Le Giornate  del Cinema Muto    

A personal view..  by  Anthony Saffrey, London

The organisers had been more lenient on the delegates too, the morning screenings starting at 9:30, although to catch a lot of the Griffith shorts one needed to be in the Ridotto Verdi Cinema by 08:30. This is a task strcitly reserved for the dedicated Griffith fans as the evening screenings rarely finished before midnight, and of course there was the obligatory cappucino in the Bar Posta opposite the cinema at the end of the screenings to compare notes or discuss one's favourite film of the day.

This year, the festival featured strands from Fox, Gabriello D'Annunzio, part two of the Biograph Project, Adrian Brunel, Walt Disney, Football Champions, Scottish Reels, Restorations and re-discoveries. See the programme for full details.
 
As usual, there was enough variety to suit every taste, and even non-film buffs would be rewarded with films that were both entertaining and emotionally and intellectually challenging. Seventy years on, "Seventh Heaven" can still bring a tear to the eye and moments of joy by drawing the viewer into the emotion of the action.

The football clips were of sociological interest to see the uniformity of dress of the spectators and how well they were behaved compared with present day fans. Cinematically they lacked much, particularly the chance of the close-ups so important in today's coverage of football.

The World War I  material  was interesting  from the human angle: the number of soldiers with bicycles, the cavalry, and the terrible destruction of  classic European architecture....and overshadowing all of this was the waste of human life.

Of particular interest for me this year was the chance to see (and hear) some of the late 20s Fox films with their original Movietone tracks. Most notably were the Erno Rapee scores for "Seventh Heaven", "Sunrise", "What Price Glory". Although these tracks are of rather poor quality ( why are they not digitally re-mastered like 78rpm records?) they enable us to get a feel of what the director wanted to hear at the time and raises the controversy of recent live orchestral accompaniments which do not always adhere to the original score approved by the director.

Much comment was made in the Italian press about "The Shamrock Handicap" as it featured the first appearance in Pordenone of John Wayne. Of course, this was the beginning of a long teaming of the two Johns.. Wayne and Ford.

Special mention must be made of the Theda Bara film "A Fool There Was". Her siren remark " kiss me my fool" must surely have been an inspiration for Mae West! And was that Theda Bara in "The Stain" ? Was she one of the nuns in the scene where the little girl was put up for adoption..or...?

For all the other films, the team of indefatigable accompanists added to the films impact... particularly Neil Brand's ex tempore score for "Annie Laurie". This heightened the impact of the story which was further enhanced by a the glorious two-colour Techniclor finale. This brought the audience to their feet at the end of the performance and I think it was the first standing ovation for a pianist I had witnessed at Pordenone.

The award for the most disappointing film of the festival must go to "Young Lochinvar" in the Scottish Reels section.....mainly due to the wooden expression of the lead character (Owen Nares). The contrast between this Scottish Tale and "Annie Laurie" was most marked in the difference in pacing, acting and conviction. The building of The Ritzy Cinema, Edinburgh  was an interesting little amateur film enticingly shown to its first night audience.

An antecedent of a major modern film was also featured. "In Nach Und Eis" was a 1912 German telling of the Titanic story.. just a few months after the actual sinking. A model ship and iceberg was not as convincing as later efforts, but the passion of the captain could not be faulted!

For many years I had seen excerpts from "Cabiria" but never the whole film and was surprised at the number of "dolly" shots in a film from 1913. This apart, the sheer scale of this epic swept all before it and unveiled with numerous tints its biblical tale.

The last night event was the screening of John Ford's "The Iron Horse" with a score by John Lanchbery. The restored print was made from the European negative and was sepia tinted for day scenes and blue for night scenes.

I was able to see only a small selection of the Biographs, but was surprised (as a non-expert on Griffith, but as a professional in the film & television business) at the similarity of the composition. A puzzle was raised about "Those Awful Hats" which featured a single shot inside a cinema where a film was seen on the screen. The screen picture was very steady, but the framing shot was hopping about... presumably as a result of the Biograph camera producing its own perforations in the camera. The anguish and torment of a conflict of personal and professional conduct was excellently stated in "The Country Doctor".

The restored print of "Snow White", believed to be Disney's inspiration for his 1937 film, proved a quaint treatment of the children's fairy tale.
 
Thanks must be given to the behind the scenes support team  which each year makes the festival run smoothly. It certainly is an epic production!

After an exhausting eight days, we began the 1000 mile motor journey back to London, the car being filled with books and other effects to carry back for some of the other London contingent. Here's to next year!