Silent Winter 2013

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival held a one day event at the Castro Theater on February 16.

The event consisted of five programs but I only saw one since the event conflicted with the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.  The films I missed were Snow White, The Thief of Bagdad, My Best Girl & Faust.  I saw Faust (directed by F.W. Murnau) at the 2012 Cinequest.  I would have liked to have seen The Thief of Bagdad and My Best Girl which starred Douglas Fairbanks & Mary Pickford, respectively.

I saw a short film program titled "Think Slow, Act Fast: Buster Keaton Shorts" which consisted of three films.

One Week starring Buster Keaton & Sybil Seely; with Joe Roberts; directed by Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton; silent with intertitles; (1920)
The Scarecrow starring Buster Keaton & Sybil Seely; with Joe Roberts & Joe Keaton; directed by Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton; silent with intertitles; (1920)
The Play House starring Buster Keaton; with Virginia Fox & Joe Roberts; directed by Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton; silent with intertitles; (1921)

Donald Sosin accompanied the films on piano.  Frank Buxton introduced the films.

I cannot recall laughing more than I did during this program.

One Week - Keaton & Sybil Seely are newlyweds who receive a DIY house building kit.  A spurned suitor renumbers the parts and causes hilarious mischief.  The finished house looks like a Picasso painting.  Memorable gags included the house spinning on its vertical axis during a windstorm and a train missing a car stuck on the railroad tracks.

The Scarecrow - Keaton woos the farmer's daughter (Seely).  After losing his shirt in a hay thresher, he dresses in the scarecrow's clothes.  Memorable gags includes a pit bull chasing Buster, Keaton and Joe Roberts tossing sundry items around with jury rigged ropes and Keaton, Seely & a preacher on a motorcycle.

The Play House - Keaton is a theater stagehand who falls in love with an identical twin but keeps confusing her with her sister.  (In)famous gags include Keaton (sometimes) in blackface simultaneously performing nine parts via trick photography, Keaton in drag & Keaton pretending to be an orangutan.