I’m packing my bags and heading out to San Francisco to check out their silent film festival taking place this coming weekend from July 10 – 12. There will be seven different musical performers and includes some folks just down the road from me; the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra (they’re a quintet based in Louisville, Colorado). Here’s the film lineup, with notes from their program: 

The Gaucho (F. Richard Jones, USA, 1927, 100 mins.) Douglas Fairbanks stars in this film, which he also wrote. He plays an Argentinean bandit leader pitted against a corrupt general who is about to plunder an Andean shrine. “Watch for Mary Pickford as the Madonna!” Extra perks: “Preceded by restored two-strip Technicolor outtakes from The Gaucho!!” Also: the feature is a new 35mm print from MoMA, “with special guests, authors Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta.” (They’ll be around to sign copies of their book Douglas Fairbanks.) Live Accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Bardelys the Magnificent (King Vidor, USA, 1926, 90 mins.) A swashbuckling romance with John Gilbert and Eleanor Boardman set during the court of Louis XIII. Perks: This film was “lost to the ages until the discovery of nitrate materials in a French vault” and has been “superbly restored digitally” (by Lobster Films) – ergo also screened digitally. The film will be preceded by a Biograph short (They Would Elope, 1909) and will be “introduced by special guest David Shepard.” (Acclaimed film preservationist.) Live accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Wild Rose (Sun Yu, China, 1932, 88 mins.) A romance between a country girl known as the Wild Rose (Wang Renmei) and a rich boy from Shanghai. “Renmei (who was given the nickname “Wildcat” for her unbridled performance) and co-star Jin Yan (considered the Valentino of China) married her once filming was over. Their on-screen chemistry is the real thing!” Perks: Live English translation of the Mandarin intertitles, a 35mm print from the Chinese Film Archive, preceded by Mutoscope short (Girl for $9.98, 1907), and special guest: Qin Yi (widow of Jin Yan). Live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin.

Underworld (Josef von Sternberg, USA, 1927, 80 mins.) A crime saga about fear and desire: “Cinematographer Burt Glennon (who would become a master of film noir style), adds moody light and shadow to the story of gangster Bull Weed (George Bancroft) and his fiery moll Feathers (Evelyn Brent). Hecht demanded that his name be taken off the credits, but went on to win his first Academy Award for the story!” Perks: A 35mm print from Paramount Pictures, special guest is Eddie Muller (author of Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir), and the film is preceded by a D.W. Griffith short (Voice of the Violin, 1909). Live accompaniment on the piano by Stephen Horne.

The Wind (Victor Sjostrom, USA, 1928, 80 mins.) Lillian Gish gets pummeled by the wind in the Mojave Desert. Perks: 35mm print from Warner Bros, “a special wind effect used in the 1920s! And special guest Leonard Maltin will introduce.” Preceded by two Biograph shorts from 1909 (The Trick that Failed, Getting Even). Live accompaniment on the Mighty Wurlitzer by Dennis James.

Aelita, Queen of Mars (Yakov Protazanov, Soviet Union, 1924, 122 mins.) “Like a delirious marriage of Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS and a BUCK ROGERS serial, AELITA is an incandescent example of early futurist Soviet cinema. The film starts on Earth where a dreamy inventor (Nikolai Tseretelli) kills his wife in a fit of jealous rage, and flees in a rocket ship to Mars where bored, libidinous Queen Aelita (Yulia Solntseva) has been keeping an eye on him via interplanetary telescope.” Perks: A 35mm print from Walker Art Center, live musical accompaniment on “the Might Wurlitzer by Dennis James and Foley Artist, Mark Goldstein on the Buchla Lightning.”

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Ub Iwerksha, eight shorts, USA, 60 mins.) “If Walt Disney hadn’t lost Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in a legal dispute, we might not have Mickey Mouse! Oswald was Disney’s first attempt to build a series around a cartoon character. Now, at long last, the original Oswald straight from the magic pencil of Ub Iwerksha’s come home to the Disney archive, and we have lined-up a side-splitting selection of Oswald at his innovative best!” Perks: 35mm prints from Disney Studios and special guests Leonard Maltin and Leslie Iwerks. (She’s Iwerks granddaughter, and the author of Hand Behind the Mouse.) Live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin.

Erotikon (Gustav Machaty, Czechoslovakia, 1929, 89 mins.) “Remarkably frank for any era, EROTIKON is drenched in a ripe sensuality that flows freely from every frame. A young woman is seduced and abandoned by a stranger. What happens next appears to follow the ages-old dictate of guilt, humiliation, and punishment but director Gustav Machat has something far more adult up his sleeve. A genuine scorcher from Czechoslovakia.” Perks: A 35mm print from the National Film Archive, Czech Republic, “a reader of the original Czech and English intertitles,” and preceded by a D.W. Griffith short (Fate’s Turning, 1911). Live accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

So’s Your Old Mn (Gregory La Cava, USA, 1926, 73 mins.) W.C. Fields “is a put-upon paterfamilias who triumphantly invents unbreakable windshield glass. But instead of acclaim, he shames his family until a princess comes to his rescue.” Perks: This 35mm print from Library of Congress marks “a very rare screening from a comic master known mainly for his work in the talking cinema, specially picked by director Terry Zwigoff who will introduce the film. (The film was recently inducted into The Library of Congress National Registry!)” It’s preceded by a Mack Sennett short (Their First Divorce Case, 1911). Live accompaniment on piano by Philip Carli.

The Fall of the House of Usher (Jean Epstein, France, 1928, 60 mins.) “Luis Bunuel, fresh from his collaboration with Salvador Dali on UN CHIEN ANDELOU, served as French surrealist Jean Epstein’s assistant on this haunted adaptation of the famous Poe story.” Perks: A 35mm print from Cinematheque Francaise, and accompanied by a live English translation by Steven Jenkens from the San Francisco Film Society. Preceded by a short from 1900 (The Barber’s Queer Customer). Live accompaniment on piano by Stephen Horne.

Lady of the Pavements (D.W. Griffith, USA, 1929, 94 mins.) This romantic drama was also Griffith’s last silent film. “Set in 19th-century Paris where Prussian aristocrat Karl von Arnim (William Boyd, future HOP-A-LONG CASSIDY star) falls in love with Spanish cabaret chanteuse Nanon (the magnificent Lupe Velez). The film was completed as a silent, then partially re-shot to qualify as a part-talkie including two musical numbers using Griffith’s innovative experimentation with sound modulation.” Perks: a 35mm print from MoMA and ” live accompaniment by Donald Sosin on the Piano as well as a vocal recreation of the original musical numbers by Joanna Seaton.” Preceded by a Biograph short (The Lesser Evil, 1912).

There you have it – an impressive roster of events, all taking place at the Castro Theater, which was built in 1922 specifically for silent films. Anybody living thereabouts can still buy tickets at:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/3152