Keaton, Lloyd, Garbo And More: Summer Silent Film Festival Returns
By Joel Wicklund in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 27, 2015 3:15PM
"The Navigator"
For 17 years, the Silent Film Society of Chicago has done its part to help keep a unique part of movie history alive with theatrical screenings of silent film classics and semi-obscurities. The organization's main attraction is certainly the Silent Summer Film Festival, which returns for six Thursday night screenings at the historic Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge beginning this week.
The series kicks off in strong fashion this Thursday with Buster Keaton's The Navigator (1924). From his deadpan onscreen persona to his innovative directorial touches, Keaton made an imprint on the movies that few artists can match. Anyone who thinks silent movies are hopelessly dated has probably not seen the best of them, and The Navigator, like any film from Keaton's peak period, is a great opportunity to change that attitude. Also on the bill is the Keaton short, The Boat (1921).
Aug. 6 brings The Lost World (1925), an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel about dinosaurs discovered still living in a remote South American jungle. While not nearly as polished, its pioneering stop-motion effects by Willis O'Brien helped set the stage for his remarkable achievements eight years later in King Kong. The historic early cartoon, Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), precedes the feature.
One of the lesser-known films on the schedule, The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), plays on Aug. 13. A romantic melodrama with a flood sequence that is said to be quite impressive, the movie features two stars who would go on to even greater fame in the sound era: Gary Cooper and Ronald Colman.
Aug. 20 the festival will feature my favorite silent comedian, Harold Lloyd in Grandma's Boy (1922). Though less iconic than Keaton or Chaplin, Lloyd is arguably a more relatable screen hero for contemporary audiences, coming across as more of an everyman than a comic archetype. And while he may not have been a filmmaker with the stature of those other legendary silent clowns (his credited directing is minimal, though he certainly helped shape all of his best-known movies), as a physical comedian he was every bit their equal. Before the feature, the Lloyd short Number Please (1920) will be shown.
One of the early superstars of silent cinema and perhaps the most powerful woman ever in the movie industry, "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford gets the spotlight on Aug. 27 in Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918). The tale of a working class girl's plight, it epitomizes the kind of struggle-and-survive melodramas that made Pickford famous. If that seems a little too sudsy for you, another Harold Lloyd short, Get Out and Get Under (1920) will lighten the mood before the feature.
The festival concludes on Sept. 3 with Torrent (1926), Greta Garbo's first American film. Playing a Spanish peasant who rises to opera stardom, Garbo was an instant sensation and her combination of glamour and world wary allure remains a draw for movie buffs today.
Each program begins at 7:30 p.m. and every film features live organ accompaniment by Jay Warren or Tim Baker. Jazz vocalist Linda Collins will also perform on the first and last nights of the festival. Complete details and ticket information are available here.