Starting tomorrow, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival once again bestows upon the Bay Area some of the most rarified film experiences you’ll find in the world. It runs from May 28th-June 1st, and as always, the program is like a gilded treasure box lifted from the past, containing precious jewels you won’t find anywhere else.

Take, for instance, the special presentation of a film called Lime Kiln Field Day by Burt Williams. It was a 1913 production with an all-black cast that never saw the light of day due to its white producers slamming the door shut on it indefinitely. Jump forward one century to 2013, when MoMA found and reconstructed the film’s unedited reels so that we may enjoy and appreciate one of the earliest artifacts of black film history. The film will be playing as a special presentation called “100 Years In Post-Production: Resurrecting a Lost Landmark of Black Film History.” MoMA Associate Curator Ron Magliozzi will be presenting a variety of materials from the production as well.

Also on the lineup is the silent version of All Quiet on the Western Front, which many consider to be superior to the award-winning talkie version. Sherlock Holmes will be making an appearance as well in Sherlock Holmes, a pivotal piece of Sherlockian history once thought long lost. Contributing to the conversation of modern feminism are Why Be Good?, The Deadlier Sex, and Sweden’s Norrtullsligan, three films that serve as fascinating reminders that feminist filmmaking has had a long history. The Last Laugh, a must-see for any true film fan, also rounds out the program.

One of my favorite parts of the festival is the live instrumentation, and the lineup of musicians on-hand is typically tremendous. The world-renowned silent film players include Stephen Horne, Frank Bockius, Guenter Buchwald, Diana Rowan, Steve Sterner, Serge Bromberg, the Matti Bye Ensemble, the Donald Sosin Ensemble, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and Bruce Goldstein and the Gower Gulch Players.

I sat down for my annual chat with festival’s Artistic Director, Anita Monga, to talk about this year’s program and examine the silent era’s influence on modern filmmaking.

For more info on the festival, visit silentfilm.org

Farm-to-table dining is something that’s swept the nation but has always been a big part of San Francisco. It’s about artisans putting a lot of love and work and time into presenting the best ingredients with utmost respect. I think this festival is the film version of that, where everybody involved—the preservationists, the programmers, the musicians—really get their hands dirty to present an incredibly special experience.
Yeah, it’s a one-of-a-kind experience, each and every screening. People always say, “Aw, I’m not going to see The Last Laugh. I’ve already seen it a million times.” You’re not going to come to see it with the group of students from the Berklee College of music perform it once in your lifetime? Come on!

Right. I’ve seen some silents several times live, but it’s a different experience every time.
Absolutely. But I also have to say that masterpieces are worth revisiting again and again. There are some films that I’ve seen 20, 30 times. And it’s amazing to see them in a movie theater like the Castro with that amazing screen and people who also appreciate this live cinema. It’s an extraordinary experience. We’re very lucky in San Francisco.

We are. I was sharing a nice lunch with a friend here in the city today, and I was telling him that one of the best things about the festival is the crowd. Being with those people, you feel like you’re part of something special.
It really is special.

You mentioned masterpieces, and I’ve got to mention All Quiet on the Western Front. It’s interesting to me that the silent version is considered by many superior to the award-winning sound version.
That’s not completely unheard of during that transition from silent to sound. Films were often made in two versions because many theaters didn’t have the capacity to make that transition. We’re living through a relatively similar transition from 35mm to DCP. A lot of little theaters have had a really hard time making that transition because it’s really expensive. The answer during the transition from silents to talkies was that different versions were made. At the beginning of sound, it was very rudimentary. The silent version of All Quiet on the Western Front has a different kind of rhythm. It isn’t bogged down by the script.

The editing is the biggest difference.
Right, because you can’t have paragraph-long intertitle cards, so the story has to be told through the action and through the characters’ faces.

People seem to have forgotten what cinema really is. Most critique I hear from younger people is focused on the script or narrative rather than what’s actually on-screen. It’s like they’re writing a book review of the screenplay.
David Thompson wrote a piece for our book on All Quiet on the Wester Front in which he has a very poetic waxing. At the end of the essay he’s talking about ways of watching a film, and he did an experiment by watching sound movies with the sound turned off. Film is both a visual and aural experience. There are amazing things to be heard. When you have a modern film you think is being silent, if you pay attention, you’ll hear all of the sounds the filmmakers put in to suspend the film in a bath of sound.

Have you seen Mad Max?
I haven’t seen it yet! I’m so looking forward to seeing it.

I’m excited for you to see it because I think it pays homage to old-school movie-making. There are things like people wobbling on tall poles that really reminds me of Keaton and Lloyd. Really daring stuff.
That’ll be the first thing I see. I remember seeing the original Mad Max, and what a revelation that was.

I remember when you guys did the “Hitchcock 9” program, with all the silents he made. I loved it. I remember seeing a vignette where Martin Scorsese said he’d watch Hitchcock with the sound turned off.
Hitchcock is amazing, but I wouldn’t advise turning off Bernard Hermann’s score! [laughs] You watch a film like Vertigo, and there are whole parts of that movie that seem suspended in some kind of other world. There isn’t a lot of talking. The sound design of those movies is extraordinary. That “Hitchcock 9” thing we did was a real revelation to me because Hitchcock was at one of the earliest junctures of filmmaking. He was just born, fully formed as a storyteller.

I know Hitchcock mourned the end of the silent era.
Film is a marriage of technology and art, and any filmmaker would be happy with technology as it changes and enhances. The silent era was an incredible period for honing visual expression, but I think the best filmmakers embraced sound and technology. Who doesn’t want to be able to do something extraordinary that was impossible before?

Back to the festival: I just watched Cave of the Spider Woman. That was something else! The imagination on display was wonderful.
My mind boggles at how that print got to Norway. It was a very popular genre in Shanghai in the ’20s, that kind of spirit story. Films were made, but there are no prints left. This one was sitting in a library in Norway. The film was made in 1927 and imported and distributed around Norway in 1929. They burned the Norwegian subtitles on the cards, so the translations came from the Norwegians, not the Chinese. Our contribution was that we had a translator go back to the Chinese intertitles and translate those. The Chinese translator found that the frames were slipped, so the Norwegian subtitles would be printed on cards that would be flipped and upside down. It was a really difficult job.

This movie was a big hit when it came out, but there’s only the one print!
Right! Only one that we know of.

Sherlock Holmes is as trendy as he’s ever been right now.
The restoration we’re presenting was kind of the holy grail for Sherlockians because the person behind it was William Gillette, who convinced Arthur Conan Doyle to do this Sherlock Holmes film. It was years after Conan Doyle had killed off Sherlock, but Gillette was known as the major stage interpreter of Sherlock Holmes. He wrote a script that combined several of the Sherlock stories, and Doyle was impressed. That film was completely lost. A number of people went looking for it, and it was discovered in a vault at the Cinémateque Francaise.

I also caught The Deadlier Sex and loved it.
Good! That was a restoration that just happened at the Academy Film Archive. Blanche Sweet is pretty great. It’s a really small part, but it’s a really early role for Boris Karloff.

I love how nimbly that one switches from drama to comedy. It’s really modern in that way. Why Be Good is another one I really liked.
It’s really great. Colleen Moore plays an effervescent flapper, a “good girl” who the boss’ son falls in love with.

Feminism is such a hot topic today, as it should be. I think it’s important to look back at films like this to get a sense of how feminism has evolved over the years.
If you’re interested in that, Norrtullsligan has very strong female characters. It’s definitely a feminist film.

Let’s take a look at some other things on the program.
“100 Years in Post-Production” is going to be a really great presentation. Lime Kiln Field Day started production in 1913 and was shelved before it ever came to fruition. MoMA found the unedited reels of this all-black production. We all know what happened in 1915 with The Birth of a Nation, and it’s been speculated that that kind of put the kibosh on this film coming out. MoMA reconstructed it. Don’t miss Flesh and the Devil, don’t miss Pan…

I’m really excited for that one.
I love this film so much. It has a very strong, modern psychological sensibility that will be really surprising and revelatory to a lot of people.

As a bit of a musician myself, I always try to sit close to the musicians during the show. You can feel the sound from their instruments wrap around you in a really magical way.
Do you ever watch the musicians?

I do!
It’s so interesting. We have this wonderful photographer, Pamela Gentile, and my favorite thing she does is take a picture from the audience; you see the screen, the musicians, and sometimes you’ll see the musicians looking up and the characters in the film looking down. It’s beautiful.

For people who say things like, “I don’t want to watch old movies,” I say, at the very least, you can just watch the musicians. They’re incredible.
People who say they’re going to be put off by things being old…I get where they’re coming from. Some people have a problem with seeing a black and white film. I can tell you that you’ll forget that they’re not talking. Plus, there are plenty of bad films made in the silent era; we just don’t play those films. We have 20 films we’re showing every year. We don’t have to show the bad stuff. We try to show a breadth of the silent era, but every film has some relevance for modern audiences.

It’s time once again for San Francisco’s silent era Castro Theatre to do what it was made to do and show eager audiences once again why silent films define what movie magic really is. Starting tomorrow, Thursday May 29th, and running through Sunday, June 1st, the San Francisco International Film Festival will emanate from the Castro, harboring some of the rarest, most beautiful, classic films from the early days of cinema, before color, before sound, and before our computer screens and smartphones became plastered with shameless ads for movies we don’t care about. These are films from a time when filmmakers helmed their cameras with love.

The festival is bookended this year by two essential works in the story of early film. Rex Ingram’s sweeping epic The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino, will open up the festival, a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Great War. Closing out the festival is Buster Keaton’s aquatic ballet The Navigator. Keaton’s fourth film contains some of his most intricately staged stunts, including a gorgeous underwater sequence. Also playing at the festival are films by Carl Dreyer, Yasujiro Ozu, Max Linder, the always entertaining Amazing Tales From the Archives program, an in-depth look into the world of film preservation, and many more.

We spoke to the festival Artistic Director Anita Monga about converting silent film newbies by getting them in the theater, the importance of thoughtful musical accompaniment, the genius of Keaton, the festival line-up, and more.

For tickets and more information, visit silentfilm.org

For every lover of silent film, there’s this constant struggle you have with your friends and family, trying to get them to give silents a try and get them into that theater.

Anita: It’s really hard to describe silent film. It’s so difficult. It’s a whole experience, with these beautiful, beautiful images that are lying dormant, because you can’t really watch a film without sound. I mean, you can, but it’s a very academic experience. A lot of the silent films on the internet have been badly transferred and paired with horrible music. We pay a lot of attention to the musical aspect of silent film. The films at the festival are examples of live cinema events, bringing these ancient texts to life. Film is the only medium where people think the past is not worth dredging up. People read books from the 17th century, read Shakespeare, and put on Shakespeare plays. That’s what we’re doing: making these films accessible to people who think that these films have nothing to say to modern audiences. We have a hindsight of 100 years to pick the very best. People transform when they see them, but it’s hard to get them into that auditorium.

What does silent film offer that modern film doesn’t?

Anita: Silent film is different. You can’t watch it on your cell phone and get everything there is to get about it. It requires having thoughtful music to be able to see these images. It gains a lot from being presented in the theater.

You’ll never see a modern film presented with live musical accompaniment. Silent films are an event.

Anita: Right. What we’re doing is really different. People understand that you can see something like Avatar on your computer screen months down the line after it hits theaters, but if you want to partake in this experience, you need to go to the theater and be immersed. People think silent films are boring because they’re old, but they are NOT! It’s the opposite. If we can get them in the door with an open mind, they’re converts. It’s a simple as that.

There’s something for everyone in this program. Harbor Drift is a story that’s so moving and harsh. It doesn’t sugarcoat the horrible economic reality that was Germany [in 1929.] We could use a little dose of that from our artists, too, with our world economy not on its firm footing.

Well, let’s get into the films playing at this year’s festival, starting off with Mr. Buster Keaton. Last year, I asked you to rank him, Chaplin, and Lloyd as far as who your favorite is, and it was an easy, quick answer from you.

Anita: Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd.

You’ve got Keaton’s The Navigator playing at this year’s festival, which is right up there with my favorites from him. Where does it rank for you in his catalogue?

Anita: I love it. It’s one of the top ones for me, too. I think I love The Cameraman most…[trails off] Wait. No. I can’t even rank Keaton. Everything is so beautiful. Sherlock Jr. is so beautiful.

That was my jumping on point. It’s an easy one to get into, Sherlock Jr. The imagination on display in that film is unbelievable, and in The Navigator, you have the underwater sequence, which is incredibly cinematic.

Anita: Yes, incredibly cinematic! That was Keaton. He thought in cinema. He understood how to make the story move cinematically. He was the most cinematic of the comedians.

The underwater bit perhaps isn’t his most spectacular feat, but it’s easily one of his most challenging. You’ve also got The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse playing.

Anita: Yes. The Four Horseman is our commemoration of The Great War. It’s kind of remarkable. The film was made not far after World War I concluded. It was the first major world event that cinema commented on. Cinema and the history of that war are really intertwined. The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra are doing the accompaniment, and it’s their 25th anniversary of being a group. They started out as The Mont Alto Ragtime and Tango Orchestra, and for people who don’t know, The Four Horsemen starts in Argentina, and it’s where Rudolph Valentino became “the Latin lover.” The whole idea of “the Latin lover” came from The Four Horsemen.

It’s his first starring role.

Anita: Yes, and it’s really what made him a star.

You’ve got an Ozu film as well, Dragnet Girl, which is actually a gangster film. It’s a bit of a departure from the style he’s known for, and there’s also a film from the great Carl Dreyer that’s a departure for him as well, The Parson’s Widow.

Anita:  People know Dreyer from The Passion of Joan of Arc and from later, very beautiful, very somber work. This is a light-hearted departure for him, but it’s quintessentially Dreyer in its beautiful imagery and thoughtful filmmaking. It has a very funny sense of humor.

That’s atypical of him, but it’s funny that we say “departure”, because these films were actually early works in Ozu and Dreyer’s careers.

Anita: Right. They’re departures from what we know about them today. The other day, I re-watched Herb Ross’ Pennies From Heaven, and I knew Christopher Walken from later roles with David Cronenberg and others. Seeing him as a song-and-dance man felt like a departure from him, but it’s not. It’s a departure from what I thought I knew about him.

You also have on the line-up the Amazing Tales From the Archives program, which is always exciting.

Anita: Yes, and also along that line we have Serge Bromberg’s Treasure Trove. Serge Bromberg is a great raconteur, and he’s bringing some real surprises from his archive. If people are interested in seeing real rarities, presented by a cinema lover and great communicator, the Treasure Trove can’t be missed.

Seeing a Keaton film in the Castro Theatre is a wonderful experience, but what’s great about these rarity programs is that they’re truly a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

Anita: I really encourage people to stretch themselves. There’s not a film in here that I would say isn’t worth seeing. The Girl in Tails is hilarious. The early Sherlock Holmes film, The Sign of Four, was filmed in London, which is extraordinary. The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks was filmed all around Moscow in the ’20s. Think about that. think about Red Square in the ’20s. How amazing is that?

I think the festival is best experienced as an all-day thing. You need to see at least two films in a row to get how truly fun it can be.

Anita: I’ve had people express it this way, and I think it’s true: It’s like entering a dream state. We balance the program very carefully; we’re not just showing one very dark, deep film after another. We’re not showing one comedy after another. It’s a varied experience and rewards sticking around.

It requires a lot of thought to present these films well. We’re presenting The Good Bad Man, which is a restoration. We’re running it at 17 frames per second. If you see the film at 24 frames per second, it’s going to seem extremely sped up and jerky. It requires thoughtfulness to present these things to express what the filmmaker had in mind. We also have to be thoughtful about the musical accompaniment so that it embraces and enhances the image.

What’s the state of film preservation?

Anita: There’s amazing work being done in preservation, aided by many things, like the internet. BFI put out a list of the “top lost films”, and those films are being found because of communication around the world. Ramona is a title that people were looking for for years and was found in the Czech archives and was recently restored. We have archivists coming to the festival from around the world.

Let’s run through what this year’s festival has to offer once more. For someone who enjoys action and adventure, they should watch…

Anita: The Good Bad Man. Also, the documentary The Epic of Everest, an actual attempt at reaching the summit of Everest. It’s the first look at Tibetan culture on film. Extraordinary. Also, Cosmic Voyage, which is a sci-fi film where they go to the moon.

For those who enjoy comedy…

Anita: Oh! Buster Keaton. Also, The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks is highly hilarious.

For those who love dark dramas…

Anita: Harbor Drift and Under the Lantern are two German, expressionist titles that are so incredibly beautiful.

For kids?

Anita: Seven Years Bad Luck is by Max Linder, who a lot of comedians credited as an influence, including Charles Chaplin, who was a huge fan. Max Linder originated that mirror scene that the Marx Brothers used so effectively. A very funny French comedian. I’d advise some kids to come to Cosmic Voyage and The Navigator, but they’re late!

At least one of them isn’t a school night!

Anita: Right! Stay up late and come to Cosmic Voyage and The Navigator. Also, kids will love the Serge Bromberg program on Saturday afternoon.

This Saturday, January 11th at San Francisco’s Castro Theater, there’s going to be an all-day, 100-Year Anniversary celebration of one of the most essential, irreplaceable, and beloved characters in the history of film, Charlie Chaplin’s “The Tramp”. The bumbling, infectiously good-hearted fellow has been a prototype for comic protagonists to this day, and anyone who’s familiar with him has fond memories of watching him evade the authorities with hilarious, cartoonish flair.

The program will include classic shorts and full-length features starring the comic idol set to live music accompaniment. There’s no better place to experience Chaplin in the Bay Area than the silent-era Castro Theater, and whether you’re a long-time Chaplin devotee or a silent film beginner, it’s sure to be a blast.

Here’s the program, via silentfilm.org :

Our Mutual Friend: Three Chaplin Shorts at 1PM 
Charlie Chaplain made some of his greatest comedies at the Mutual Film Corporation. Chaplin acknowledged his time at Mutual as the most inventive and liberating period of his career. Approximately 90 minutes total. The shorts program includes:

• The Vagabond (1916, with Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell). Charlie Chaplin plays is a musician who rescues a girl from a band of gypsies.
• The Cure (1917, with Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman). An inebriated Charlie Chaplin checks into a sanitarium to take the cure, but brings a cabinet of liquor with him.
• Easy Street (1917, with Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell). Blending comedy and social commentary Charlie Chaplin’s character goes from tramp to police constable.

Accompanied by Jon Mirsalis on piano.

THE KID at 4PM 
Chaplin’s Little Tramp character becomes a surrogate father to an abandoned child in this eloquent marriage of comedy and sentiment. One of his most personal films, Chaplin himself was placed in a home for destitute children at age seven, THE KID is considered by many to be his most perfect. Additionally, celebrate the centennial of with Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), the first appearance of Chaplin’s Tramp character. Approximately 70 minutes total.
Accompanied by San Francisco Chamber Orchestra with Timothy Brock conducting Chaplin’s score. 

Preceding THE KID, there will be Charlie Chaplin Look-Alike contest. Come dressed as the Little Tramp and win a prize!

THE GOLD RUSH at 7:30PM 
Charlie Chaplin, inspired by images of the 1896 Klondike gold rush and the Donner Party disaster of 1846 (in which snowbound immigrants resorted to eating their shoes—and their dead companions—to survive), manages to turn a story of cold, hunger, and loneliness into a sublime comedy. The Little Tramp becomes a prospector who sets out for the Klondike to strike it rich, battling starvation, bears, and other prospectors along the way. THE GOLD RUSH contains some of the most iconic images in cinema, including the famous scene in which Charlie makes a gourmet feast of his boot! Georgia Hale plays the beautiful dance hall entertainer who steals Charlie’s heart. Approximately 80 minutes.
Accompanied by San Francisco Chamber Orchestra with Timothy Brock conducting Chaplin’s score. 

A few days before the San Francisco Silent Film Festival began last Thursday night at the Castro Theatre, I spoke with festival artistic director Anita Monga. She shared a touching story that couldn’t illustrate the beauty of silent film any better.

“Two years ago, there was this janitor at the Castro [Theater.] She didn’t really speak English. She had her little son with her, and I knew he looked really interested in one of the movies we showed. [One night,] were showing a beautiful tinted restoration of A Trip to the Moon. The theater was virtually full. I like to sit in the back where the sound mixing board is. The janitor [peeked in the theater,] uncertain like she didn’t want to bother us. We said, ‘Come in! Come in with your son. This’ll be a good film.’ She said, ‘Oh, maybe a minute.'”

“They stayed the entire time.” Anita continued. “Again, she didn’t really speak English, but they were laughing belly laughs. You know, slapping your knee laughs. It was so wonderful to see this movie that transcended language and age. It was just so beautiful. People always think children are going to be bored by silent film because there’s no talking. And yet, [this woman] who didn’t speak English, couldn’t read the intertitles, and [her son,] who most people think shouldn’t care about this art form, were sitting beside us and just loving it!”

Listening to Anita speak so lovingly about silent film kicked my excitement for the festival through the roof. My experience with The Hitchcock 9 was life-changing, from the live music, to the knowledgeable, respectful crowd, to the gorgeous Castro Theatre that housed it all. It was an amazing experience, and when I arrived at the Castro for opening night, I was excited to do it all over again. Prix de Beauté, the painfully tragic opening night film (which reminded me a lot of one of my favorites, The Red Shoes) depicts jealousy in such an authentic, modern way that it had me upset all night (in a good way, somehow.) Louise Brooks has superstar written all over her face, and she’d be an even bigger star today than she was then. It was a great film to kick off the festival.

Prix de Beauté

The rest of the fest was wonderfully varied, with films from all across the world. Marion Davies is as adorable and lovable as a thousand Zooey Deschanels in Kind Vidor’s quirky family comedy, The Patsy. Though Davies got a bad rap from her characterization in Citizen Kane, she shows a wealth of charisma in her turn as a swooning ugly duckling. Though most famous for his dramatic later works like Tokyo Story and Late Spring, master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu created a lighter, more comedic film earlier in his career in Tokyo Chorus, though it’s no less poetic than its successors. One of the last films he made in the silent era, it’s a must watch for any Ozu fan. Gribiche, a French film about a boy from a lower-middle class family who is “rescued” from his humble lifestyle by an affluent widow, was a favorite of mine. The comedy and drama work hand-in-hand here, and director Jacques Feyder hits every beat with authority.

Gribiche

The film capping off the festival was goofball daredevil Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last (you know, the one where he hangs off the clock.) The theater was packed to the brim (just like in Anita’s story) to see Lloyd’s masterpiece. The walls seemed to be shaking from the excitement of the crowd. After a quick Q&A with visual effects expert Craig Barron and Harold’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd (very cool), we were off to the races. The front half of the film delivers a bounty of clever sight gags, but the show-stealer is the thrilling main event, the famous sequence in which Lloyd clumsily scales a 12-story building. As Lloyd bumbled and flailed his way up to the sky, the audience and I hung on his every step, every slip, every hilarious close call. Women screamed when he’d trip and dangle by his fingertips. The collective gasps, oohs and ahs were nearly deafening.

Safety Last

Some of the people around me couldn’t speak English, some were younger than 10, and some were deaf, but we were all gasping in awe, in unison, at the brilliant performance of Mr. Lloyd. It’s an electric connection that you can’t create anywhere but at the movies. My fellow silent film geeks were a bunch of strangers in the dark jumping, screaming, and having a damn good time together. And at times, it felt something like family.

In the spirit of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival taking place this weekend, I thought I’d compile a list of titles that I believe are great gateways for those unacquainted with the wonderful world of silent film. The silent era is a glaring blind spot for many a cinephile (me included, up until just a few years ago), which is truly a shame. A lot of the greatest films of all time were created before sound was introduced (some of which are listed here), and approaching contemporary movies with a measure of knowledge about where their ideas and techniques came from enhances the experience tenfold.

These films aren’t necessarily the greatest of the silent era and perhaps not even the most influential. There are TONS of great silents to fall in love with. These selections are simply good spots in the giant pool of silent films for newcomers to dip their toes in. For those that think silent films are boring or dated, you’ll quickly see just how fun and entertaining these films are, even by today’s standards. If you or a friend or a group of friends have been reluctant to give silent films a try or never had the desire to, I encourage you to give one or more of these films a try. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The absolute best way to see a silent film is to see it at a theater with live music accompaniment, but that unfortunately isn’t an opportunity available to most of us. That’s what makes festivals like SFSFF so special. If you’re in the Bay Area, don’t miss the show! Check out our interview with Anita Monga, the festival’s artistic director.

City Lights (1931)—Charlie Chaplin

Of all the great characters in silent cinema, none are more iconic, touching, likable, or inviting to newcomers than Chaplin’s Tramp. City Lights is arguably the best representation of Chaplin’s style, a masterpiece of slapstick, immaculate staging, “Aw shucks” giddy romance, and graceful physical expression. It’s one of the most enchanting romances of the silent era, with the Tramp’s amorous gaze set on someone who can’t return it—a spunky blind girl played by the wonderful Virginia Cherrill. The Tramp also makes friends with an alcoholic millionaire (Harry Myers), with their unlikely bromance providing some of the funniest scenes in any Chaplin film. Interestingly enough, City Lights was made three years in to the talkie era. The decision to keep the dialogue muted was a masterstroke. Chaplin knew the Tramp didn’t need sound to express himself. Once you bear witness to Chaplin’s grace, physical prowess, and effortless storytelling, it’s hard not to give in to the film, turn off your iPhone, get cozy, and do exactly what Chaplin wanted us all to do—smile a big smile.

For Fans of: Johnny Depp, Disneyland, pratfalls, cartoons, having a wholesome good time

Watch City Lights clip:

City Lights is available on Hulu Plus

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)—F.W. Murnau

If you see only one film on this list, make it this one. F.W. Murnau’s salty/sweet romance masterpiece stirs every bit of me each time I watch it. It’s about a man and woman whose marriage has hit rock bottom (that’s a huge understatement) and how they climb their way out of the depths of resentment to rediscover the love they’d lost. Sunrise can be buoyant, terrifying, spiritual, tragic, haunting, and joyous, often all at once. There’s so much emotion wrapped up in every gorgeous frame that it can be overwhelming, but in the best way possible. Murnau, the greatest German expressionist of the era, seemingly defies the laws of space and gravity with his camera, which glides impossibly over seemingly obstructed terrain. The film runs on the power of the dreamlike imagery, and though the plot may seem basic, its simplicity is necessary to convey the story’s enormous emotion. Sunrise changed the way I watch movies, and I hope it will for you as well.

For Fans of: Terrence Malick, Blue Valentine, fancy camerawork, Martin Scorsese, fucked up romance

Watch Sunrise clip:

A Trip to the Moon (1902)—Georges Melies

Made virtually the minute cinema exited the womb, Georges Melies’ A Trip to the Moon captured the minds and imaginations of everyone who saw it at the time. Some will say it’s a special effects movie that looks like a 1^st grader’s slapped together diorama compared to today’s computer vomited visual wonders. To them I’d contest that A Trip to the Moon is a supremely impressive work of art considering it’s OVER 110 FREAKING YEARS OLD! What makes it required viewing for every film buff is that it acts as a beacon for us to assess just how far we’ve come in terms of technology. It’s a lot of fun to imagine how awestruck audiences must have been in 1902 to see the group of astronauts visit that distant light in the night sky, but what resonates most about the film today is the spirit of Melies’ boundless imagination. The band Air provides the (fantastic) soundtrack for the restored hand-colored version of the film above.

For Fans of: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, mushrooms, astronomy, video games

Watch A Trip to the Moon clip:

The General (1926)—Buster Keaton

Though I personally slightly prefer the zanily whimsical Sherlock Jr., The General is inarguably the paramount accomplishment of Buster Keaton’s career. A speedy adventure brimming with spectacle, it follows “The Great Stone Face” (a name given to Keaton referring to his perpetually deadpan countenance) as he single-handedly takes on an army while aboard the titular train, all for the sake of love. The stunts concocted here are breathtaking enough to captivate any moviegoer, with Keaton tumbling and daredevil-ing all over the locomotive like an acrobatic madman. The  creativity and inventiveness of the film is only rivaled by Chaplin, but Keaton’s work is less saccharine and jibes better with today’s dry, unsentimental brand of humor. My wife usually resigns to the bedroom when I start watching my “classic movies”, but she always seems to linger when I throw old Buster on.

For Fans of: Mel Brooks, Jackie Chan, Rube Goldberg machines, dry humor

Watch The General:

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)—Carl Dreyer

Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc is said to contain the single greatest performance by an actor ever captured on camera, by an enigmatic woman known simply as “Falconetti” (in her only acting role.) Sound like hyperbole? Watch the film. Even if you don’t agree, you’ll have at least seen a wonderful film by one of the most visually powerful directors to ever live (if you’ve never heard of him, do yourself a huge favor and study up.) There’s something unsettling and a bit otherworldly about Joan of Arc, as if it exists outside time and space. It’s like an out of body experience, transporting you somewhere cold, dark, and unfamiliar. Falconetti’s full-screen face is so riveting and tangible it’ll make you shudder, perhaps even weep. Even the greatest actors of today can’t hold a candle.

For Fans of: Amazing freaking acting

Watch The Passion of Joan of Arc clip:

The Passion of Joan of Arc is available on Hulu Plus

The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari (1920)—Robert Wiene

German expressionist Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari may be the first horror film ever made, and if so, it sure set the bar high. Visually, the film’s angular, twisted black and white style can be felt in countless modern films, in the works of Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro, the animated films of Henry Selick, and countless horror flicks. The film’s visual style even helped birth film noir. What’s remarkable is that despite its age, Dr. Calgari stands head and shoulders above most of its descendants. The plot—a macabre murder mystery set in a small German town—isn’t particularly innovative, but it’s the film’s striking, dreamlike imagery that makes it so enduring. Several remakes, books, and even an opera have stemmed from the original film, and with good reason–Wiene was a trailblazer who created a timeless classic.

For Fans of: Tim Burton, set design, Darren Aronofsky, horror movies, punk rock, twist endings

Watch The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari:

Honorable Mentions

Metropolis (1927)—Fritz Lang

The Birth of a Nation (1915)—D.W. Griffith

Sherlock Jr. (1924)—Buster Keaton

Battleship Potemkin (1925)—Sergei M. Eisenstein

Nosferatu (1922)—F.W. Murnau

What was the first silent film that you fell in love with? Let us know in the comments!

Some of the greatest directors of all time—F.W. Murnau, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, and Carl Dreyer, to name a few—thrived in the silent era, and the best directors of today constantly refer to their work for inspiration and guidance. Knowledge of the silent era is essential to every true cinephile and greatly enhances the pleasures of movie-watching. The problem is, the only way to truly experience a silent film is by seeing it in a theater with live musical accompaniment, which isn’t necessarily doable for most of us.

But fear not! If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend, you’re in luck: From Thursday, July 18^th to Sunday, July 21^st at the Castro theater, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival is going to be presenting an amazing lineup of beautifully restored silent films accompanied by gorgeous live music. This is the only way to truly enjoy these classic movies, and the experience will be a treasure you’ll never forget.

Festival director Anita Monga sat with us to talk about the festival’s history, why silent film isn’t “boring”, Alexander Payne, Citizen Kane, her favorite silent comedy star, and much more.

For festival information and ticket info, visit silentfilm.org

Let’s talk a bit about the history of the festival. How long has it been going on?
The festival started 18 years ago as a one day event. Steve Salmons and Melissa Chittick invented it. It was a success from the beginning. It’s now grown into a four day event, and we have events year round also. It’s probably the biggest and most successful event of its kind in the Americas.

How long have you been involved in the festival personally?
I think this will be my fourth festival.

I assume one of the main goals of the festival is to get people excited about silent film. Over the past four years, have you seen a growth in enthusiasm from the community?
My major focus is to get people into the theater. I think when people think of silent film, they think it’s going to be boring or that it’s something their college professor thought would be good for them to complete their education. Consequently, a lot of people saw their only silent films done silently or with horrible accompaniment, at the wrong frame rate, or they’ve seen a horrible print. A lot of these films are amazingly modern and have a lot to say about modern audiences. We always take great care to pair [these films] with musical accompaniment, and we don’t dictate to the musicians, but we pick them carefully, ones that have to have respect for films. We work with them closely to pair them with films that we think they can bring to life.

With silent film, there’s this hump to get over. Like you said, a lot of people view silent film as boring or irrelevant. I had the same apprehensions, but when I saw Murnau’s Sunrise, it was a revelation. How do you get people over that hump and get them in the theater?
That is really, really difficult. You just keep hounding. Really, it’s word of mouth. People who have been [to the festival] realize how extraordinary it is. We kind of have a reputation of making things fun so that people are willing to take a little bit of a chance on us, and once they do, they see how beautiful it is. We started an initiative which we are not doing this year because we asked several people who are too busy, but we do this thing called “The Director’s Pick” which we’ve renamed “The Filmmaker’s Pick”. We’re trying to draw this connection between modern filmmakers and the silent era. Filmmakers are well aware of what happened in the silent era. People who work, particularly people who have a strong visual sense, are very cognizant of the amazing strides that were made from the birth of cinema to Sunrise. It was all there. It was a way of telling a story visually and you had to supply your own music. It was an amazing art form that led to everything that happens today.

We’ve had Alexander Payne, Terry Zwigoff, Phillip Kaufman, and Pete Doctor come to introduce a show and talk about the filmmaking, something about the direction or the acting that draws for our audience that this was something that inspired them. Audiences appreciate that from a craft-person’s point of view.

People talk about silent film like it’s this ancient thing, but it’s only 100 years old. The techniques Murnau, Chaplin, and Keaton were utilizing are still just as effective today.
They’re very effective and they’re very informative for people making films now. Shakespeare’s plays have something for modern audiences. Our festival is not what I like to call an “etched in amber” approach. We’re not trying to recreate a historical moment. What we’re trying to do is bring these movies to life. I programmed the Castro for many years, and at one point there was a restoration of Citizen Kane. I showed it for a week and people were coming up to the box office and saying, “Is this really a good movie?” I think the feeling that, “This is a classic! You must see this!” make people think, “Boring!” When you see Citizen Kane, it’s unbelievable. It deserves every accolade you could possibly give it, but it’s like when people are force-fed Ivanhoe in school. People think, “This is good for me. It must not be entertaining.”

San Francisco is a very film-friendly place. The audience is the best in the world. But for silent films, you can’t do this at home. You can’t. You can stream any number of films, but you can’t recreate what we’re doing with live music. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience.

You’ve got a great lineup for this year’s festival, a lot of excellent films.
They’re all so amazing, but one that I hope doesn’t get lost in the fray is The Weavers. It’s based on an incident that happened in the 1840’s, an uprising. They ran the manufacturer out of town, they smashed the factory. It was known as the Potemkin of Germany. Prix de Beuté is wonderful for Louise Brooks. It was always considered a lesser film, but it’s actually pretty great. It has one of cinema’s most famous endings, but I’m not going to give it away! [Brooks] is spectacular in it. It was her last starring role. We’ve got a beautiful print of The Golden Clown from Denmark. The Outlaw and his Wife is hot off the presses. The Swedish Film Institute just did its complete restoration. I don’t think anybody has seen it in the United States. It’s exquisite, with Victor Sjöström directing. The script is so beautiful.

Who’s performing the musical accompaniment for that one?
The Matti Bye Ensemble from Sweden. They’re also doing The Golden Clown and The Joyless Street. Everyone needs to see The Joyless Street! We’re also doing two restorations that we had a hand in—The Half Breed, a Douglass Fairbanks film that was thought lost for many years. The restoration just happened in collaboration with Cinemateque Francaise. We’re giving the Silent Film Festival Award to the Cinemateque. The second film we had a hand in the restoration of is The Last Edition, which was filmed in San Francisco. It has this amazing footage of San Francisco in 1925. It’s all along Market Street , the Civic Center, in the Chronicle building. It’s a lovely, action packed film.

Then, there’s a last minute addition that we’re going to show before The Weavers. I got an email from Ken Winokur of the LA Orchestra. He was traveling in the Ukraine and went to the Dovzhenko Centre where they showed him a Dziga Vertov trailer for The 11^th Year. He was so excited about it that he and Beth Custer created a score they’re going to be presenting the world premiere of. The trailer is animated in this insane way. You wouldn’t believe that it was made in 1928.

You’ve got Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in your “Kings of Silent Comedy” shorts program and Harold Lloyd in Safety Last!, which is your closing night film. Can you rank them from best to worst?
Oh, that’s easy. Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd, Chase.

Ah, Charlie Chase in last place?
Between Chase and Lloyd, I don’t know how to rank them. Keaton is tops. Chaplin is amazing.

What’s your favorite Keaton? Sherlock Jr. is mine.
It’s hard. There are so many wonderful things in all of them.

I think Keaton is one of the best ways to bait somebody into watching silent movies. It’s easy to appreciate his work.
His films are so modern. Knowing that he did all of his stunts is amazing. Nobody does better or more amazing stunts than he. I love the whole Rube Goldberg [feel.] I think he’s very observant of human nature. For me, Chaplin is amazing, but there’s a little sentimentality that I don’t love. But, I think he’s absolutely genius. Next year we’re going to be doing major Chaplin stuff because it’s the centennial of the Tramp character.

The image of Lloyd dangling on the minute hand of the clock in Safety Last! is one of the most enduring images in cinema, but very few people have actually seen the film.
It’s so wonderful. Those effects are pretty amazing. In the ’20s, people did these extraordinary stunts, and one of the big stunts in New York City was “The Human Fly.” These people would scale the sides of buildings, and that’s where Lloyd got the idea for the stunt.

I think a lot of the visual discipline that was so key to the silent era is lost in a lot of modern cinema.
The great filmmakers have all learned from the silents. Take Alexander Payne. His scripts are so much about the script and the dialog, but the reason I grew to see his incredible eye is because I saw him at a silent film event in Los Angeles. I was like, “Oh! He loves this!” When I contacted him, he was incredibly enthusiastic because he does go to silent film events.

Not every film made in the silent era was great. There are people working today who have that discipline. As technology makes it easier for people to make films, I think you get more and more people who may not understand what goes into a film. You can make an adequate film. Your first film might be ok, but your second film might not unless you’ve learned these skills. The really spectacular filmmakers of today are still doing what the filmmakers of the silent era did in terms of thinking about their stories in visual terms. What Hitchcock did pretty obsessively was storyboard his films within an inch of their lives.

You’ve got a couple animated features included in the program.
Well, we have the Winsor McCay show. John Canemaker is this great writer and showman, and he’s going to present the program. McCay’s most famous characters were Little Nemo and Gertie the Dinosaur. Filmmakers were always thinking about how to incorporate drawing into moving image. You see this trope in Tex Avery bits where the animator’s hand will be bringing something to life. In Gertie, there are a couple of live action tricks with the person on stage interacting with the character. John is going to be interacting with Gertie. Then, of course, there’s Felix the Cat. He’s going to be in our Kings of Silent Comedy program which might be the best entry point for newcomers to silent film.