The 25th San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the largest competition devoted to silent movies in the Americas, will current 29 applications of worldwide films accompanied by dwell music May 5-11 at the Castro Theatre. Fittingly, the opulently set drama “Foolish Wives” — launched in 1922, the identical yr the Castro Theatre opened — ushers in SFSFF with a full-scale restoration, paired with an SFSFF-commissioned rating carried out by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra led by composer and conductor Timothy Brock.
Directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim as a conman who, together with two feminine accomplices, masquerade as Russian aristocrats in the goal-wealthy plush playground of Monte Carlo, “Foolish Wives” was Hollywood’s first million-dollar film. The movie ended up being so expensive as a result of its costly units at Universal Studios in addition to breathtaking Northern California areas helped escalate its price method over its authentic $250,000 finances.
“Stroheim’s extravagant attention to detail is evident in every frame of the film,” stated SFSFF Board President Rob Byrne. “In Los Angeles he precisely recreated the square and casino of Monte Carlo, and at Point Lobos near Monterey created massive sets for a mansion, shooting club and promenade. Filming the crowd scenes there was a highlight of the San Francisco social season. The crème of San Francisco society boarded specially chartered trains to perform as extras.”
In addition to Point Lobos, location taking pictures for the movie was achieved at Pebble Beach, websites that have been chosen by location scouts, but in addition, in accordance to unbiased curator Brad Rosenstein, could properly have been acquainted to von Stroheim as a result of he had lived in the Bay Area prior to transferring to Los Angeles and having fun with success in the films. In any case, von Stroheim spent lavishly in each halves of California to recreate Monte Carlo in his movie.
“There were actually two Monte Carlo sets, built 300 hundred miles apart,” Rosenstein stated. There was a large exterior Monte Carlo set — comprising the Casino, the Hotel de Paris and the Café de Paris — in-built Hollywood on the Universal again lot, the place most inside scenes have been additionally filmed. But for the ‘reverse shot’ of this set, von Stroheim wanted to embody the sea and shoreline, and like many early filmmakers, felt that the Northern California coast was an affordable approximation of the Mediterranean.”
But there could have been one other ulterior motive for von Stroheim’s determination to movie a lot of “Foolish Wives” in Northern California, in accordance to Rosenstein, who stated that the intensive location taking pictures additionally put him farther away from shut studio supervision and interference.
The restoration of “Foolish Wives” was a activity shared by the SFSFF and New York’s Museum of Modern Art; SFSFF managed the mission, did modifying, digitally restored all photographs and supervised movie grading and lab work that resulted in a brand new 35-millimeter preservation adverse and two new 35mm prints, one for the MoMA movie assortment and one other for the SFSFF Collection at the Library of Congress, whereas MoMA provided the 35mm print upon which the restoration was based mostly, and offered analysis supplies and technical recommendation.
All of the forgoing work ended up costing roughly $260,000, which SFSFF and MoMA break up evenly, and seemingly commensurate with the movie’s steep 1922 price ticket.
“Without question, this is the most expense restoration project we have undertaken,” Byrne stated. “A more typical budget for a silent-era feature film is more in the range of $50K to $75K. Thinking of it a different way, this project was approximately four times more expensive than one of our typical restorations.”
While SFSFF and MoMA managed to restore “Foolish Wives” as a movie that American audiences would have seen in 1922 and, crucially, to find the funds to full the mission, funding for movie preservation has lengthy been a problem, notably for silent movies.
“The studios have done a decent job of digitizing their copyrighted films, but there is very little funding available to preserve public domain work — which now includes most of the silent cinema,” stated Dave Kehr, a curator in MoMA’s Department of Film. “If we aren’t able to digitize our already preserved and restored films, they simply won’t be accessible in a film culture that has moved beyond 35mm projection.”
Once the meticulous, expensive means of restoring a silent film has been accomplished, the musicians who accompany the movie in its SFSFF presentation most frequently will assemble a compiled rating of interval items chosen to evoke moods or leitmotif. While the musicians are fairly environment friendly at stitching collectively these music sources, discovering them — many have been out of print since 1929 — is a significant problem, in accordance to composer and pianist Rodney Sauer of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, which accompanies a number of SFSFF movies.
And the efficiency of the rating poses its personal challenges for the musicians, with tempo a key situation they have to handle and finesse.
“Tempo is very important, because, of course, the film does not follow us,” Sauer stated. “We practice until we have the film tempos about right so that there is little space between musical cues. I do sometimes leave some spaces in the score for piano improvisation, which gives us a chance to get back in sync if we have drifted. Also, as long as some of these films are, I have places where the orchestra takes a break for several scenes while the piano improvises.”
Brock, who has nearly 40 years of expertise conducting for silent movies that run the gamut from comparatively darkish German expressionist movies to comedies with stars like Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, turned to Russian in addition to American sources for the “Foolish Wives” rating.
“I wanted to do something that was as close to authentic as possible because I feel that the earlier the film, the more authentic the music has to be, in terms of historically accurate,” Brock stated. “My philosophy has always been to write music that would not upset the director if he was living today.”
As von Stroheim was a stickler for element and refused to bow to the business calls for and realities of the Hollywood studios, these qualities finally led to dwindling directing alternatives for him, however not earlier than he fortuitously crafted the cinematic masterpiece that’s “Foolish Wives.”
“What was seen in 1922 as the height of realism now seems like the mad folly of one charismatic individual, Erich von Stroheim, a Jewish immigrant who convinced Hollywood he was an Austrian aristocrat and somehow persuaded Universal to construct a fantasy world to go with his character,” Kehr stated.
Note: “Foolish Wives” will display screen May 5, 7 p.m. at the Castro Theatre. At three p.m., Robert Byrne, Dave Kehr and Brad Rosenstein will host a free presentation on the historical past, native connections and restoration of “Foolish Wives” at the Roxie Theater.
San Francisco Silent Film Festival Highlights
“Steamboat Bill, Jr.”: Buster Keaton could very properly have saved a few of his most entertaining stunts for this 1928 comedy, his final unbiased characteristic for United Artists, by which he visits his steamboat-working father, woos the daughter of his dad’s rival and impresses everybody by means of a cyclonic climax. May 7, three p.m. Live music by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
“A Trip to Mars (Himmelskibet)”: Fabulous Danish area odyssey from 1918 follows boldly decided captain who manages to pilot a sky ship and its crew to Mars, the place they find a lush utopia populated by vegan pacifists, and the Martians set life-affirming classes for the Earthlings after their much less-than peaceable arrival. May eight, 9 p.m. Live music by Wayne Barker.
“The Hunchback of Notre Dame”: Universal Pictures marvelously recreated the 15th-century cathedral and its Parisian setting on this 1923 second movie tackle the Victor Hugo traditional and by which Lon Chaney masterfully shows an array of feelings as the landmark’s grotesque but tragic denizen Quasimodo. May 10, 7 p.m. Live music by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
“The Divine Voyage (La Divine Croisière)”: The Breton coast serves as a stupendous setting for this 1929 lengthy-misplaced French morality story by which a gaggle of native sailors set sail on a deadly journey for his or her ship’s avaricious proprietor however finally ship their employer some genuinely-earned justice. May 11, four:30 p.m. Live music by Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius.
IF YOU GO:
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Where: Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., S.F.
When: May 5-11.
Tickets: $16 to $25; common all-competition go $320.
Contact: (415) 777-4908, silentfilm.org
Buster Keaton in “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” (Courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival)
