More on the program, the artist, the location, and ordering tickets below.
More on the program, the artist, the location, and ordering tickets below.
The movies' silent era: It was a time of high drama... and melodrama... that elevated Dorothy and Lillian Gish, "vamp" Theda Bara, and "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford to the status of cultural icons. Dashing leading men like "Sheik" Rudolph Valentino, swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks, and straight-shooter William S. Hart thrilled movie audiences in a flood of adventure films that offered cow-eyed romance as well as plenty of two-fisted action.
Silent comedians, among them stone-faced Buster Keaton and cross-eyed Ben Turpin, lost no time in exploiting the humorous side of the square-jawed champions who were forever riding hard to the rescue. Turpin's outrageous take-offs on Hollywood's leading men -- played hilariously straight by the scrawny burlesque-hall veteran -- were devastating satires... and highly successful at the box office. Keaton's spoofing of the steely-eyed Hart and his films of heroic derring-do reportedly so offended Hart that he refused to speak to Buster for years.
Melodramatic thrillers -- full of life-and-death races and chases, and weekly "cliffhanger" endings in the serial shorts -- quickly gave rise to a new genre, thrill comedy. Little Monty Banks trotted precariously along the tops of boxcars to rescue his girl from a runaway train, while comedienne Dorothy Devore scrambled around on building ledges to capture a thieving monkey. It was funny enough, but it was also scary. The self-made master of thrill comedy was Harold Lloyd, the bespectacled young go-getter pictured above, who parlayed skyscraper climbs and streetcar chases into bigger film grosses than even Charlie Chaplin's.
Over the past decade, against all odds, silent movies have been making a comeback. Video chains stock them on their shelves, composers write new orchestral scores for them, and crowds flock to silent film revivals featuring live accompaniment. Why? Because the silents offer timeless romance, adventure, thrills, and laughter. Because they tell their stories, the best of them, with a passionate intensity that jolts our jaded spirits. Because they involve us as participants in the show: co-creators filling in, in our "mind's ear," what we cannot hear. Truly, silent films speak for themselves. Come and see!
David DrazinLive piano accompaniment for the films will be provided by Chicago musician David Drazin, the official silent film accompanist for the School of the Art Institute's Film Center.
Mr. Drazin, who is also a composer, film maker, and motion-picture historian, has numerous achievements to his credit in the areas of sound recording, live theater, and radio and television, both as a performer and as director. He has accompanied various ballet and jazz ensemble groups, including the Ballet Metropolitan of Columbus, Ohio; the Out of Bounds Performance Ensemble of the Chicago Cultural Center; and the Evanston School of Ballet. Mr. Drazin also serves as the pianist in Van Kelly's Trio, performing at the Como Inn in Chicago. He has produced a number of recordings, one of his most recent being “Dave Drazin and Friends -- Fifteen Years of Jazz, 1981-1996,” released in 1997.
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Remaining tickets will be sold in the lobby of the Argonne Cafeteria (Bldg. 213) during the weeks of March 8 and 15 between noon and 1:00 p.m. The Auditorium Box Office will be open on the day of the performance at 6:30 p.m.
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