by Allison Leu Film today reflects today’s world, one that is constantly looking forward, making improvements and advancements. The big blockbusters in Hollywood typically fall under the category of big budget action franchises that utilize all the latest technology. Just look at the 3D craze of recent years.  I won’t say I wasn’t sitting in that theatre for M-I 4: Ghost Protocol or Captain America. Those CGI-laden, explosion-filled movies are perfect for the big screen. But ...

  The Artist (2011)…"It’s a love story and there’s a cute dog!"   French auteur Michel Hazanavicius of the film ‘The Artist’ (2011) was born 29 March 1967, and although few can pronounce his name correctly, everyone is talking about this tres talented French director. French actor Jean Dujardin calls the director ‘Michel Hazana-genius’; due to the film’s explosive worldwide success, it would appear that most agree to his work as ‘genius’ ind...

French director Hazanavicius received the Best Film Award for his black & white movie at «Capri, Hollywood» where he announced his next project: a feature-film inspired to a Fred Zinnemann movie: «A contemporary story with a woman as a leading character » From the poetry of silent cinema to the blast of the war in Cecenia: French filmmaker Michael Hazanavicius, director of the "The artist" - one of the greatest favourites in the race for all the Awards 2012 - announced his next project, fea...

After four days of packed houses and 18 extraordinary programs, the 16th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival ended on a spectacular note.  Alexander Payne introduces the Closing Night Film Photo © Pamela Gentile    The festival concluded with Victor Sjöström's masterpiece HE WHO GETS SLAPPED and the brilliant accompaniment by the Matti Bye Ensemble from Sweden. In their excellent introductions of the film, Guest Director...

Here it is - the program announcement for the 16th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival! The eighteen programs coming to the Castro this July 14 - 17 feature beautiful new restorations, original commissioned scores, dispatches from the preservation front, masterpieces from the canon, and rarely screened gems. There's not one to be missed. Some highlights of this year's festival:What better way to begin than with the presentation of an amazing discovery: UPSTREAM. For Opening Night, we celeb...

Maybe you've heard the buzz about METROPOLIS: the incredible discovery of long-lost footage from director Fritz Lang's masterpiece. Found in a vault in Buenos Aires, the complete film has been reconstructed and restored by the F.W. Murnau Foundation and has its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival today, February 12. The surprise is that we will present the San Francisco screening of this gorgeous and complete restored version at our 15th Anniversary festival in July, accompanied by ...

L’ÎLE ENCHANTÉE (LutèceFilm, FR 1926) Regia/dir., scen: Henry Roussell; f./ph: Maurice Velle, Paul Portier; scg./des: Georges Jacouty, Gaston Dumesnil; riprese/filmed: 7-11.1926 (Corsica [Plana, Evisa], Caen (steelworks), La Grave, Vals les Bains; Studios Menchen, Épinay); data uscita/released: 13.5.1927; cast: Rolla Norman (Francesco della Rocca), Jacqueline Forzane (Gisèle Rault), Jean Garat (Firmin Rault), Gaston Jacquet (Gabriel Lestrange), Renée Héribel (Chilina Leonardi), Paul Jo...

This film is shown in dual homage to the great Max Linder himself, and to the maker of the film, his daughter Maud Linder, this year’s Jean Mitry Award honoree. On 31 October 1925 Linder, not quite 42 years old, and his 20-year-old wife died in a Paris hotel, in an apparent suicide pact. They left behind their 16-month-old baby, who was taken away by her mother’s family, and raised in ignorance of her father’s identity. Not until she was about 20 did Maud Linder learn who her father was, a...

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Lupe Vélez in LADY OF THE PAVEMENTSFESTIVAL UPDATES!1. The 14th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival! 2. Become a Member/ Renew 3. The Complete Festival Schedule 4. How, When, and Where to buy tickets 5. Festival Hotel Arrangements6. Co-presentation with 3rd i 7. Other Upcoming Silent Films Dear Friend of The Silent Film Festival,The 14th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival is just a couple days away and we hope to see you there!The weekend begins and ends with the radiant Lupe Vél...

"Dear Friend of The Silent Film Festival,We are thrilled to announce the lineup for The 14th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival, taking place at the Castro Theatre on July 10-12. Tickets are on sale now for the foremost celebration of silent cinema in the Americas!In the space of a mere three days audiences will have the chance to experience the breathtaking vitality and depth of the silent era with 12 programs of classic films and rediscoveries—complete with live musical accompaniment ...

‘Electric Silents’ : Recreating the Era of Silent Cinema at Electric Palace, Harwich We are constantly told we are living in an age of new media. An age where the digital is reshaping notions of entertainment and how we experience it. Just over one hundred years ago, at the turn of the century, the new media was Cinema and it too was reshaping these notions. With this in mind, the Electric Silents Festival is currently in preparation for May 2009 and will include a number of related film...

DECEMBER 1ST EVENT REPORT"Dear Friend of the Silent Film Festival, Thank you for making 2007 a remarkable year. Our 12th annual festival was our most memorable yet, and three weeks ago you helped make our one-day Winter Event a tremendous success. Beginning with VITAPHONE VAUDEVILLE, Robert Gitt's introduction enthralled us with stories about such vaudeville characters as the brothers Willie & Eugene Howard, billed in their day as “Two Hebrew Humorists Who Hail from Harlem,” bandleader Dick ...