Musical), Second Stage (Snow in August), Playwrights Horizons (Steinberg Commission), ASCAP Workshop, and Lincoln Center (“Hear and Now: Contemporary Lyricists”). -
Charlie Chaplin's
Goodwins, F and James, D and Kamin, D (2017) Charlie Chaplin’s Red Letter Days: At Work with the Comic Genius. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 1442278099 Downloaded from: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/618556/ Version: Submitted Version Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Please cite the published version https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk Charlie Chaplin’s Red Letter Days At Work with the Comic Genius By Fred Goodwins Edited by Dr. David James Annotated by Dan Kamin Table of Contents Introduction: Red Letter Days 1. Charlie’s “Last” Film 2. Charlie has to “Flit” from his Studio 3. Charlie Chaplin Sends His Famous Moustache to the Red Letter 4. Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Lost Sheep’ 5. How Charlie Chaplin Got His £300 a Week Salary 6. A Straw Hat and a Puff of Wind 7. A bombshell that put Charlie Chaplin ‘on his back’ 8. When Charlie Chaplin Cried Like a Kid 9. Excitement Runs High When Charlie Chaplin “Comes Home.” 10. Charlie “On the Job” Again 11. Rehearsing for “The Floor-Walker” 12. Charlie Chaplin Talks of Other Days 13. Celebrating Charlie Chaplin’s Birthday 14. Charlie’s Wireless Message to Edna 15. Charlie Poses for “The Fireman.” 16. Charlie Chaplin’s Love for His Mother 17. Chaplin’s Success in “The Floorwalker” 18. A Chaplin Rehearsal Isn’t All Fun 19. Billy Helps to Entertain the Ladies 20. “Do I Look Worried?” 21. Playing the Part of Half a Cow! 22. “Twelve O’clock”—Charlie’s One-Man Show 23. “Speak Out Your Parts,” Says Charlie 24. Charlie’s Doings Up to Date 25. -
When Film Was Deaf (1895-1927) • THINGS MOVING WITHOUT NOISE
... Warning Concerning Copyrisht Restrictions The Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research. If electronic transmission of reserve material is used for purposes in excess of what constitutes "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. • FILM, • • A SOUND ART • • ffllCHEL CHIOI • ·• TRANSLATED ev cL1uo,1 GDRBmAn • COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS ~ New York COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS Publishers Si?ce 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2003 !es Editions de l'Etoile Translation © 2009 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chion, Michel, 1947- [Art son ore, le cinema. English] Film, a sound art/ Michel Chion ; translated by Claudia Gorbman. p. cm.-(Film and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-13776-8 (cloth: alk. paper)-ISBN 978-0-231-13777-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Sound motion pictures. 2. Motion pictures-sound effects. 3, Motion pictures-Aesthetics. I. Title. I!. Series. PN1995.7C4513 zoo9 791.4302'4-dc22 2008054795 e Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America C 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. -
Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand Also Known As: Mabel Fortescue Lived: November 9, 1892 - February 23, 1930 Worked as: co-director, comedienne, director, film actress, producer, scenario writer Worked In: United States by Simon Joyce, Jennifer Putzi Mabel Normand starred in at least one hundred and sixty-seven film shorts and twenty-three full- length features, mainly for Mack Sennett’s Keystone Film Company, and was one of the earliest silent actors to function as her own director. She was also one of the first leading performers to appear on film without a previous background in the theatre (having begun her career in modeling), to be named in the title of her films (beginning with 1912’s Mabel’s Lovers), and to have her own studio (the ill-fated Mabel Normand Feature Film Company). That her contributions to early film history are not better known is attributable in part to her involvement in the Hollywood scandals of the 1920s, and in part to our reliance on the self-interested memoirs of her better-known colleagues (especially Sennett and Charlie Chaplin) following her death at age thirty-eight. It is hard to get an accurate picture from such questionable and contradictory recollections, or from interviews with Normand herself, filtered as they often were through a sophisticated publicity operation at Keystone. Film scholars who have worked with these same sources have often proved just as discrepant and unreliable, especially in their accounts of her directorial contributions. Normand’s early career included stints at the Biograph Company, working with D. W. Griffith, and at the Vitagraph Company, yet it was her work at Keystone that solidified her image as slapstick comedienne. -
An In-Depth Look at Chaplin's Mutual Comedies by Jeffrey
An In-Depth Look at Chaplin’s Mutual Comedies By Jeffrey Vance, film historian The Floorwalker (Released: May 15, 1916) Embezzlement is the subject of The Floorwalker, Chaplin’s first film under his landmark contract with Lone Star-Mutual. Chaplin’s inspiration for the film came while he and his brother Sydney were in New York City negotiating his contract with Mutual. While walking up Sixth Avenue at Thirty-third Street, Chaplin saw a man fall down an escalator serving the adjacent elevated train station and at once realized the comic possibilities of a moving staircase. He asked his technical director, Ed Brewer, to design and construct an escalator in a department store set designed by art director and master of properties George “Scotty” Cleethorpe (who had worked for Chaplin at Essanay). “With a bare notion I would order sets, and during the building of them the art director would come to me for details, and I would bluff and give them particulars about where I wanted doors and archways.” Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, “In this desperate way I started many a comedy.” (18) After seeing The Floorwalker, Mack Sennett commented, “Why the hell didn’t we ever think of a running staircase?” (19) The Floorwalker has none of the pathos, romance, or irony of the best Chaplin Mutuals. The crudeness and cruelty of his earlier films is still evident in The Floorwalker, although the film contains a stronger plot than most of his previous films, and the moving-staircase chase was novel for 1916. A glimpse of Chaplin’s evolution to a more graceful type of screen comedy is evident in Charlie’s dance when he discovers the valise of stolen money and dives into the bag. -
Silent Film Festival
SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL A DAY OF SILENTS | DECEMBER 3, 2016 | CASTRO THEATRE MUSICIANS A DAY OF SILENTS DECEMBER 3, 2016 10:00 AM CHAPLIN AT ESSANAY Live Musical Accompaniment by Donald Sosin Introduction by David Shepard 12:15 PM SO THIS IS PARIS Live Musical Accompaniment by Donald Sosin 2:15PM STRIKE Live Musical Accompaniment by Alloy Orchestra ALLOY ORCHESTRA Working with an outrageous assemblage of peculiar 4:45PM DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS objects, Alloy Orchestra thrashes and grinds soulful Live Musical Accompaniment by Donald Sosin music from unlikely sources. Founded twenty-five Introduction by Des Buford years ago, the three-man musical ensemble performs live accompaniment its members have written ex- 7:00 PM THE LAST COMMAND pressly for classic silent films. Alloy has helped revive Live Musical Accompaniment by Alloy Orchestra some of the great masterpieces of the silent era by touring extensively, commissioning new prints, and collaborating with archives, collectors, and curators. 9:15PM SADIE THOMPSON At today’s event, the orchestra performs its original Live Musical Accompaniment by Donald Sosin scores for Strike and The Last Command. Introduction by Bevan Dufty TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 CHAPLIN AT ESSANAY essay by Jeffrey Vance 8 SO THIS IS PARIS essay by Margarita Landazuri 14 STRIKE essay by Michael Atkinson DONALD SOSIN 18 DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS Pianist Donald Sosin has been creating and performing scores for silent films, both live and for essay by Dennis Harvey DVD releases, for more than forty years. He is the 24 THE LAST COMMAND current resident accompanist at New York’s Film essay by Shari Kizirian Society of Lincoln Center, the Museum of the Moving 30 SADIE THOMPSON Image, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music and has essay by Farran Smith Nehme received commissions to create works for the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Symphony 36 CONTRIBUTORS / ABOUT SFSFF Chorus, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and Turner Classic Movies, among others.