In BABYLON, Damien Chazelle has given us several films about the last hurrah of silent films and the birth of synchronized sound. Some of them are good, some of them are muddled, and one of them is superb. Chazelle’s ambitious attempt to encapsulate a time and place provokes respect for the effort, even when it… 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 »
20 Years of Glorious Silence — Anita Monga on the 2015 San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Anita Monga, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, is a treasure trove of all things to do with silent cinema. Every time I talk with her, I learn something new, and every year at the festival that she oversees so lovingly, I see a selection of films that are the perfect distillation… Read More »
Robert Osborne, Charlie Tabesh, and Turner Classic Movies
There are many reasons to love the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. In 2007, it was because they honored Charles Tabesh, Turner Classic Movies Senior Vice President of Programming and New Media, and Robert Osborne, the cable channel’s on-air host whose wealth of knowledge about films, film history, and film folk, may be inexhaustible. It’s certainly nothing less than… Read More »