Remembrance of silent film screenings past: Road report roundup of shows in three states

To pull together today's sermon, we cite a certain text by Marcel Proust.

Before February completely slips away, let me quickly jot down a few notes about a remarkable run of screenings, if only to serve as an aid to my increasingly faulty memory.

So many people to thank for their encouragement and support! I can't possibly name you all here but I'm grateful for everything that goes into making these screenings happen.

Okay, here's a rap sheet, with brief thoughts about each. I hope these sketches will serve the same function as the "petite madeleines" did for Marcel Proust in 'Remembrance of Things Past,' in case I ever need to relive them in my dotage, which is closer than I expect.

• Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014: Mary Pickford program at Red River Theatres, Concord, N.H. Hosted by Christel Schmidt, author and editor of 'Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies,' a remarkable anthology of writings and images. Music for 'Their First Misunderstanding' (1911), the recently restored Pickford film found in a N.H. barn, and then 'Sparrows' (1926). Off night for me, possibly because of stress of organizing the program and just general rust after a month away in India. Audience of about 50; Christel was thrilled to sell some books! For me, worth it to bring Christel here for the films, and to just hang out some.

• Friday, Jan. 31, 2014: Mary Pickford program at Somerville Theatre, Davis Square, Somerville, Mass. Similar program to day before but in 35mm, with prints supplied by Library of Congress. Great time introducing Christel to the Somerville crew; wild time running around Somerville and Cambridge to find a certain cable for her slide show that turned out not to be needed after all! Audience of about 100 enjoyed two shorts ('Misunderstanding' plus 'The Dream') and 'Sparrows.' Highlight for me: text message during performance saying something extremely nice. You know who you are! Afterwards, pizza with Christel and projectionist David Kornfeld. I just sat back and listened. Why can't all evenings be like this?

• Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014: 'Way Down East' (1921) in 35mm at Somerville Theatre. Day 2 of a three-day weekend of silents kicking off the Somerville's Centennial Celebration. Somehow nailed a solid intro to the Griffith film by focusing on how he never got enough credit for knowing how an audience would react, something he mastered while working in the theater. Worth examining that in more detail someday. Audience about 100; print ran a little fast at 24fps, but as always, Griffith's narrative swept us along like Lillian Gish on those ice floes. Strong audience reaction, including lusty booing for Lowell Sherman's "Men are supposed to sow their wild oats" character. Strong musical material throughout, and it all came together; the highlight of the Somerville's triple-header, I thought.

• Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014: 'Wings' (1927) in 35mm, matinee at Somerville Theatre. Final day of three-day weekend of silent film; matinee to avoid Super Bowl later. Print, newly struck from Paramount's recent restoration, had big problems, requiring heroic efforts from Kornfeld in the booth to make it work on-screen. This kinda distracted me and so took longer than usual to get into the zone, and found the war scenes definitely got away from me. Still, some very powerful moments for the audience of about 75, especially the post-crash embrace near the end and then Buddy Rogers giving back the toy bear. Wow! Audible sobbing from behind me. My post-applause wisecrack: "Anybody got some Kleenex?"

Only casualty of the big weekend: sprained both pinkies due to heavy use of repeated notes in 'Wings.' Before and after 'Wings,' sat for interview on 16mm film in the theater, and just could not put together two coherent thoughts in a row. Rule: no more of these either directly before or after a show. My head's never there and just doesn't work for me. Nice write-up of the whole Somerville weekend from Jay Seaver.)

• Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014: 'The Mysterious Lady' (1928) at Manchester (N.H.) City Library. Nice turnout for pre-Valentine's Day screening of smoky Garbo flick about how romance and espionage don't mix. Saw this months ago but didn't preview as "training" for cold playing at Cinefest in Syracuse next month. I did remember that music played a big role, as Conrad Nagel goes undercover as a "Serbian pianist" and plays music from an opera at a key point in the plot. Confounded by rapid intercutting between Gustav von Seyffertitz's death and shots of dancing at wild party; wish I'd prepared the 'Trepak' dance from Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker' for maximum contrast.

The good folks of Campton, N.H. send their best to someone who wished she could be on hand.

• Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014: 'Sherlock Jr.' (1924) and 'Steamboat Bill Jr.' (1928) at Campton (N.H.) Historical Society up in the snowbound foothills of the White Mountain. Potluck supper preceded screening of Keaton "Junior" double feature in converted town hall crammed with historical artifacts, including a pair of antique upright pianos. (Wisecrack: "In case the synth dies, we have not one but two back-ups!") One of those screenings where everything clicked: full house roared right from the start and never let up. Afterwards, people complained of laughing so much that their mouths hurt. Pure magic! So glad my colleague Dan Szczesny was on hand to witness. Also glad to hear from Christel Schmidt just before, who sounded like she would like to be there, too, so sent her this photo:

• Monday, Feb. 10, 2014: Dziga Vertov's 'Man with a Movie Camera' (1929) for film history course at Southern New Hampshire University taught by friend and collaborator Bill Millios. Pulled out all my Philip Glass moves for this great ride, basing entire score on a major 7th chord with sharped fourth. For this one, Bill had booked the auditorium in Webster Hall, which houses the college's business school. Started extremely quiet, so was surprised when an instructor came in and asked us to "turn it down" because we were disturbing his class. (My thought: "He thinks this is loud?)

Bill mollified the guy, or so we thought, until about a half-hour later when another guy comes in and tells us to stop. It's the dean of the business school; turns out we've been escalated. I tell him I'm in the middle of a performance and won't talk to him; Bill takes him outside and gets told that "academics have to take priority." Screening continues but Bill is apparently banned for life from Webster Hall. Wow! Glad I found out about this later or I would have stopped the screening and given this guy a piece of my mind. As it was, told students after the film that they ought to take a lesson from this: their lives would be filled with encounters with philistines and cretins, and they should always stand their ground and fight back.

That's the quote of the year so far, anyway: "Academics have to take priority." This from a college administrator who ought to have some acquaintance of cinema as the defining art form of the 20th century! But I digress.

• Thursday, Feb. 13 and Friday, Feb. 14, 2014:One screening of 'Sunrise' snowed out, while another goes forward. Latest big winter mess caused show scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 13 at Flying Monkey Moviehouse in Plymouth, N.H. had to be moved to Thursday, March 6. But 'Sunrise' happened on schedule on Feb. 14 (Valentine's Day: you can't stop romance) at Red River Theatres in Concord, N.H., where about 30 people attended. "Any first dates tonight?" I asked. (Answer: Nope.) Limited music preparation but held together. Used all string settings; intended to switch to full orchestra for storm sequence on lake but for some reason blanked on how to call up the setting, so storm turned out to be stringy after all.

A 1909 postcard of the part of the Stratford (Conn.) where we screened 'Peter Pan' (1924).

• Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014: Hauled myself down to Stratford, Conn. (three hours one way) for screening of 'Peter Pan' (1924) at local library. Postponed from before Christmas due to snow; two months later, snow again, but we went forward. Screening took place in library's stately original building; small turnout (weather?) but enthusiastic response. From the sound of the applause when audience is asked to save Tinker Bell by clapping, you would have thought 200 people were present! A great community for silent film, though, with many people eager to do more screenings around town. I may get to know Interstate 91 very well.

P.S. I just noticed that Proust (on that stamp) was only one year older than I am now when he died. Another reminder that time is marching on.

Thursday, Jan. 30: Pickford in Concord, N.H.; then a three-day weekend of silents in Boston

Mary Pickford in 'Sparrows' (1926), showing on Thursday, Jan. 30 at Red River Theatres in Concord, N.H., and then on Friday, Jan. 31 in 35mm at the Somerville Theatre.

Four days in a row of doing music for ambitious silent film programs? Wow, it's almost like I do this for a living!

But yes: on Thursday, Jan. 30, it's a Mary Pickford program hosted by author Christel Schmidt at Red River Theatres in Concord, N.H., and then THREE DAYS of silent film (all in 35mm) at the wonderful Somerville Theatre down in Davis Square, just outside downtown Boston.

We're getting a fair amount of publicity for these screenings, so first priority is getting details posted here for anyone looking for info. As it's coming up first, below is the text of the press release for the Pickford program at Red River in Concord.

For the trio of Somerville screenings this weekend, you'll find details by clicking on the 'Upcoming Screenings' link at upper right. We're showing 'Sparrows' (1926), 'Way Down East' (1920), and 'Wings' (1927). I'll post the full release for these once the Red River program happens.

Here we go!

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MONDAY, JAN. 20, 2014 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

'Lost' silent film found in N.H. barn
to highlight Mary Pickford program at Red River

Screening on Thursday, Jan. 30 hosted by noted author;
includes feature film 'Sparrows' (1926) with live music

CONCORD, N.H.—A film thought lost for nearly a century until a copy was discovered in a New Hampshire barn will highlight a program at Concord's Red River Theatres on Thursday, Jan. 30.

The event, hosted by noted film scholar Christel Schmidt (at left), will feature a screening of 'Their First Misunderstanding,' a short drama starring Mary Pickford and her then-husband Owen Moore that was produced in 1911.

The program, which starts at 7 p.m., will also include a screening of Pickford's full-length feature film 'Sparrows' (1926), regarded as one of the masterpieces of the silent film era. The program will be held in Red River's 'Lincoln' cinema. General admission is $15 per person.

Long thought lost, 'Their First Misunderstanding' is notable because it was the first credited screen appearance of Pickford, who would go on to be one of Hollywood's first superstars and among the most powerful figures in Hollywood.

A 35mm print of the film was discovered in 2007 in a barn in Nelson, N.H. by a contractor who was hired to tear down the structure. The film has since been restored by Keene State College and the Library of Congress; its "re-premiere" at Keene State College last October was hailed by film experts worldwide as a major rediscovery.

The screening at Red River will be only the second time 'Their First Misunderstanding' has been publicly screened since its restoration.

The films will be accompanied by live music created by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film musician and Red River's house film accompanist.

Hosting the event is Christel Schmidt, noted Pickford expert and editor of 'Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies,' a book recently co-published by the Library of Congress and the University Press of Kentucky.

Schmidt will be on hand to sign copies of her book, an anthology of writing about one of the most important — and misunderstood — figures in American film history. Copies will be available for purchase and signing before and after the show.

Also on the program is Larry Benaquist, professor emeritus of film at Keene State, who coordinated the restoration of 'Their First Misunderstanding' and several other films discovered in Nelson, a small town about 10 miles north of Keene.

Only about 20 percent of all silent films produced in the U.S. survive today. Most were lost to decay, neglect, or deliberate destruction after silent film was superceded by talking pictures in the late 1920s. As a result, the rediscovery of any film title thought lost is considered rare and unusual.

Owen Moore and Mary Pickford in 'Their First Misunderstanding' (1911).

Screening 'Their First Misunderstanding' at Red River helps the theater fulfill its mission to bring out-of-the-ordinary cinema to New Hampshire residents.

"We're thrilled to be hosting only the second-ever screening of this early Pickford film that was discovered right here in New Hampshire," said Shelly Hudson, executive director of Red River. "It's amazing that this piece of cinema history has been unearthed in our own backyard, and we're glad to be able to give Granite State residents a chance not only to see it, but also understand more about its importantance."

Perspective on Pickford and her career will be provided by Schmidt, an independent researcher affiliated with the Library of Congress who has specialized in cataloging and tracking down all surviving Pickford films.

Pickford, an early superstar, was a major force in early Hollywood, helping establish the United Artists studio and serving as a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the annual Oscar awards.

However, Pickford's films receive little attention today, in part due to the myth that Pickford often played wholesome and traditional female characters.

In truth, Pickford's movies often required her to take action, challenge authority, and play strong roles uncommon for a woman of the era. In 'Sparrows' (1926), also on the Red River program, Pickford must single-handedly protect a group of orphans from an evil guardian, and then battle a pack of criminals. In a dramatic higlight, she leads the orphans on a perilous journey through a dangerous alligator-infested swamp.

"We hope this program helps people understand what a dynamic woman Mary Pickford was, both on screen and in her career," Hudson said. "If you've never experienced a silent film with live music, I encourage you to join us on Thursday, Jan. 30."

The screening is supported in part by HippoPress, the region's arts and entertainment newspaper, as well as the Concord Monitor, the Capitol Region's daily newspaper.

Red River Theatres, an independent cinema, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to screening a diverse program of first-run independent films, cult favorites, classics, local and regional film projects, and foreign films. The member-supported theater’s mission is to present film and the discussion of film as a way to entertain, broaden horizons and deepen appreciation of life for New Hampshire audiences of all ages.

Red River Theatres includes silent film in its programming to give today's audiences a chance to experience the great films of cinema's early years as they were intended: in restored prints, on the big screen, and with live music and an audience.

“These films are still exciting experiences if you show them as they were designed to be screened,” said Rapsis, Red River's accompanist. “There’s a reason people first fell in love with the movies, and we hope to recreate that experience with the Pickford program and the other silent films we show at Red River. At their best, silent films were communal experience—one in which the presence of a large audience intensifies everyone’s reactions.”

"Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies" will be presented on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. at Red River Theatres, 11 South Main St., Concord, N.H. Admission is $15 per person; for more info, call (603) 224-4600 or visit www.redrivertheatres.org. For more information about 'Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies, visit https://www.facebook.com/MaryPickfordQueenOfTheMovies. For more information about the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

Scoring Pickford's 'Their First Misunderstanding' and joining in the first-ever 'Terror-Thon'

My God, what a weekend for silent film in my part of the world! Not one but two special (and high profile) events to which I had the privilege of contributing music.

So, before we begin sprinting to Halloween with multiple screenings of 'Nosferatu' (1922) all over New England, let me take a moment to set down the highlights.

This run of good silent film karma actually began on Sunday, Oct. 5 with a packed screening of 'Safety Last' (1923) in 35mm at the Somerville Theatre just outside Boston. Here's a photo borrowed from Raquel Stecher, who blogs about vintage film at www.outofthepastblog.com.

The Somerville's main house prior to 'Safety Last.' Hey, is the accompanist (at far left) sporting a bald spot?

Look at that turnout! I was especially impressed because we had gotten a big goose egg in term of local publicity for this screening. So perhaps we've built up the series to the point where it has critical mass to continue on its own, more or less. We'll see.

Raquel was kind enough to write a detailed blog post that had a lot of nice things to say about the experience. I'm grateful for people who have such a passion for cinema as it should be experienced. Without them and their enthusiasm, none of this would be possible: the big screen, the live music, and (most importantly to me) the shared experience of silent cinema.

Also on hand was Annette D'Agostino Lloyd, who helped out with a brief introduction and had some Harold books for sale afterwards. Her willingness to join in on these escapades at the Somerville Theatre adds a nice touch of respectability to our efforts.

A follow-up screening of 'Safety Last' on Thursday, Oct. 10 at one of my monthly series (in this case, the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H.) drew a much smaller but no less enthusiastic crowd.

I was especially psyched by an older couple from Meredith, N.H., first-timers who brought a friend to the screening on a "mystery ride." The friend was a keyboard player and church organist from the old school, and they all came down afterwards to swap stories, ask questions, and just plain revel in that now-familiar 'Safety Last' afterglow.

This takes us to Friday, Oct. 11, and the first-ever modern-day screening of 'Their First Misunderstanding' (1911), an early one-reel drama starring Mary Pickford thought lost until a print surfaced in a New Hampshire barn back in 2006.

The film has since been restored, and Friday's re-premiere at Keene State College in Keene, N.H. (which is shepherding all the discovered films through restoration) was an evening-long event featuring Pickford and also author Christel Schmidt, who hosted the program.

I'd never met Christel before but I'm glad our paths crossed. She's a worthy keeper of the Pickford flame, and perhaps just as much of a hot ticket as Pickford herself must have been.

Our schedules didn't allow for much social time, and she was there to sell books, not chat with yet another silent film musician.

But I stole a few moments with her after the crowds had dispersed, and found a woman with a wonderfully wry sense of humor. And, once she gets talking, she displays the rare gift of being able to take a "tell it like it is" approach to everything and everyone, but somehow make it seem refreshing and even endearing.

Sometimes I think that working in the vintage film community, with its out-sized personalities and fragile egos and no shortage of passionate people with any number of agendas, would make good training for the diplomatic corps. If that were true, then Christel might just be our next Secretary of State.

She did a great job introducing Pickford and her achievements, and from what I see on Facebook, she sold out of copies of her book, "Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies." It's an excellent piece of work and I encourage you to check it out—meaning actually buy it, although checking it out from a library is a worthy alternative.

Christel also gave me another nudge to try swimming more in the Facebook ocean. We'll see.

The program was, for me, one of the highlights of the year. Big crowd, lots of newbies, nice facility, all crackling with the special kind of electricity you get at a one-of-a-kind event. I'm so grateful to Ben Model (the New York-based accompanist who works a lot with Christel) for recommending me for this one. It was a great chance to do my stuff in front of a lot of big names right in my home state, all in the service of making silent film come alive —and silent film with a Granite State connection at that!

Congrats to Larry Benaquist and Peter Condon and everyone at Keene State who played a role in rescuing this film, preserving it, and arranging this event.

The program opened with not one but two Pickford one-reelers from 1911: the long-lost 'Their First Misunderstanding' as well as 'The Dream.' Knowing that we had the heavyweight feature 'Sparrows' (1926) still to come in the second half, I went with straight piano accompaniment for the shorts.

The more I do this, the more I find that shorter silent films of any kind (comedies, dramas, whatever) really don't lend themselves to the palette of the full orchestra. It bogs them down, makes them fraught with consequence, sets expectations maybe a little too high for modern audiences.

Piano for 'Their First Misunderstanding' was light and breezy: starting with scale-like figures drawn from the old Hanon technical exercises to show we're just starting out, and a brief explosion of Mendelssohn's wedding march to set the tone for the couple's departure.

And then there were scenes with a poet/pianist playing grandly away, for which I kept my foot down on the sustain pedal and worked through some portentious arpeggios of the type that I hoped would make Mary swoon. (It worked!)

And the action just went from there. Before I knew it, Mary was alone in a dark room, a fairly daring scene in terms of the technical limitations of early cinema, and which seemed to call for a delicate touch to round things out. Less is more.

So an emerging rule for my approach: save the big stuff for the bigger films—in this case, 'Sparrows.'

'Sparrows' is a GREAT film for music because it's loaded with atmosphere as well as a variety of scenes (including a lot of comedy) that lend themselves to musical settings that can build underneath to create some powerful stuff if it all works.

A great example is the 'baby death' scene, in which the wall of a grim barn attic disappears to reveal Christ tending a flock of sheep in a sunny pasture. Christ enters the barn, takes the expired child, then steps back and the barn wall reappears.

Okay, it's pretty simple-minded imagery. But my job as accompanist, I think, is to help connect the scene to Mary Pickford's character, teenage Molly, who is experiencing (or hallucinating) it. By that point in the film, we've seen enough of Pickford's character to know how important her faith his, even if she gets a lot of the details comically garbled.

But comic details be damned. The core belief underpinning everything, and how important it is and how central it is to her character, comes through so strongly and powerfully in that scene, in one sense it can be regarded as the film's climax, at least spiritually.

And so the music has to show reverence, awe, and respect, but not in a way that parodies religious music, with all trumpets blaring like the opening titles in a Monty Python sequence. Instead, it has to show the strength of Pickford's character, which to me transcends any particular religious iconography.

As Molly, Mary Pickford comically garbles the scriptures, but her underlying beliefs are dead serious.

She could be a Buddhist or a Unitarian Universalist or a complete atheist, but the moment would still be the same. It's not about religion. It's about her own personal experience of witnessing life moving from the now into the eternal.

Am I overthinking this? Maybe while I sit here typing, but not at the time the film was being screened.

During the film, my sense of what works just happens naturally. I felt the need to switch from full orchestra to just low brass to underscore that this was a special moment, and then built up some chords that lent weight to the scene. And yes, there was a bit of a blaze of glory when Christ receded and the wall was restored, but I immediately drew back to give Mary (and the audience) space to let it all sink in.

What follows is about 20 seconds of just Pickford's face (the baby, still in her arms, is out of camera range) reacting to what's happened. I almost didn't want to play any music at all here, because she communicates so much with the smallest gestures: the tilt of her head, her eventual glance upwards.

Is she grateful that the child has been delivered from a terrible situation, that the suffering is ceased? Is it the basis for the resolve she needs to engineer the escape? Something else? Whatever an audience takes away, it's a key moment, and a rich one, and too much music would sufficate it, I think.

So just an example of what goes on underneath the surface of playing music along a silent film, at least in the way I do it. I also had a lot of fun with a special effect: in this case, using an old brass school bell that belonged to my grandmother to make the sound of the bell used to gain entry to the dismal Grimes homestead.

Judging from comments afterwards, the bell was a memorable addition. Usually I wouldn't want to draw that much attention to the "soundtrack," such as it is. But the bell happens only twice, and early in the film, so I felt it was worth doing, especially because the synthesizer just wouldn't have been able to do as good a job, and I knew I wanted underscoring at the same time as the bell. So what the heck?

What was really satisfying for me was the feeling that I'd paced it right, holding back for most of the film and only getting truly frantic for the climactic post-swamps gun fight and then boat chase. It was a fun ride, with things amping up at just the right time, I felt.

And in the final scenes, I even managed to switch back to the low brass for the brief appearance of the hymn 'Shall We Gather at the River,' complete with sheet music on screen! No faking allowed on that one, as it's right at the end and anything else would have spoiled the moment.

I was gratified to find that the blogger (bloggess?) known as "Nitrate Diva" was on hand for the event. I continue to be impressed by her observations, which often give me fresh insight into films that I've known for years. I encourage you to check out her account of the Pickford program.

And then, after all this, come next morning, it was time for me to hightail it down to Somerville, Mass. for a noon-time screening of 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1920) at the Somerville Theatre. Too much of a good thing? Well, you know what Mae West said about that. :)

'Cabinet' was the opening flick of the inaugural 'Terror-Thon,' a 12-hour marathon of vintage sci/fi horror flicks, one from each decade from the 1920s to the 1990s, all screened in 35mm in the Somerville's main theater.

This first-ever event, held Saturday, Oct. 12, coincided with 'Honkfest,' a sprawling festival of activist street bands in progress all around Davis Square. So it was quite a different environment from that of the Pickford program the night before.

And the audience was different, too. Rather than the usual silent film fans, it was more of a crowd of hard-core sci-fi geeks, which is another species altogether.

A face only a somnambulist could love.

And 'Caligari,' though a famous and ground-breaking picture, is not an easy go in terms of pacing or story-telling or many other things that die-hard sci-fi fans expect or demand when they're paying $35 per ticket. (One ticket for the whole marathon.)

So I had to really work to hold them and to help this film connect. What I came up with was more bombastic that I usually do, and more angular and arhythmic, in keeping with the film's visual design. Apologies to Mr. Igor Stravinsky for the shameless borrowing of figures and scraps from his immortal ballet score 'Le Sacre du Printemps.' And also to Mr. Bernard Herrmann for any number of purloined film music innovations.

Hey, if you're going to steal, steal from the best!

But I think it worked. I could tell the audience was into the picture, and it got a big hand at the end. So mission accomplished.

By the way, I got to use that same bell in 'Caligari,' as early in the movie, the Dr. rings just such a bell to attract attention to his carnival act. It happens three times, so it wasn't too much to be annoying.

This is similar to 'Sparrows,' a film that was supposedly created with the school of German Expressionism in mind. Up until now, I don't think anyone has identified the "bell" angle. Doctoral thesis, anyone? (I will resist the urge to make some pun about how this should ring a bell.)

Now I get to resume my regular life for a short while, at least until this Saturday, which brings the first of five (count 'em) screenings of 'Nosferatu' (1922) in various venues around New England.

Well, I often joke that I collaborate with dead people. So it shouldn't be surprising that things get especially busy around Halloween.