February 2017
The Silent Treatment: Feel My Pulse
Archival print courtesy of the Library of Congress Featuring live accompaniment by Cliff Retallick This madcap tale of hypochondria and bootlegging is the work of the then up-and-coming director Gregory La Cava, who was – naturally – a former cartoonist. When his employer tanked, he started making features replete with comic strip style stories. This one stars Bebe Daniels as a wildly over-protected child – on the cusp of adulthood, followed by a flock of nurses supplied at the request of…
Find out more »Retroformat – Peck’s Bad Boy starring Jackie Cogan
Please join us this Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. for a special presentation of Peck's Bad Boy, starring the greatest child star of the silent era, Jackie Coogan, with live accompaniment by the one and only Cliff Retallick! See the attached poster for details. Later this year, we will be presenting Jackie Coogan and Lon Chaney in Oliver Twist, a special tribute to Buster Keaton by the great Paul Dooley himself, more D. W. Griffith shorts, and much more. Thank…
Find out more »March 2017
UCLA Festival of Preservation
Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by New York Women in Film & Television's Women's Film Preservation Trust and The Film Foundation Tramp Strategy (1911) A mischievous vagabond infiltrates a bourgeois household in this newly discovered one-reel comedy by the pioneering female director Alice Guy. 35mm, tinted, silent with Dutch intertitles, approx. 12 min. Director: Alice Guy. Production/Distribution: Solax Film Company. Restored from a 35mm nitrate tinted print in association with the EYE Filmmuseum, Netherlands and…
Find out more »The Silent Treatment – The Salvation Hunters
Featuring live accompaniment by Cliff Retallick Josef von Sternberg’s first film – shot for less than $4,800 on location in San Pedro, Chinatown and the San Fernando Valley – was possibly Hollywood’s first “independent” production. The gritty realism of its locations, the lack of artifice in its story and the lower depths of its characters shocked audiences and the industry alike. The film remains thoroughly modern. Sternberg’s images thrive on composition and stasis. His ending resolves nothing and yet everything…
Find out more »August 2017
Silent Films at La Crescenta’s Two Strike Park!
I will be performing lives scores to HAND CRANKED silent films on Saturday, August 5th in La Crescenta, CA. Mr. Joe Rinaudo, projectionist and film archivist extraordinaire will be projecting his own restored prints! You will not want to miss this! The fun begins after sunset and the films include: The Clown's Little Brother -- a silent cartoon! Gidd'ap -- Billy Bevan comedy The Blacksmith -- BUSTER KEATON comedy! The Rat's Knuckles -- Charlie Chase comedy The Grocery Clerk -- Larry…
Find out more »VARIETE
Featuring live accompaniment by Cliff Retallick Adapted from a 1921 novel by Felix Hollaender, Variete is a gem extracted from the golden age of twenties German silent film. The film follows a trapeze artist – accompanied by “unleashed” acrobatic camera work to match. Presented in a new DCP restoration! “This is a production which not only shows the way in which a story should be unfurled, but impresses one with the magic of the camera in picturing effects, such as the torrent of…
Find out more »September 2017
THE VOYAGER INSTITUTE: AN INTERVIEW ABOUT SILENT FILM SCORING AND MUCH MORE! 9/30
I am honored to be a participant in the first of what I am certain will be many events put on by the amazing new VOYAGER INSTITUTE here in Los Angeles. Institute founder, Bret Berg and I are going to discuss the process of scoring silent films live. I will be playing along to a few clips of silent film to demonstrate what we're talking about! I am really thrilled at the prospect of finally having a forum to talk…
Find out more »October 2017
LON CHANEY: OUTSIDE THE LAW – OCTOBER 14th
As part of the RETROFORMAT SERIES at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood I will be performing live accompaniment for this silent gem! From the good folks at RETROFORMAT: Saturday, October 14, 2017, Lon Chaney returns to Retroformat in Tod Browning's Outside the Law (1920), with live accompaniment by Cliff Retallick. In his second collaboration with director Tod Browning, Chaney plays two contrasting roles: frighteningly malevolent gangster Black Mike Sylva, and kind-hearted student of philosophy Ah Wing. This film was important…
Find out more »Cuban Silent Cinema at UCLA!
Live musical accompaniment by Cliff Retallick! Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and Cinemateca de Cuba La Virgen de la Caridad (Cuba, 1930) Yeyo, a young peasant is in love with Trina, the daughter of a local landowner, but her father, Don Pedro del Valle, objects to her marrying below her class. He has found a more suitable husband, but Trina loves Yeyo. Seemingly, only the “Virgin of Charity” can intervene. This Cuban silent film was highly praised and…
Find out more »Mrs. Carmody & Mrs. Jellineck are an Official Selection at Valley Film Festival October 25-29
I had the pleasure to compose music for this hilarious web series last year and now it is making the festival rounds! Congrats to the very talented filmmakers Elizabeth Arends and Jeanne Taylor! Check it out at this fest next week! Screening at Laemmle's NoHo 7! https://filmfreeway.com/festival/TheValleyFilmFestival
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