| Masterpieces
of World Cinema:
Classics
of the Silent Era
Saturday,
January 24 at 8:00 PM
w/
Live Musical Accompaniment by Guglielmo Foffani
A
Corner in Wheat
dir.
D.W. Griffith, USA, 1909, 16mm, 14 mins, b/w
Griffith’s
powerful social commentary contrasts the harsh life of farmers
and the poor who
depend on the price of bread with the exotic luxury indulged
in by the wheat speculator.
Olympia
(Diving
Sequence)
dir.
Leni Riefenstahl,
Germany,
1938, 16mm, 6 mins, b/w
For
her epic film on the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, Leni Riefenstahl
constructed
the
footage chronologically to capture the mounting tension of the
games. With the
diving
sequence however she disregarded factual details altogether
to create a visual poem
with its own laws of time and space.
Rain
dir.
Joris Ivens, The Netherlands,
1929, 16mm, 15 mins, b/w
This
model “city poem” observes, as Ivens put it, "the changing
face of Amsterdam
during the rain". Filmed at a moment’s notice over four
months time, but edited into a single passing shower, Rain is
avirtuoso achievement and Ivens’ finest gem of the twenties.
Entr’acte
dir.
René Clair,
France,
1924, 16mm, 14 mins, b/w
 Entr’acte
is a veritable encyclopedia of the cinema of magic:
the
image plastic and kinetic,
the sensibility comic, inventive, charming and absurd. Made
as an intermission entertainment
for
the Ballets Suedois, from an impromptu scenario by Francis Picabia,
the film stars a who’s who of the Dada movement in Paris
at the time.
The
Tramp
dir.
Charlie Chaplin,
USA,
1915, 16mm, 24 mins, b/w
In
The Tramp, Charlie Chaplin plays a hobo who rescues
the farmer’s daughter
and
wins himself a job on the farm. His final walk away from the
camera has
become
a Chaplin trademark and one of the most endearing images in
the history
of
cinema.
Tickets
are $6.00 general admission, $5.00 I House members, students
and seniors. Available one hour in advance at the International
House box office.
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