Kino & Silent Movie Day 2024
From Kino Lorber:
Silent Movie Day is an annual celebration of silent movies. We believe that silent motion pictures are a vital, beautiful, and often powerful part of film history, and we are united with others in the goal to advocate for their presentation and preservation.
Kino Lorber is happy to be an active participant in the day and to make our new restorations of silent cinema classics, along with our vast silent cinema library available at a discounted price for participating theaters.
Join us the week of September 29th, in celebrating these important films in theater!
SHERLOCK JR.
dir. Buster Keaton / 1924 / 45 min
4K Restoration by Blackhawk Films
Widely regarded as one of the most visually inventive (and genuinely funny) films of the silent era, Buster Keaton’s SHERLOCK JR. is a valentine to the magic of cinema. A kindly movie projectionist (Buster Keaton) longs to be a detective. When his fiancée (Kathryn McGuire) is robbed by a local thief (Ward Crane), the poor projectionist is framed for the crime. Using his amateur detective skills, the projectionist follows the thief to the train station -- only to find himself locked in a train car. Disheartened, he returns to his movie theater, where he falls asleep and dreams that he is the great Sherlock Holmes. Punctuated with breathtaking stunts (performed by Keaton himself) and hilarious sight gags, SHERLOCK JR. shows why Buster Keaton was the King of [Silent] Comedy
Silent with English Intertitles
THE DRAGON PAINTER
dir. William Worthington / 1919 / 61 min
4K Restoration by San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Eye Filmmuseum, and George Eastman Museum
Sessue Hayakawa (The Bridge on the River Kwai) plays Tatsu, a painter-turned-hermit living in the wilds of Japan. Thought mad by local villagers, he truly believes that his princess fiancée has been captured by a dragon, an obsession that leads him daily to artistic inspiration. When a surveyor comes across Tatsu while trekking across the mountains, he informs famed artist Kano Indara about his discovery. Kano is desperate to find an heir to teach his art, but when Tatsu meets Kano’s daughter (Tsuru Aoki) and sees only his lost princess, a clash of wills brings the household to the brink of disaster. Long considered lost, THE DRAGON PAINTER survives today as a tribute to Hayakawa’s talents and a shining example of Asian-American cinema. This new 4K restoration features recently discovered additional footage located at Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam that greatly enhances the storyline of Kano's daughter Ume-Ko (Tsuru Aoki). Restoring the film today with modern restoration tools enabled an additional level of cleaning and repair resulting in a final version that more closely resembles the original appearance. Featuring new scores by Mas Koga and Makia Matsumura. A Milestone Films release.
Tinted and Toned |
Silent with English Intertitles
CARMEN
dir. Ernst Lubitsch / 1918 / 94 min
4K Restoration by the F.W. Murnau Stiftung.
Polish-born Pola Negri was already popular when she began appearing in German silents in the 1910s, but it was her collaboration with Ernst Lubitsch that transformed this gifted actress into a silver screen goddess—a mesmerizing presence as formidable in comedies (The Wildcat) as in tragedies (Madame Dubarry). Released in the U.S. as Gypsy Blood, CARMEN retells Prosper Merimée’s classic tale of a Romani woman who seduces a military officer and sends each of them on a trajectory of dramatic self-destruction. Restored in 4K by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, CARMEN features a lively score by Tobias Schwenke, performed by the orchestral ensemble KONTRAST
Tinted and Toned |
Silent with German Intertitles
and English subtitles
THE BELOVED ROGUE
dir. Alan Crosland / 1927 / 98 min
4K Restoration by the Library of Congress.
John Barrymore sought to out-swashbuckle Douglas Fairbanks in his breathless depiction of France's rapscallion poet, thief and vagabond: François Villon (1431-1463). To prove his mettle, he bounds over the snowy rooftops of Paris, scales a castle tower, and is hurled skyward by the royal catapult - but this is no mere stunt picture. Barrymore wielded a simmering sexuality that Fairbanks lacked, endowing the film with an element of eroticism that perfectly suits Villon, who loved "France earnestly, Frenchwomen excessively, French wine exclusively." A lavish spectacle boasting the set designs of William Cameron Menzies (The Thief of Bagdad), THE BELOVED ROGUE is Hollywood myth-making at its most ambitious...and entertaining. Beyond Barrymore, the cast is sprinkled with celebrated character actors. Fresh from a series of diabolical roles in the German silent cinema, Conrad Veidt (The Man Who Laughs) made his American film debut as the sinister King Louis XI. Appearing here as the scheming Thibault d'Aussigny and François's sidekick Beppo the Dwarf, Henry Victor and Angelo Rossitto would reunite five years later in Tod Browning's Freaks. Featuring a new orchestral score by Robert Israel.
Silent with English Intertitles
THE ROAD TO RUIN
dir. Norton S. Parker / 1928 / 60 min
4K Restoration by Kino Lorber in cooperation with Something Weird and the UCLA Film & Television Archive
For years, exploitation films that wildly exaggerate the dangers of drugs and promiscuity have been dismissed as camp. But this film from 1928 (with its companion film, THE PACE THAT KILLS) proves that they could be unexpectedly emotionally compelling. A 16-year-old girl (Helen Foster), neglected by her parents, takes up smoking and drinking, engages in affairs with a series of older men, gets an illegal abortion. But the biggest surprise is yet to come, when she is recruited to help entertain a gathering of wealthy men. Piano score composed and performed by Andrew Earle Simpson. Also available: a new 4K restoration of Dorothy Davenport's 1934 talkie remake, also starring Helen Foster, which premiered at the 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival.
Silent with English Intertitles
THE PACE THAT KILLS
dir. William A. O'Connor and Norton S. Parker / 1928 / 64 min
4K Restoration by Kino Lorber in cooperation with Something Weird and the UCLA Film & Television Archive
Produced by Willis Kent, THE ROAD TO RUIN and THE PACE THAT KILLS are tightly-woven thrillers that pull no punches — not unlike the Pre-Code melodramas that would follow five years later. Eddie Bradley (Owen Gorin), a young farmboy leaves for the big city to get a job and find his sister, Grace (Florence Dudley). Eddie finds work in a department store and meets Fanny O'Rell (Virginia Roye), a city girl who introduces him to “headache powders” which begin him on his rapid descent into cocaine addiction, opium dens, and possibly suicide. Piano score composed and performed by Meg Morley. Also available: a new 4K restoration of the 1935 talkie remake, THE COCAINE FIENDS.
Silent with English Intertitles
RAMONA
dir. Edwin Carewe / 1928 / 80 min
2K Restoration by the Library of Congress.
Ramona (Dolores Del Rio), who is half Native American, is raised by a Mexican family. Ramona suffers racism and prejudice in her community, and when she finds out that she is half Native, she chooses to identify as a Native American instead of a Mexican American so that she can marry Alessandro (Warner Baxter), who is a Native as well. This romantic tragedy relays the tragic death of Ramona and Alessandro’s child at the hands of a Caucasian doctor, who refuses to help their child because of his skin color. Shortly after, the couple moves away, and Alessandro is killed by a white man for robbing him of his horse; Ramona eventually reunites with her childhood friend Felipe (Roland Drew) and starts a new life. She is able to recover from her depression and remember her feelings for Felipe only when he sings a song from their childhood to restore her memory. Silent, with no score.
Silent with English Intertitles
ANNIE LAURIE
dir. John S. Robertson / 1927 / 90 min
4K Restoration by the Library of Congress.
A lavish silent spectacle (with a 2-strip Technicolor sequence as its finale), ANNIE LAURIE was MGM’s big-budget showcase for one of its greatest stars: Lillian Gish. Directed by John S. Robertson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), it dramatizes the famous battle between the Scots clans of Macdonald and Campbell, and the young woman who comes between them (Gish). Featuring a powerful orchestral score by Robert Israel.
Silent with English Intertitles
THE SYMBOL OF THE UNCONQUERED
dir. Oscar Micheaux / 1920 / 60 min
4K Restoration by Kino Lorber in cooperation with the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique
A love story between an enterprising young black homesteader, Hugh Van Allen (Walker Thompson), and a young woman named Eve Mason (Iris Hall), who moves to the Northwest upon being willed a mine by her grandfather. When Van Allen discovers oil on his property, he is targeted by the whites who want his land. In a visually stunning sequence, Micheaux shows Klan night riders with their white sheets, hoods, and torches set in stark contrast against a black sky. Perhaps no other film in history has quite encapsulated the nightmarish, threatening madness of the Klan. THE SYMBOL OF THE UNCONQUERED raised the question of racial identity as well as that of the miscegenation laws. Van Allen fears professing his love for the young Evon because he believes she is white. Only at the film's conclusion does the hero learn that he is free to proclaim his love to a woman who, as it turns out, is indeed African American. Also available The Complete Micheaux - a collection of all existing Micheaux films, including several new restorations.
Silent with English Intertitles
CLASH OF THE WOLVES
dir. Noel M. Smith / 1925 / 74 minutes
4K Restoration by Kino Lorber in cooperation with the Library of Congress.
Filmed in the deserts of California (in what is now the Joshua Tree National Park), CLASH OF THE WOLVES marks the cinematic pinnacle of the original Rin Tin Tin, a German shepherd rescued from a WWI battlefield and brought to America where he became a screen sensation. Rinty stars as Lobo, leader of a pack of wolves hunted by the authorities. Through an act of kindness, prospector Dave Weston (Charles Farrell), earns Lobo’s trust. And when a claim-jumper attempts to murder Weston, Lobo performs extraordinary feats to demonstrate the depths of his loyalty. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2004, CLASH OF THE WOLVES is restored in 4K and is presented with a new musical score composed and performed by Ben Model. One of several newly restored films available in Kino Lorber's upcoming collection of of canine-starring silents -- SILENT DOGS.
Silent with English Intertitles
