November 2015
The Silent Treatment Presents – Tumbleweeds
Clouds of dust, the clattering of hooves, hundreds of covered wagons huddled together, and BOOM! The cannon is fired. Settlers are released, clamoring for their first slice of the American West, in a flurry of chaos and anticipation. It’s 1893 on the Kansas-Oklahoma border, the site of the Cherokee Strip Land Run, and Don—William S. Hart in his final role—a cowhand and self-described tumbleweed, torn by love and ideology, embroiled in legal troubles, is plagued by the twin temptations of…
Find out more »This is the City: Symposium Day 2
A day-long series of discussions and screenings. Coffee and refreshments will be available beginning at 9:30 a.m. and throughout the day. Complete Schedule Download a PDF of the symposium schedule > Symposium Pass The symposium is open to the public with a special $15 pass granting access to all discussions and screenings on both Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14. Passes can be purchase online, or at the Billy Wilder Theater box office beginning at 6:30 p.m. on November…
Find out more »Ephemera(l) City: Los Angeles in Travelogues, Industrial Films & Amateur Movies
Booster dreams and noirish visions comingle in tonight’s program covering almost 60 years of Los Angeles history as seen through a selection of travelogues, industrial films and amateur movies. Between the Ford Motor Company’s silent-era portrait of a booming young metropolis and the DWP’s early 1970s promotion of an imminent, water-drenched Pacific Rim economic explosion, street-level views of Depression-era Downtown and the end of the Pacific Electric railway capture the ever-shifting landscapes and fortunes of the city. Live musical accompaniment…
Find out more »December 2015
Tillie’s Punctured Romance and Safety Last
Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with the British Film Institute and in consultation with Bo Berglund with funding provided by The Film Foundation, UK Film Council, and Saving the Silents, a Save America's Treasures project organized by the National Film Preservation Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Parks Service, Department of the Interior. Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) For this first feature-length comedy film ever, Marie Dressler, a triumph in the stage version…
Find out more »THE SILENT TREATMENT Presents Tess of the Storm Country
Tess of the Storm Country is a 1914 silent drama, based on the 1909 novel of the same name by Grace Miller White. It starred Mary Pickford, in a role she would reprise eight years later for the 1922 adaptation by John S. Robertson. In 2006, the film was named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress, for its "cultural, aesthetic, or historical significance". Dir. Edwin S. Porter, 1914, HD Digital Presentation, 80 min.
Find out more »January 2016
The Silent Treatment: Peter Pan
Peter Pan, the Darlings, Captain Hook—the abundant seeds of endless adaptations and franchises—all came into being via J.M. Barrie’s pen. In 1924, based on the original books and play by Barrie, came the very first filmic adaption of Peter Pan—an authorized (by Barrie!) silent feature, faithful particularly to the theatrical production. This historical gem, previously believed to be lost, was luckily deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress, and subsequently preserved in the National…
Find out more »Retroformat: Buster Keaton in The General
1926, Douris Corp., 80 min, USA, Dir: Buster Keaton During the Civil War, train engineer Johnny Grey (Keaton, at his most fearless and funny) has his beloved locomotive stolen by Union spies. He boards and mans another massive train, appropriately named "Texas," and sets out to pursue and catch up to his kidnapped steam engine. This classic film is not only an inimitable comedy but also a feat of physical daring, and is not to be missed! Includes Keaton riding…
Find out more »February 2016
The Silent Treatment: The Patsy
Feat. Live Accompaniment from Cliff Retallick! The first of three King Vidor films featuring Marion Davies, The Patsy is an energetic and frothy comedy, charmingly driven by its screwball leading lady. Vidor—one of the great filmmakers of the 1920s—made the film at the insistence of William Randolph Hearst, newspaper man and media mogul, who confidently cooked up the idea for this hit. Davies, previously known for drama, shines as something of a proto-teenager in an auspicious start to her…
Find out more »Chaplin at Mutual – Chaplin Shorts
100 years ago this month, Charlie Chaplin became the highest paid entertainer in the world when he signed with the Mutual Film Corporation; the dozen shorts he produced for them include some of the funniest and most brilliant sequences of his career. Program includes: “The Immigrant” (1917, 22 min.) The Tramp sails to America and falls in love with Edna Purviance in Chaplin’s favorite two-reel comedy. “The Cure” (1917, 31 min.) Chaplin plays a drunkard who inebriates an entire health…
Find out more »Fatty and Mabel Adrift – An evening with Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand
Our "Retroformat," movies on 8mm series presents “Fatty and Mabel at Keystone” in our intimate, Spielberg Theatre. This two hour program is an evening of silent shorts on 8mm featuring two of the era’s most beloved stars, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. The program includes a 100th anniversary screening of the beautifully made comedy classic “Fatty and Mabel Adrift” (1916, 34 min. Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle), a true gem from the Keystone studios, plus “Mabel, Fatty and the Law” and…
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