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| White Heather (1919) |
Are Parents People? (1925) with Neil Brand
Not a lot of people know this but, when this film was
screened at the Kennington Bioscope Kevin Brownlow revealed that silent cinema’s
sophisticate with that European air, Adolphe Menjou was actually half Irish and
could speak Gaelic as well as probably his father’s French. Further investigation
shows his mother’s maiden name to be Joyce who was also a first cousin of James
Joyce, the writer not the railway worker who is my connection. The more I look
at Adolphe the more I can “hear” that brogue… but also the harder to accept his republican
politics and later support of the House Committee on Un-American Activities and
his co-founding of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American
Ideals.
Still… it’s the art and not the artist and he was, on screen
at least, always a consummate professional and great to watch. Co-star Florence
Vidor later told Kevin that Menjou “fell apart with success”, unable to cope
with too much good fortune he fell to self-medicating with a bottle and who
knows what impact that had on his politics? In this film as with many others,
he makes us happy. Life may be disappointing but it’s also rewardingly
contradictory, comic and complex.
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Kevin explained the influence of Chaplin’s Woman of Paris
on director Malcolm St. Clair’s style with the latter eschewing flamboyant
camerawork in favour of a focus on character development. A supposedly simpler
approach but the narrative was still driven by silky editing and some touches
that might even be described as Lubitsch-esque; a pair of impatient feet here,
a door opened just for slamming and the flicking of peanut shells off an
armchair in tribute to a habit of Mabel Normand’s… Lubitsch also was influenced
by Woman of Paris, thanks Charlie, as ever!
This was an original print from the Kodascope Library and from
Chris Bird’s collection – the same one we saw back in 2017 at the KB. At the
time it was my first exposure to the sparkling brilliance of Betty Bronson but
having recently seen her quicksilver emoting in Peter Pan (1924) I was
even more impressed than on that initial viewing. Here she’s Lita, a teenager
torn between two parents, Menjou and the elegant Florence Vidor, who are so in
love they hate each other. Unable to see beyond their mutual inflexibility they
divorce leaving their daughter in a boarding school trying to figure out a way
to reunite them. She hatches a plot involving a movie star – an hilarious turn
from George Beranger – expulsion and handsome Doctor Dacer (Lawrence Gray).
It’s a hoot, the cast are wonderful and it’s as
sophisticated as Hollywood gets! Talking of which, our learned friend Maestro Neil
Brand was on hand to provide the lightness of touch for his accompaniment
including a wealth of melodic references and an instinctive way with
improvisational composition that can only a lifetime of study make! Chapeau!
GLI ULTIMI GIORNI DI POMPEI (IT 1913) with José
Marìa Serralde Ruiz
Eleuterio Rodolfi’s film was one of two competing adaptations
of the British novel by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, published in 1834, and
itself inspired by the painting The Last Day of Pompeii by the Russian
painter Karl Briullov. The other was directed by Giovanni Enrico Vidali for
Pasquali & Co. and was released just four days after this version produced
by Ambrosio. That version was screened earlier this year at the Kennington
Bioscope and whilst I had previously seen this one on the Kino DVD todays’
screening was much longer – 107 minutes compared with just 78 on the DVD - plus
far more enjoyable on the big screen and with exceptionally energetic and epic
accompaniment from José Marìa Serralde Ruiz!
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It is one of the last great “tableau” films, so called as
they consisted of a series of, often quite intricate, single takes using a
largely static camera. Here there are literally thousands of people placed in
some shots, as the action moves across the frame creating the kineticism of a
moving shot so convincingly that you stop noticing. One shot is of many
hundreds of people and it’s extraordinary although rather spoilt by the
presence of one man wearing a modern suit… evidence below!
The story revolves around Glaucus (Ubaldo Stefani) – one of
Pompeii’s most eligible, who opens the film walking down the main street with
his friend Claudius (Vitale Di Stefano). They are chatted to by a couple of
young ladies but Glaucus only has eyes for Jone (Eugenia Tettoni Fior) one of
the city’s great beauties. We are shown exterior shots of the two lovers
enjoying a picnic in the lagoon but they are observed from the shore by Arbace,
Egyptian High Priest (Antonio Grisanti) who, when not plotting to increase the
popularity of Isis and other “new” Egyptian gods, is trying to force Jone into
his arms… by foul means or fair.
Against this upper-class backdrop is introduced, a poor
blind girl, Nidia (Fernanda Negri Pouget, who maintains her eyes in an
excruciating upward tilt for the whole film… method miming!). She sells flowers
when she isn’t slaving away at one of the local taverns. Glaucus, appalled at
her miss-treatment, rescues her and buys her from the landlord. He sets her up
as a handmaiden in his splendid villa... a very mixed blessing as it turns out.
Nidia falls very quickly for her rescuer but she’s quickly in misery following
a visit from his true love… and we see her agonising against the curtains while
Glaucus and Jone make love down stage.
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So, the human drama unfolds with magic and cult religion used
in attempts to divide the lovers by jealous priests, noble but lovestruck blind
servants and those of bad intent. But, spoilers ahead, you juts know that the
big spoiler is the mountain and that at some point things are really going to
kick off.
It’s from the golden age of Italian silent cinema and on a line
from L’Inferno to Cabiria and beyond in terms of dramatic
ambition and operatic – mythical intensity. It’s an extraordinary document from
just 17 years into the new media’s development and I am so pleased to have seen
it on the scale intended! And, well played José Marìa Serralde Ruiz: an
explosive performance mixed with much intensity and delicate phrasing!
My other highlights…
The White Heather (US 1919) with Stephen Horne
A tinted and toned nitrate print of Maurice Tourneur’s long
believed lost The White Heather was found at Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam
in 2023 and subsequently restored by the SFFP. It looks gorgeous and was presented
here in 35mm with a dynamic score from the multi-instrumentalism master improviser
Mr Stephen Horne
It’s a rip-roaring nautical yarn and court-room drama in
which monied baddie Lord Angus Cameron (Holmes Herbert) tries to annul his secret
marriage to castle housekeeper Marian (Mabel Ballin) – and subsequent
off-spring – so that he can get even more money by marrying a fellow posh
person (honestly, rich folk, are they normally this nasty?). The two were
married at sea and unfortunately the ship sank including the only record of
their nuptials although the Captain (Greed’s Gibson Gowland who was from County
Durham!) survives and could attest to the ceremony, should it be worth his
while… A legal battle is followed by a race to find the Captain led by an
impossibly skinny John Gilbert as Dick Beach, whilst legal follow up and
under-water combat skills are provided by Ralph Graves as Alec McClintock.
Excellent fun and we cheered!
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| Maggie Hennefeld on weaponising Nasty Fashion! |
UCLA David C Copley Lecture: Costume Design and Silent
Cinema
Dressed for Chaos: Costumes, Nasty Women and Social
Change
This was an excellent lecture by Maggie Hennefeld,
Laura Horak, Elif Rongen-Kaynakçı aka The Nasty Women Collective which
highlighted the tremendous importance of costume design in the act of creating
the chaos of comedy. Costume designers, mostly women, supported the ambition of
the leading players by providing clothes fit for purpose as well as the
narrative authenticity.
I hadn’t expected to be so fascinated in the subject but
that’s education for you and there’s a whole depth of detail I would love to
understand more. Professor Hennefeld said that the talk was being recorded and
I do hope so as my niece is studying costume design at Central St Martins and I
know she will get a lot from this.
I also have to say I love the continuing momentum of this
project it only gets stronger and more interesting as the years progress and,
as an agent for truth and resistance it is a remarkable tribute to silent
cinematic scholarship!
Make more noise!!
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