The Mont Alto Orchestra's schedule of silent films and dances

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EVENT DETAILS

Friday, July 11, 2008

THE KID BROTHER
San Francisco Silent Film Festival

7:00 p.m. $17.

Castro Theater
429 Castro St.
San Francisco, CA

Friday night's grand opening will be Harold Lloyd's masterpiece comedy The Kid Brother. A beautiful print, an architectural masterpiece of a theater, a lively and appreciative audience, and live music combine to make this the absolute best way to experience silent film. This show is followed by the opening night party for Festival Pass holders.

For ticket information, and information on the complete festival schedule, visit The San Francisco Silent Film Festival web site.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

THE SILENT ENEMY
San Francisco Silent Film Festival

1:10 p.m. $12.

Castro Theater
429 Castro St.
San Francisco, CA

Saturday we present one of our most unusual and stunning films. The Silent Enemy follows a tribe of Ojibway Indians, who recreate the lives of their ancestors as they meet the challenges of a hard winter. Fine nature photography, an ethnographically accurate recreation of a lost way of life by those who once lived it, and a melodramatic story-line result in a beautiful and moving film that is rarely seen on the big screen. This film -- being a faithful recreation of the lives of a tribe that relied primarily on meat during winter months -- contains scenes of violence against animals.

For ticket information, and information on the complete festival schedule, visit The San Francisco Silent Film Festival web site.

Monday, July 14, 2008

CHICAGO (1927)

7:00 p.m. $15 ($12 for CFI members).

Smith Rafael Film Center
1118 Fourth Street (Bet. A & B)
San Rafael, CA
415-454-1222
www.cafilm.org

We're happy to announce that we'll be playing for an excellent and extremely rare film, the silent version of Chicago, at the Rafael Theater as part of our California tour. While subsequent versions of the story have a nostalgic romanticism about the 1920s, this version has an immediacy of a film made just a few years after the events depicted. Combining elements of Maurine Watkins' play with events of the actual crime, as well as incidents made up purely for cinematic reasons by the screenwriters, the result is a very entertaining film about justice perverted, crime rewarded, and the confusion of celebrity with notoriety. Our musical score is based on the original musical cue sheets, and ranges from the fizzy pop music of the time to dramatic cues written specifically for silent films.

See a trailer for Chicago!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Mark of Zorro

7:30 p.m. Price TBA

Chautauqua Auditorium
South of 9th and Baseline
Boulder, Colorado.

Douglas Fairbanks first (and liveliest) swashbuckling costume drama was the inspiration for masked super heroes. Playing both the dashing outlaw Zorro and the foppish Don Diego, Douglas Fairbanks improved on the original Zorro story, adding stunts, swordplay, and a surprising amount of humor to the story. This will be the "album release party" for Mont Alto's new DVD, with a beautiful transfer from archival 35mm material.

Visit the entire program for the Chautauqua Silent Film Series.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

7:30 p.m. Price TBA

Stanley Theater
Utica, New York.

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Stanley Theater in Utica, New York, Mont Alto will play for the 1928 Buster Keaton masterpiece Steamboat Bill, Jr. The program will open with the less-well known but very funny Charley Chase, in his little masterpiece Mighty Like a Moose.