5th Silent Film Festival with live musical accompaniment – Tribute to the Great Directors of Silent Film II – Part 2 (Free Entry)

^{Monday 7th to Wednesday 16th July 2014}

^{(except Wednesday 9th July)}

^{5th Silent Film Festival
Tribute to the Great Directors of Silent Film II – Part 2
with live musical accompaniment}

^{in cooperation with STUDIO-Parallilo Kykloma
and its president, Christos Papadimitriou
Artistic Direction for musical accompaniment: Alexandros Mouzas
at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation}

Yet again, the great directors of silent film get to have their… “say”. Their films though without voice, speak through art which, like a revolution, was born in the 20th century. These amazing creators were enchanted by the arrival of innovation in their times – pioneers of cinema and film who experimented with the boundaries of its technical nature-  initiators in its evolution from practice to art. Enlightened minds to whom we were introduced via darkened cinemas, the people who gave today’s cinema its artistic essence.

For the 5th consecutive year, from Monday 7th to Wednesday 16th July, the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation is organizing the Silent Film Festival accompanied by live music with free entry and presenting the second part of the tribute to the great directors of silent film. As every year, the 5th Silent Film Festival has been organized in cooperation with the STUDIO-Parallilo Kykloma and its president, Christos Papadimitriou, as well as with the Film Scoring workshop under the artistic direction for musical accompaniment of Alexandros Mouzas, coordinating professor.

For yet another year, the Silent Film Festival provides the common ground for the history of the seventh art to be brought into the present. In the cinema hall of the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, once again, Michael Cacoyannis’ love for the origins of the art he served with such passion and the artistic value of these silent masterpieces are met by hundreds of cinephile.

Nine evenings in July and 12 great directors, amongst them; Charlie Chaplin, Carl Theodore Dreyer, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Alexander Dovzhenko and Rex Ingram, provide an occasion for the audiences of the Festival – maybe for the first time, maybe not – sometimes with nostalgia and sometimes with pleasant surprise,  to view 21 films which, as forerunners, made motion picture the most widespread art form of today.

At the same time a new approach will be applied to the works of these great artists via on-stage, live musical accompaniment by composers and musicians of the new generation who find yet another area for expression and an opportunity to showcase their own work. The unique style of expression of each composer, articulated in direct reference to the cinematic language of each director, reinforce the silent messages brought by these “silent” film texts. And it is somewhat like this that these silent films of yesterday acquire yet one more reason to have their “say” today.

Opening film each evening, before each screening or group of screenings:

“The Search for Inspiration Gone” by Ashley Michael Briggs

Genre: Experimental – Animation – Fiction/ Fantasy – Silent
Runtime: 8 minutes
Cast: Charlie Macgechan, Poet – Yuliya Fytsaylo, Goddess – Michael Grinter, God
Directed, Written, Produced, Photographed & Edited by Ashley Michael Briggs
Produced by A.Briggs & Dee Meaden
Original Idea by Rob Makin
Original Score by Tom Hickox

Synopsis:
A poet awakens within a strange garden in need of his notebook, pencil & inspiration. A divine couple, breakfasting, observes. A debate unfolds; would inspiration arise from help or hinder? Will the poet find his inspiration?

The Filmmaker (Director’s Biography):
Ash is mostly concerned with creating bespoke moving image techniques to effectively serve a particular given narrative wholly and without compromise. He’s extremely excited that his directing debut is having continued top tier international festival success.

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Direction: Rex Ingram
Screenplay: June Mathis
Editing: Grant Whytock
Cast: Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard, Bridgetta Clark

Synopsis: An Argentinean extended family, divided in France and Germany, ends up fighting on opposite sides in the battlefield of World War I.

Music Composed by: Christos Sakellaridis, Konstantinos Skourlis
Keyboards, live electronics: Christos Sakellaridis
Sound design, live electronics: Konstantinos Skourlis

Music Composition – Live Electronics: Lefteris Papadimitriou
Performing for the prerecorded parts: Maria Ackroyd & Lefteris Papadimitriou

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TUESDAY – JULY 8^TH
22:00
William Dieterle
Sex in chains 1928, 107′
Subtitles in English

Direction: Wilhelm (William) Dieterle

Screenplay: Herbert Juttke, Georg C. Klaren

Editing: Walter Robert Lach
Original Score: Pasquale Perris

Cast:
Wilhelm (William) Dieterle, Gunnar Tolnæs, Mary Johnson, Paul Henckels,
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Gerd Briese, Hugo Werner-Kahle, Carl
Goetz, Friedrich Kurth, Arthur Duarte

Synopsis: A young man is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to a term in prison. There he forms a close relationship with his cellmate and upon his release his wife is concerned as to how prison has changed the man she married.

Music composed by Filippos Tsalachouris
Filippos Tsalachouris, piano
Tasos Athanasias, accordion

Direction: D. W. Griffith
Screenplay: D. W. Griffith
Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp, Edward Peil Sr., George Beranger

Synopsis: A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London’s seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.

Music Composed by Natalia Mavraki
Piano: Eleni Stogianni
Violin: Nasos Martzoukos
Oboe: Giorgos Theodoropoulos

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SATURDAY – JULY 12^TH
22:00
Jean Renoir
The little match girl/
 La cerilleta/ La petite marchande d’ allumettes 1928, 32′
Subtitles in Greek

Direction: Jean Renoir
Screenplay: Jean Renoir
Editing: Jean Renoir
Original Score: Manuel Rosenthal, Michael Grant
Cast: Catherine Hessling, Manuel Raaby, Jean Storm, Ann Wells, Countess Tolstoi

Synopsis: On a cold New Year’s Eve, a poor girl tries to sell matches in the street. She is freezing badly, but she is afraid to go home because her father will beat her for not selling any matches. She takes shelter in a nook and lights the matches to warm herself. In their glow, she sees several lovely visions including a Christmas tree and a holiday feast. The girl looks skyward, sees a shooting star, and remembers her deceased grandmother saying that such a falling star means someone died and is going into Heaven. As she lights her next match, she sees a vision of her grandmother, the only person to have treated her with love and kindness. She strikes one match after another to keep the vision of her grandmother nearby for as long as she can. The child dies and her grandmother carries her soul to Heaven. The next morning, passers-by find the dead child in the nook.

Music Composed by Leta Krisila
Piano: Ioanna Stavrou

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SATURDAY – JULY 12^TH
22:40
Fred Niblo
Blood and Sand 1922, 62′
Subtitles in English & Greek

Direction: Fred Niblo
Screenplay: June Mathis
Cast: Rosa Rosanova, Leo White, Rosita Marstini, Rudolph Valentino, Lila Lee

Synopsis: Juan, an aspiring bullfighter, is married to his loving childhood sweetheart Carmen. But as his fame rises as a matador, so does his hot Spanish blood, and he succumbs to the passionate embraces of the sultry Doña Sol. When is gored by a bull, his bullfighting fame is cut short, and Carmen returns to his side to nurse him back to health, and, as he struggles to regain his strength and make a comeback in the bullring, Carmen is there for him. At last he returns to the bullring, but in the stands, Juan sees Doña Sol with another lover. His attention distracted, a furious bull charges him and he is killed, dying in the arms of Carmen.

Music Composed by Argyro Koliogiorgi
Clarinet: Merkourios Karalis
Violin: Giorgos Krommydas
Piano: Thanos Margetis

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SUNDAY – JULY 13^TH
22:00
Paul Leni
The cat and the canary 1927, 84′
Subtitles in Greek

Direction: Paul Leni
Screenplay: Alfred A. Cohn
Cinematography: Gilbert Warrenton
Editing: Martin G. Cohn
Original score: Hugo Riesenfeld
Cast: Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley, Tully Marshall, Gertrude Astor, Flora Finch, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Martha Mattox, George Siegmann, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Relatives of an eccentric millionaire gather in his spooky mansion on the 20th anniversary of his death for the reading of his will.

Music composition, piano: Dionysis Mpoukouvalas

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MONDAY – JULY 14^TH
21:00
Carl Theodore Dreyer
Leaves from Satan’s book 1920, 157′
Subtitles in Greek

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer (Carl Th. Dreyer)
Cast: Helge Nissen, Halvard Hoff, Jacob Texiere

Synopsis: Leaves from Satan’s Book is divided into four episodes set in four different historical eras. In each episode we follow Satan, who has been cursed by God and is doomed to tempt man. He will be redeemed only if he is resisted. In episode 1, Satan in the guise of a Pharisee tempts Judas to betray Jesus. In episode 2, set in 16th-century Spain, Satan is a grand inquisitor who compels a monk, Don Fernandez, to commit a heinous rape. Episode 3 takes place during the French Revolution: Satan is now a Jacobin leader who convinces young Joseph to betray his noble master and thwart a plan that could have saved Queen Marie Antoinette from death at the guillotine. In episode 4, Satan is a former monk who leads a gang of Red Guards during the Finnish civil war in 1918. He threatens to kill the family of a telegraph operator, Siri, unless she helps lure a group of government soldiers into an ambush. She resists, however, committing suicide rather than becoming a traitor.

DJ set, Music supervised by: Eleni Mitsiaki

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TUESDAY – JULY 15^TH
21:00
Alexander Dovzhenko
Earth (Zemlya) 1930, 78′
Vignettes in Russian with subtitles in English & Greek

Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
Screenplay: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
Cast: Stepan Shkurat, Semyon Svashenko, Yuliya Solntseva

Synopsis: In the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.

Live Music
Composing, Piano: Yiannis Loukos
Keyboard, percussion: Dimitra Apostopou
Cello: Tzina Dimitriou

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WEDNESDAY – JULY 16^TH
21:00
Paul Leni
Wax works (Das Wachsfigurencabinett) 1924, 84′
Subtitles in Greek

Directors: Paul Leni, Leo Birinsky
Writer: Henrik Galeen
Cast: Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss

Synopsis: A poet is hired by the owner of a wax museum in a circus to write tales about Harun al Raschid, Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper. While writing, the poet and the daughter of the owner, Eva, fantasize the fantastic stories and fall in love for each other.

Music composed by Josef Valet
Thanasis Skarlatos, flute
Thodoros Karras, strings
Georgia Charalampidou, soprano (Live)

******

WEDNESDAY – JULY 16^TH
22:30
Robert Wiene
The hands of Orlac 1924, 113′
Subtitles in English & Greek

Director: Robert Wiene
Screenplay: Louis Nerz
Director of photography: Günther Krampf, Hans Androschin
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Alexandra Sorina, Carmen Cartellieri, Fritz Kortner, Paul Askonas, Fritz Strassny

Synopsis: One day, famous pianist Orlac badly hurts his hands in an accident. To enable him to resume piano playing, his purpose in life, Orlac′s surgeon decides to transplant Orlac the hands of a recently executed robber and murderer. But although Orlac completely recovers from the accident, his virtuosity of piano playing has vanished. Furthermore, he gets more and more absorbed by the delusion that he had not only received the murderer′s hands but also his disposition to brutality. Strange signs and threatening letters support this obsessive idea. When Orlac′s rich father, with whom he was at enmity, is murdered, he gets accused of killing his father. Is Orlac really the murderer or the victim of an intrigue?

Music: T.I.M.E (The Improvisation Modal Ensemble)
Sound Design: Alexandros Dimitropoulos

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Information / Reservations: MCF box office (206 Piraeus, Tavros) and by phone (210.341 8550 & 579), Mon – Fri 11:00 – 14:00// Mandatory reservation – FCFS