The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is held every July at The Castro Theatre and is the largest silent film festival in the country. In its fifteenth year, the festival expands to four days and eighteen programs, July 15 - 18, 2010. Ticket information is available here: http://www.silentfilm.org/event-tickets.php
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival wrapped up it's intensive weekend of programming (SIX A DAY?!), featuring an old favorite of mine and a new found group that I now love.
I have seen MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA (dir. Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1929, 70 mins.) with the Alloy Orchestra live at least four, perhaps five times now, as well as watched the DVD many times. The film is hypnotic and the cacophonous score reaches a near catharsis. When I first saw this, I had already "done" the QATSI Trilogy, and was left a bit taken aback by Godfrey Reggio's unabashed lifting of entire elements from Vertov's film. I don't know what more to say about MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA except that it is a MUST SEE, and preferably with the Alloy Orchestra score! The film was preceded by the archetypal classic TRIP TO THE MOON (dir. Georges Méliès, France, 1902, 14 mins.), accompanied by Donald Sosin. I'd never seen it in its entirety, so that was sort of nifty. However, except for its iconic imagery, the campiness is really far overplayed. Ah, those French...! Which leads me to the final feature of this year's festival.
(The film was preceded, as were all of the features, by a Georges Méliès film, which I have been amiss in reporting on. As TRIP TO THE MOON is probably the most well-known, that was the one which I attempted a full report. The rest of them were... sillier!)
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6 comments:
You think Reggio stole from Vertov? Reggio spent 14 years as a monk and had hardly seen any films. Chances are he had never seen Vertov's film. What parts do you think he "lifted"?
"The Grid" sequence, in particular, feels like a 'quote' if not a condensed 20 minute version of MAN...
The resemblence of the sequence seems uncanny to me.
I don't know about Reggio's entire life story, but at some point while preparing Koyaanisqatsi he came to the Pacific Film Archive and studied a number of avant-garde films in the collected holdings. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Vertov's film (or films) was among those he viewed. I understand that he viewed at least one film by Bruce Conner (my guess is Crossroads); he included a special thanks to Conner in the credits of Koyaanisqatsi.
Note to self: Must see Bruce Connor's CROSSROADS.
Thank you Mr. Darr! And your information in the program notes was as great as always!
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I have no idea about story of Reggio's entire life but it seems to be interesting one. Let me make a plan. I will surely go for it..
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