Silent Film Weekend with Live Piano
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Program #1: The Haunted House (1921) & Nosferatu (1922)
Friday November 11 @ 7pm
“A thrilling mystery masterpiece – a chilling psycho-drama of blood-lust”:
F.W. Murnau’s chilling vampire movie Nosferatu has been an influence on horror filmmakers & storytellers ever since it was first made, 100 years ago.
It will be preceded by Buster Keaton’s creepy comedy short, The Haunted House.
Program #2: Great Comedians of the Silent Era
Saturday November 12 @ 4pm
A showcase of some of the great comedians of Hollywood’s Silent Era, including the famous Buster Keaton, the infamous Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, the all but forgotten Wanda Wiley, and more. Curated by local film buff and cinematographer Joseph Elliott.
- Ask Father! (1919, 13m) – starring Harold Lloyd. Lloyd is most famous for his later features, like Safety Last! and The Freshman, but this early and underseen short captures all of his charm in just 13 minutes.
- The Garage (1920, 22m) – directed by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Arbuckle was one of the first great artists of silent comedy and the mentor to many others, including Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. In fact, it was Arbuckle who gave Keaton his first role and made him a star in 1917’s The Butcher Boy. The Garage, their final collaboration as co-stars, might be their funniest achievement.
- The Blacksmith (1922, 23m) – directed by Buster Keaton. For a century audiences have been watching the wrong version of this film. This recently discovered and far superior cut finally gives us the chance to see one of Keaton’s greatest creations the way he intended.
- A Thrilling Romance (1926, 16m) – starring Wanda Wiley, a tragically underseen silent comedienne. Wiley was popular in the mid 20s before mismanagement by her studio prematurely ruined her career. Sadly, only a few of her many films survive and are all but unknown today. A Thrilling Romance is proof enough that she was a major talent and deserves to be rediscovered.
- Liberty (1929, 18m) – Laurel and Hardy are some of the few comedians to not only survive but thrive in the transition to sound, but they perfected their craft at the end of the silent era. In Liberty they’re convicts on the run, and in a hurried attempt to ditch their prison uniforms, they accidentally swap pants and spend the entire film trying to change while evading the police and not getting caught for indecent exposure.
