For over 25 years, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival called the Castro Theatre home. With the iconic theater now closed for a year-plus-long renovation, Sfsff has relocated to the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, located in a beautiful park created for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition at the north edge of the Presidio. The auditorium, primarily a performance space, seats nearly a thousand and features a spacious foyer where passholders could visit and relax between shows (particularly useful on chilly weekends).
Sfsff prides itself on mixing landmark productions and audience favorites with rediscoveries, revelations, and rarities, often recently uncovered and restored. And for its 27th edition this year, the festival presented 20 features and six short films over five days, all with live musical scores by some of the finest silent film accompanists in the world.
The opening night film, Albert Parker’s 1926 swashbuckler The Black Pirate, certainly qualifies as both landmark and favorite.
Sfsff prides itself on mixing landmark productions and audience favorites with rediscoveries, revelations, and rarities, often recently uncovered and restored. And for its 27th edition this year, the festival presented 20 features and six short films over five days, all with live musical scores by some of the finest silent film accompanists in the world.
The opening night film, Albert Parker’s 1926 swashbuckler The Black Pirate, certainly qualifies as both landmark and favorite.
- 4/20/2024
- by Sean Axmaker
- Slant Magazine
Ron Howard and comedy site Funny or Die have teamed up on a pitch for the Motion Picture Television Fund.
The six-minute video, which dropped online on Wednesday, is titled “Ron Howard Digs Up a Very Strange Voicemail His Agent Left Him in 1983.” The clip delves into the development of Howard’s comedy “Splash” following the success of “Night Shift,” which starred Michael Keaton, Henry Winkler and Shelley Long.
“If you’re there, please pick up because it cannot wait. Shelley Long has passed on ‘Splash,” the agent tells Howard. “Shelley felt that Lowell and Babaloo’s take was too funny. She wanted the mermaid to be more of the sea monster that she was in the origin story.”
The agent also tells Howard that Richard Gere and Armand Assante have passed on the male lead and tells him that an actress named Daryl Hannah — “The body of a goddess...
The six-minute video, which dropped online on Wednesday, is titled “Ron Howard Digs Up a Very Strange Voicemail His Agent Left Him in 1983.” The clip delves into the development of Howard’s comedy “Splash” following the success of “Night Shift,” which starred Michael Keaton, Henry Winkler and Shelley Long.
“If you’re there, please pick up because it cannot wait. Shelley Long has passed on ‘Splash,” the agent tells Howard. “Shelley felt that Lowell and Babaloo’s take was too funny. She wanted the mermaid to be more of the sea monster that she was in the origin story.”
The agent also tells Howard that Richard Gere and Armand Assante have passed on the male lead and tells him that an actress named Daryl Hannah — “The body of a goddess...
- 5/6/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
On the last day of February, county officials in suburban Seattle went public with the news that the Life Care Center had become the center of an outbreak of the coronavirus disease.
That disclosure began setting off alarms at America’s elder care facilities, due to residents being at heightened risk because of their age and close living conditions. That included the renowned Motion Picture & Television Fund’s campus in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, home to 250 entertainment industry veterans and retirees.
Bob Beitcher, president and CEO of the MPTF for the past decade, announced on March 6 that the nursing facility and retirement community would be quarantined starting on March 9. That meant that gatherings were eliminated, and new policies were put in place to keep contact between staffers and residents to a minimum. In addition, the MPTF instituted daily temperature checks for employees coming on to campus. Staff...
That disclosure began setting off alarms at America’s elder care facilities, due to residents being at heightened risk because of their age and close living conditions. That included the renowned Motion Picture & Television Fund’s campus in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, home to 250 entertainment industry veterans and retirees.
Bob Beitcher, president and CEO of the MPTF for the past decade, announced on March 6 that the nursing facility and retirement community would be quarantined starting on March 9. That meant that gatherings were eliminated, and new policies were put in place to keep contact between staffers and residents to a minimum. In addition, the MPTF instituted daily temperature checks for employees coming on to campus. Staff...
- 4/16/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Update — Two male residents at the Motion Picture Television Fund’s skilled nursing facility in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills have died of complications from Covid-19.
The first death occurred on Monday and the second took place on Tuesday, according to Bob Beitcher, president and CEO of the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Beitcher identified one of the victims as John Breier, 64, a longtime member of Iatse Local 174.
Both had compromised immune systems. The first victim, who was 81, died at West Hills Hospital. Breier had been living with multiple sclerosis for the past 25 years. Beitcher said the two had been in Mptf’s long-term care unit for many years.
Beitcher also said Tuesday that four staffers had tested positive for the virus and were self-isolating. He also said that six other patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 are receiving care in the facilities’ isolation unit.
The Mptf reported...
The first death occurred on Monday and the second took place on Tuesday, according to Bob Beitcher, president and CEO of the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Beitcher identified one of the victims as John Breier, 64, a longtime member of Iatse Local 174.
Both had compromised immune systems. The first victim, who was 81, died at West Hills Hospital. Breier had been living with multiple sclerosis for the past 25 years. Beitcher said the two had been in Mptf’s long-term care unit for many years.
Beitcher also said Tuesday that four staffers had tested positive for the virus and were self-isolating. He also said that six other patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 are receiving care in the facilities’ isolation unit.
The Mptf reported...
- 4/8/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Six additional elderly residents at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s skilled nursing facility in suburban Los Angeles have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to seven.
The Mptf reported the first case on Tuesday. About 250 entertainment industry retirees live on the Mptf’s Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills, Calif. All seven are residents of either the Mary Pickford House long-term care facility or Harry’s Haven, its Alzheimer’s unit.
A spokesperson for the Mptf said Friday that all seven are in stable condition. The first resident who tested positive was taken to West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles.
None of the facility’s staff and caregivers have tested positive for the coronavirus. The facilities have been on lockdown since March 6. The Mptf has restricted visits from family members and banned communal gatherings, including residential meals and movie screenings. All individuals entering the campus are scanned thermally on a daily basis.
The Mptf reported the first case on Tuesday. About 250 entertainment industry retirees live on the Mptf’s Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills, Calif. All seven are residents of either the Mary Pickford House long-term care facility or Harry’s Haven, its Alzheimer’s unit.
A spokesperson for the Mptf said Friday that all seven are in stable condition. The first resident who tested positive was taken to West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles.
None of the facility’s staff and caregivers have tested positive for the coronavirus. The facilities have been on lockdown since March 6. The Mptf has restricted visits from family members and banned communal gatherings, including residential meals and movie screenings. All individuals entering the campus are scanned thermally on a daily basis.
- 4/4/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl': Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' review: Mostly an enjoyable romp (Oscar Movie Series) Pirate movies were a Hollywood staple for about three decades, from the mid-'20s (The Sea Hawk, The Black Pirate) to the mid-to-late '50s (Moonfleet, The Buccaneer), when the genre, by then mostly relegated to B films, began to die down. Sporadic resurrections in the '80s and '90s turned out to be critical and commercial bombs (Pirates, Cutthroat Island), something that didn't bode well for the Walt Disney Company's $140 million-budgeted film "adaptation" of one of their theme-park rides. But Neptune's mood has apparently improved with the arrival of the new century. He smiled – grinned would be a more appropriate word – on the Gore Verbinski-directed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,...
- 6/29/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres in George Melford's The Sheik Long before they became Hollywood's favorite terrorists, Arabs were generally portrayed as lusty, uncouth, infantile beings in myriad Hollywood movies. Turner Classic Movies returns this month with their annual "Race & Hollywood" film series. The "race" this time around: Arabs. Frank Lloyd's long but generally entertaining 1924 epic The Sea Hawk is almost over. TCM has shown this one before a few times; long-thought lost, The Sea Hawk was restored about a decade ago. Popular leading man Milton Sills stars. Next are two silents starring movie idols of the 1920s: The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and The Sheik (1921). One of Douglas Fairbanks' biggest hits, The Thief of Bagdad was directed by Raoul Walsh; this Arabian Nights romp is probably Fairbanks' most enjoyable vehicle of that era. Quite possibly, it's Fairbanks best movie, period. Starring Rudolph Valentino, who set as many hearts aflutter as Justin Bieber,...
- 7/6/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Barker (1928) Direction: George Fitzmaurice Cast: Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill, Betty Compson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Sylvia Ashton, George Cooper Screenplay: Benjamin Glazer; dialogue by Joseph Jackson; titles by Herman J. Mankiewicz, from Kenyon Nicholson's 1927 play Oscar Movies, Pre-Code Movies Dorothy Mackaill, Milton Sills, The Barker Directed by George Fitzmaurice, by then already a film veteran, The Barker is one of those strange hybrids made at the dawn of the sound era: some sequences feature dialogue, others have intertitles and musical accompaniment. The Barker, in fact, is perhaps stranger than most for the dialogue isn't restricted to one specific reel or two. Characters start talking unexpectedly, only to go silent again a few scenes later. Besides its historical importance as one of those transitional curiosities, this B-movie melodrama produced with a mostly A-class talent has enough intriguing elements to keep viewers at least moderately entertained. The basic plot, from Kenyon Nicholson...
- 3/9/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
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A Thief Catcher (Keystone, 1914), featuring a previously unknown performance by silent comedy star Charlie Chaplin, will have its west coast re-premiere during the 46th annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood California over Labor Day Weekend, September 2-6, 2010
Chaplin is officially credited with appearing in thirty-five films during his year at Keystone in 1914, but he claimed in various interviews that he had also played bit roles as a cop and a barber while at the studio--but he did not name the films, and although there has been some speculation about the possibility of additional Chaplin-Keystone appearances, none has turned up until now. Film collector Paul Gierucki found a 16mm film print in a trunk at a Taylor, Michigan, antique store last year. "I could tell it was a Keystone comedy,...
Normal 0 false false false En-Us X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
A Thief Catcher (Keystone, 1914), featuring a previously unknown performance by silent comedy star Charlie Chaplin, will have its west coast re-premiere during the 46th annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood California over Labor Day Weekend, September 2-6, 2010
Chaplin is officially credited with appearing in thirty-five films during his year at Keystone in 1914, but he claimed in various interviews that he had also played bit roles as a cop and a barber while at the studio--but he did not name the films, and although there has been some speculation about the possibility of additional Chaplin-Keystone appearances, none has turned up until now. Film collector Paul Gierucki found a 16mm film print in a trunk at a Taylor, Michigan, antique store last year. "I could tell it was a Keystone comedy,...
- 8/25/2010
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Milton Sills in The Sea Hawk (top); William Farnum in A Tale of Two Cities (bottom) Frank Lloyd Intro I: Two-Time Oscar Winner Unlike George Cukor, Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, William Wyler, or even John Ford, Frank Lloyd specialized in one movie genre: melodrama. From A Tale of Two Cities to Cavalcade, from The Sea Hawk to The Howards of Virginia, from Black Oxen to Blood on the Sun, the vast majority of Lloyd’s movies were supposed to make you leave the theater at least a little shaken up after having suffered for a couple of hours with Pauline Frederick, Norma Talmadge, Milton Sills, Clara Bow, Richard Barthelmess, Ann Harding, Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant, or James [...]...
- 1/6/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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