That was the week that was… and it was a Festival of many
parts as director Jay Weissberg noted as he introduced the final night’s gala
performance and reflected on the creative choices and collective efforts that
for this precious week, turn the Teatro Verdi and the surrounding are into the
“home” that former director David Robinson always talked about. To the programmers,
the marketers, the ticket office, the ushers, projections and even sommeliers
and barristers of Pordenone, this is a triumph of organisation but: “we make
the table and you the audience are the family” that eats , talks and watches
together.
Jay had their hospitality in mind because of course
tonight’s finale was a projection of Buster Keaton’s master work with a score
composed by Andrej Goričar who conducted the Orchestra of the Imaginary,
Lubiana in performing it. So many of Buster’s films are a comedy comfort
blanket for this audience and there couldn’t have been many who hadn’t seen
this film more than a few times. But context is everything with “live cinema”
and the film rose to the occasion as the gathering once again found Keaton’s
tale funny as it was reanimated by our collective appreciation and the new,
exceptionally live music. Some times I think that silent film musicians are
there to mostly remind us of the “life” that went into these images – we are
all attuned with song lines of the film makers as their new collaborators
connect with these ancient meanings.
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| A "Train", not sure they'll catch on? |
Don’t get me wrong, a kick in the head from Buster
Keaton’s dad Joe who plays the locomotive engine driver, is still funny in any
language and at any time. This was a bit of a speciality from Keaton Senior in
preference to using his fists and the skill remains impressive. There enough
timeless slapstick in Our Hospitality but also a playful surrealism, especially
during that first half our as Buster and co take the old Rocket steam loco out
west – a train so feeble that Keaton’s dog can easily follow it all the way,
and they have to move the tracks to avoid donkeys and other road hazards.
The whole rickety journey is one of Buster’s finest and
the fact that the entire crew and passengers take it as normal is what makes it
work. Out of nowhere, a man throws stones from a mountain side and the driver
throws logs back which are quickly gathered and taken to start a fire
elsewhere. The United States of Daft… how we miss them.
But this comedy is a black one and starts off with the Canfield
and McKay family feud as two of the men from each family extend the senseless
violence by killing each other. John Canfield’s wife decides to take their son
Willie (played by Keaton’s baby – this is a family affair) to New York in an
effort to remove him from the front line. This is New York allegedly based on a
1820’s map showing Broadway as a dirt track intersecting with an equally dusty
4th Avenue… CBGBs wasn’t yet open nor the Met but Bleeker Bob’s
record store in the Village probably was…
Willie grows up to be Buster and is delighted to learn
that he has inherited his father’s estate down south and imagining a fine
Georgian mansion, sets off on the new-fangled train. Sitting next to him is a
pretty young woman Virginia (Natalie Talmadge aka Mrs B. Keaton) who become gradually impressed
as they endure their unusual journey. When they finally arrive, she runs off to
see her brothers who are, of course Cranfields. Willie gives the game away
saying he’s here for the McKay estate – more of a collapsing barn than a shed…
Virginia invites him to dinner and the boys start planning Willie’s leaving do
only for the famous southern hospitality to get in the way… up to a point.
If the second half doesn’t quite match the first for
laughs, we have the love story to hopefully bring peace to this forever war…
Bit of a theme this week.
Before the main feature there were some precious Chaplin
moments. Jay Weissberg has been playing excerpts from his recent interview with
former Festival Director David Robinson and they give an insight into Chaplin’s
life and works: it’s a wonderful way of bringing David back into the Giornate
but also, here’s a man who met Charlie and Oona, who also met Stand and Olly…
he’s steeped in the personalities and it is lovely to see him on screen.
Following this there were more Chaplin Family Home Movies
which have also been a feature of the week. The first features an older Charlie
and an older Syd juggling with the younger brother still more poised and
co-ordinated and funnier too. Then there’s Charlie and Oona in Venice, the city
unchanged as my short break there proved last week. Charlie looks well and is
clearly enjoying his later years!
Another star of the Festival has been Max Fleischer and
the mixed media films featuring Ko-ko the Clown directed by brother Dave. How
much did Disney learn from these boys and their endless imagination and
dynamism. Fleischer went on to make the ground-breaking Superman cartoon
serials of the late 1930s and has a higher level of technique than Disney.
Meg Morley accompanied the above session and again I
really enjoy her period appropriate melodies and the jazzy fluidity of her
playing on the Rolls Royce Fazioli piano. She hits the keys with just that
extra bit if style and her ideas always support the action so well.
Earlier in the day there was a lot of “Early Cinema” with
18 (?!) short films from Stockholm mostly from 1897. These were followed by two
colour-stencilled French films about Japan, La Geisha (1910) and LA RIVIÈRE
KATSURA AU JAPON (1914) and other shorts accompanied by masterclass student
Ludovico Bellucci. Great though the established musicians are for this Festival
it is good to see the future players coming through.
My Boy (US 1921), with Neil Brand
More from the Chaplin Connection and more recollections
from David Robinson, of Charlie meeting Jackie Coogan at a dinner in the early
1960s. Coogan had a difficult reputation at this point and the family was
unsure how the meeting would go but Charlie simply looked at the man and smiled
“young man” and all was well.
By this point Jackie was Uncle Fester in the successful Addams Family – and yesterday was appropriately enough the 100th birthday of John Astin, the original and best Gomez Addams – but what do you do when you’ve had your career start aged ten in something line The Kid? Well, follow it up with a similar film, this one called My Boy (US 1921), directed by Victor Heerman and featuring accompaniment by Our Kid, Neil Brand. It's sentimentl adn soppy with some good gags and the lad in question is very good, a natural actor at this age who can hit the deeper notes.
L’ Ombra (IT 1923) with José Marìa Serralde
Ruiz
Another in the revelatory Italia Almirante Manzini strand
and one of the best, in fact by consensus, probably the best newly discovered
film of this last day. I’ve been undecided about Manzini’s position in the top
tier of Divadom but there’s no denying her physicality and expressiveness, she
dominates every scene and has an imperious way with her.
This was a really meaty role as she plays Berta, the wife
of a painter Geraldo (Alberto Collo) who is suddenly struck down and paralysed
and rendered paraplegic. She rises to the occasion but cannot engage in an
active life anymore and, naturally, this is frustrating for her new husband. He
starts living a double life starting an affair with a family friend and younger
woman Elena Previle (Liliama Ardea) who has recently left her husband. Time
passes and a child appears but the once paralysed Berta starts to regain her
functions, surprising everyone with a full recovery, not least Geraldo. What
follows is a master class in tightly scripted retribution as Berta regains
control of her life with purpose and sheer willpower. Almirante Manzini
commands the screen and the other characters and dispenses her own judgement on
the iniquitous position her character has been left in.
Now, that’s what I call Diva!
And, this is what I call the finest film festival in the
World. See you next year.
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