la chienne
the bat whispers
m / m - eine stadt sucht einen mörder
hallelujah
morocco
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BLACKMAIL
Alfred Hitchcock, United Kingdom, 1929; 84m
Hitchcock's first sound film is an early example of his favorite
emotional set up, in which guilt and innocence are hopelessly entangled.
The fiancée of a Scotland Yard detective poses in the nude for a painter
and then stabs him in self-defense as he tries to seduce her. The
detective is later blackmailed by one of his fellow officers. One very
odd fact about this film: the voice of female star Anna Ondra was
"dubbed," on the set, by actress Joan Barry. It took quite a few takes
before they got it right.
Sun Nov 18: 2, 5:45 & 9:30
LA CHIENNE
Jean Renoir, France, 1931; 95m
Renoir's first sound film was On purge bébé, in which he earned the
dubious distinction of being the first filmmaker to record the sound of
a flushing toilet. This 1931 film, as bleak a story as he ever filmed,
was one of his greatest. Michel Simon is the milquetoast Sunday painter
befriended by prostitute Jany Holt, who puts her name on his paintings
in order to line the pockets of her pimp. Renoir's use of natural sound
in this film is thrilling, particulary when he fades up the sounds of
the street after a murder. Remade 14 years later, and brilliantly, by
Fritz Lang as Scarlet Street (another film with a stunning soundtrack).
Sun Nov 18: 3:45 & 7:30
THE BAT WHISPERS
Roland West, U.S., 1930; 82m
Director Roland West, a fascinating high-stylist,
shot this adaptation of Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart's
things-that-go-bump-in-the-night melodrama The Bat in an early
widescreen process called Magnifilm. THE BAT WHISPERS is in many ways
two films, a creaky stage melodrama (from a very popular genre) and, in
the sequences with the master criminal the Bat, a tantalizing feast of
expressionist design and dynamic camera movement. Featuring Chester
Morris, soon to be doing B-movie duty in the Boston Blackie series, and
the lovely Una Merkel.
Wed Nov 21: 1, 5 & 9;
Thurs Nov 22: 3 & 7:30
M / M - EINE STADT SUCHT EINEN MÖRDER
Fritz Lang, Germany, 1931; 105m
Fritz Lang's first talkie, about a child murderer being tracked through
Berlin by both the police and the criminal population (he's bad for
business), is obviously a renowned classic. It's also a film with a
surpassingly brilliant use of sound very early in the game: the
soundtrack for M often works contrapuntally with the image, sometimes as
a bridge between scenes, and is a key factor in the film's portrait of
the city as gridlike, paranoid nightmare. This is the long version of
Lang's masterpiece, with its devastating final image of the bereaved
mothers of the dead children.
Wed Nov 21: 3 & 7;
Thurs Nov 22: 1, 5 & 9:15
HALLELUJAH
King Vidor, U.S., 1929; 109m
King Vidor grew up in the South, and for his first important sound film
he chose to shoot on location (unheard of, what with the cumbersome
recording equipment) in Tennessee, with an all-black cast (also unheard
of). He was able to do so thanks to the considerable clout he'd earned
four years earlier with The Big Parade. In that film, Vidor had already
used metronomic rhythm to get his actors moving in unison to shattering
effect. In HALLELUJAH, about a preacher plagued by a "fallen woman," he
put his rhythmic sense to use and made one of his most vibrant movies,
pulsing with life. Call it an earthy musical, as exciting today as it
was over 70 years ago.
Sat Nov 24: 6:30; Mon Nov 26: 4 & 8:15
MOROCCO
Josef von Sternberg, U.S., 1930; 90m
As visually fluid as any of the last great silents, and probably an even
greater achievement than Sternberg's The Blue Angel. Gary Cooper,
detested by his director, gave one of his most unusual performances as a
Foreign Legionnaire who becomes a supreme love object for Marlene
Dietrich's hardened cabaret singer. Peerless cinematographer Lee Garmes
developed a special technique to shoot Dietrich that he called "north
light," accenting her whole face from above. A rapturous experience,
cinematically and emotionally.
Sat Nov 24: 9; Mon Nov 26: 2 & 6:15
SUNRISE
F.W. Murnau, U.S., 1927; 95m
For many filmmakers and film historians, this is the greatest film ever
made. It may be true. SUNRISE tells the archetypal story, set in a
nameless European country, of a poor farmer tempted by the lure of the
city (Charles Farrell) and his steadfast wife (Janet Gaynor). Due to
F.W. Murnau's unearthly control over his chosen art form, the film plays
as a series of sustained poetic movements, the most breathtaking of
which may well be the tram ride into the city - if there's a secret
heart of the cinema, that sequence resides there. Accompanied by a now
antique score, a lovely compendium of orchestral accompaniment and sound effects.
Sun Nov 25: 2 & 6; Tue Nov 27: 3
CITY GIRL
F.W. Murnau, U.S., 1930; 77m
F.W. Murnau didn't let the box office failure of his now lost Four
Devils stop him when it came to spending money on CITY GIRL. He actually
purchased a farm in Oregon on which to make his projected "poem of
wheat." Fox severely truncated the original, but what survives is a
visually ravishing love triangle between farmer Charles Farrell, Mary
Duncan as the girl he brings home from the city, and Tom Maguire as
the farmhand. Terrence Malick certainly studied this film before he made
Days of Heaven.
Sun Nov 25: 4 & 8; Tue Nov 27: 1
SEVENTH HEAVEN
Frank Borzage, U.S., 1927; 110m
Austin Strong's melodrama was a huge hit on Broadway, and in the hands
of director Frank Borzage it became an intensely moving portrait of
love. Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor are the Parisian couple whose
unbreakable bond transcends all adversity. In their scenes together, and
this is true of all Borzage films from the same period, the rapport is
so delicate and nuanced that you can all but hear the dialogue between
them. When Borzage's lovers began talking for real in Liliom and Bad
Girl, it seemed like a natural outgrowth of the earlier silents.
Wed Nov 28: 1; Thurs Nov 29: 4 & 8:30
STREET ANGEL
Frank Borzage, U.S., 1928; 102m
One of the last of the great silents, Borzage's follow-up to the
massively successful SEVENTH HEAVEN with the same stars is even more
expressionistic and visually ravishing. Janet Gaynor is the Neapolitan
street urchin who poses as the Madonna for painter Charles Farrell just
before she's imprisoned for theft. This profoundly affecting romance was
quite influential on Asian cinema of the time, and was actually remade
in China.
Wed Nov 28: 3:15; Thurs Nov 29: 2 & 6:15
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