One of my favorite cinema stories is about KING KONG and the trouble it ran into with the censors even in that pre-Code time of 1933. It wasn’t Fay Wray in her slinky satin negligee, it wasn’t dinosaurs tearing each other apart. No, the only censored bit of KING KONG was the sound of Kong… Read More »
2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival — Anita Monga Interview
I always look forward to my annual interview with Anita Monga, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. A genteel woman with a sly sense of humor and a wealth of knowledge about cinema history, she never fails to delight in both her conversation and the dynamic cross-section of films that she programs… Read More »
Anita Monga on the 2016 San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Few people speak about silent cinema with such authority and such affection as Anita Monga, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. When we spoke on May 16, 2016, it was to discuss not just the dynamic slate of films at this year’s festival, its 21st, but also the work that the festival… Read More »
HOLLYWOOD BEFORE THE CODE: SEX! CRIME! HORROR! with Elliot Lavine, Tourguide
If you had to sum up what it’s like to talk with Elliot Lavine, cinema programmer extraordinaire, scholar of film history and engaging raconteur, it might be the moment when an emergency vehicle went by the room where I was interviewing him on February 17, 2106. While ruminating on studio policies about film restoration, he… Read More »
Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films talks paternal influences, cocktail-swilling elephants, and when a lobster is not a lobster.
Serge Bromberg, courtesy of the company he founded, Lobster Films, has been discovering and restoring films from the silent era through the 1960s for 25 years. The excuse for myinterview (I’ve wanted to talk to him for years) was his imminent appearance at the 20th anniversary of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which had… Read More »
Paul Mariano & Kurt Norton Reveal THESE AMAZING SHADOWS
Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton brought their love of film to their documentary, THESE AMAZING SHADOWS, but they were interested in doing more than paying tribute to an art from that they loved, they wanted to put it into the context of the larger culture, hence using The National Film Registry as the framework. The… Read More »
Sacha Gervasi Dissects HITCHCOCK
Sacha Gervasi had the advantage of knowing for a fact that he would not be getting the job when he went to talk to the studio about directing HITCHCOCK, so he was completely relaxed and honest as he took the meeting. When I spoke with Sacha Gervasi on November 6, 2012, that’s where I wanted to… Read More »
Anita Monga and the 2013 Silent Film Festival Winter Program
For Anita Monga, silent film is more than just a quaint curiosity. It’s as vibrant and immediate an art form as any other, as well as the mainspring of modern cinema. When I spoke to her on February 1, 2013, she pointed this out with something I had not thought of before. The first section… Read More »