Tonight: 'Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' (1927) at Aeronaut Brewing Co. in Somerville, Mass.

A scene from the climax of 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower.

Happy Eiffel Tower Day!

Yes, on this day in 1889, Gustav Eiffel's eponymous tower was declared open to the public!

And what better way to celebrate the 130th birthday of this iconic landmark than with a movie that features it in a starring role?

"Mr. Eiffel, I'm ready for my close-up!"

So that's what we'll do tonight at 7:30 p.m., when we'll screen 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' (1927) at the Aeronaut Brewing Co., 14 Tyler St. in Somerville, Mass.

Admission to this event, the first "volume" of the Aeronaut's new Silent Film Club, is $10 per person.

More info about this remarkable early thriller is in the press release tacked onto the end of this post. Hope to see you there!

For now, let me share a few pictures of Friday's night's excursion to Winchester, N.H., where I accompanied a screening of Harold Lloyd's 'Safety Last' (1923) sponsored by the local Grange chapter and the historical society.

The venue was Winchester Town Hall, which is a surprisingly imposing structure built in the style of a Gothic fortress.

Welcome to my castle!

Set-up was fairly straightforward, with the local folks providing a snazzy movie screen cleverly engineered out of a Queen-sized sheet from Wal-Mart.

.Ready for the show.

I think the key to the screen was the use of sturdy plastic zip ties to keep the sheet stretched out tight as a drum:

I improvise the music, so why not improvise the screen?

Alas, turnout was a bit light. But that might be due to how much else seems to be going on in town lately. In the picture below, try to find our poster:

But the good news was that even with just a handful of people, Harold's work produced a good amount of strong laughter. That's quite an achievement for a film made nearly a century ago!

And I had to be careful with the music, because the Winchester Town Hall is one of those venues with extremely lively acoustics. It would be really easy for music to overwhelm the comedy, which in turn would prevent people from hearing each other laughing.

But a good time was had by all, and I hope that will be the case with 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' down at the Aeronaut Brewing Co. this evening.

Here's the press release. Hope to see you there!

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Celebrate 'Eiffel Tower Day' on Sunday, March 31 at Aeronaut Brewing Co.

Vintage silent thriller 'Mystery of the Eiffel Tower’ to be screened with live music on iconic structure's 130th birthday

SOMERVILLE, Mass.—When you turn 130, it's time to party.

That's the thinking behind 'Eiffel Tower Day,' celebrated every year on March 31 in honor of the iconic Paris structure, which was completed on March 31, 1889.

The Aeronaut Brewing Co. will celebrate this year's 'Eiffel Tower Day' on Sunday, March 31 with the screening of a rare silent adventure movie with a thrilling climax actually filmed on the tower.

'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' (1927), directed by Julien Duvivier, will be screened on Sunday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewing Co., 14 Tyler St. (near Union Square), Somerville, Mass.

Admission is $10 per person and seating is limited; for tickets and information, visit www.aeronautbrewing.com, or www.eventbrite.com at this address:

www.eventbrite.com/e/aeronaut-silent-film-club-vol-1-well-always-have-paris-tickets-58304749074

The event is also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/619207078520181/

The screening will feature live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film musician.

Duvivier’s late-silent adventure served as an inspiration for the original Tintin comics, and delivers much of the same charm, inventiveness, and visual delight.

Set in France of the 1920s, 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' follows a carnival performer who is half of The Mironton Brothers, a supposed Siamese twin act.

The performer sees a chance to claim a massive inheritance by pretending to be a missing heir.

The scheme makes him fabulously wealthy. He leaves the circus, but also crosses a secretive cabal which has its own plans for the fortune.

Harried by mysterious threats, the imposter uses his identical partner from the old carnival act to suffer in his place.

Lots of laughs and exciting close calls follow as the unsuspecting double is drawn into a struggle with the secret organization.

The climax is a death-defying chase up through the skeleton of the Eiffel Tower that anticipates the later work of director Alfred Hitchcock.

"This is an astounding film with sequences shot high up on the Eiffel Tower and without trick photography," said Rapsis, a silent film accompanist who will improvise a musical score for the movie.

"This vintage film, like a fine champagne, is a great way to celebrate the 130th birthday of this landmark, one of the world's most recognizable structures," Rapsis said.

The Eiffel Tower was constructed in 1889 for the International Exhibition of Paris, during the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, and was named after the principal engineer, Gustave Eiffel.

‘The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower’ (1927) will be shown on Sunday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewing Co., 14 Tyler St. (near Union Square), Somerville, Mass. Admission is $10 per person and seating is limited; for tickets and information, visit www.aeronautbrewing.com or www.eventbrite.com at this address:

www.eventbrite.com/e/aeronaut-silent-film-club-vol-1-well-always-have-paris-tickets-58304749074

The event is also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/619207078520181/

Live music for Buster in Winchester, N.H., but also for 'Underworld' in Cambridge, Mass.

Amateur detective Buster searches for clues about life in 'Sherlock Jr.' (1924)

Tonight (Friday, Oct. 9) brings a fun Buster Keaton double feature with live music in an unusual venue: the Arlington Grange Hall in Winchester, N.H. Details below.

And then Saturday brings two screenings of 'Underworld' (1927), Josef von Sternberg's great silent gangster drama, at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Mass.

Showtimes are 4 p.m. and then again at 7:30 p.m. It's part of a series they're running about films that helped create the "film noir" school of cinema.

Originally, this post announced that I was not accompanying the film. But things were confirmed just today, so I'll be going down to Cambridge tomorrow to do music for both screenings. I'll post more about this in just a bit.

But first, more info about tonight's Keaton program. We've actually received some good publicity in local media, so I'm hoping for a fair turnout. We'll see!

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FRIDAY, OCT. 2, 2015 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Buster Keaton double feature at Winchester's Arlington Grange on Friday, Oct. 9

Classic silent film comedy masterpieces to be screened with live musical accompaniment

WINCHESTER, N.H.—He never smiled on camera, earning him the nickname of "the Great Stone Face." But Buster Keaton's comedies rocked Hollywood's silent era with laughter throughout the 1920s.

See for yourself with a screening of 'Sherlock Jr.' (1924) and 'The Cameraman' (1928), two of Keaton's landmark feature films, on Friday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Arlington Grange Building, 9 Mechanic St., Winchester, N.H.

The films will be shown with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based performer regarded as one of the nation's leading silent film musicians.

The public is welcome to attend. Suggested donation for this family-friendly event is $7 per person to help defray expenses.

Buster outside the movie theater in 'Sherlock Jr.'

In 'Sherlock Jr.,' Buster plays a small-town movie projectionist who dreams of working as a detective. But then Buster's romantic rival frames him for stealing a watch from his girlfriend's father. Fortunately, the situation mirrors the plot of the movie currently playing at Buster's theater. Inspired by the movie, can Buster find the real thief and win back his girl?

Buster in 'The Cameraman.'

'The Cameraman' tells the story of a young man (Keaton) who tries to impress the girl of his dreams (Marceline Day) by working as a freelance newsreel cameraman. His efforts result in spectacular failure, but then a lucky break gives him an unexpected chance to make his mark. Can Buster parlay the scoop of the year into a secure job and successful romance?

Both films focus on exploring the potentials of the motion picture, then a brand-new medium.

In 'The Cameraman,' Keaton uses the movie business itself to create comedy that plays with the nature of film and reality.

Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stands as one of the three great clowns of the silent screen. Many critics regard Keaton as the best of all; Roger Ebert wrote in 2002 that "in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, (Keaton) worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."

As a performer, Keaton was uniquely suited to the demands of silent comedy. Born in 1895, he made his stage debut as a toddler, joining his family's knockabout vaudeville act and learning to take falls and do acrobatic stunts at an early age. He spent his entire childhood and adolescence on stage, attending school for exactly one day.

A remarkable pantomime artist, Keaton naturally used his whole body to communicate emotions ranging from sadness to surprise. In an era when movies had few special effects, Keaton's acrobatic talents meant he performed all his own stunts.

All those talents are on display in 'Sherlock Jr.' and 'The Cameraman,' which was selected in 2005 for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

"These films are audience favorites, and people continue to be surprised at how engrossing and exhilarating they can be when shown as they were intended: in a theater, and with live music," said Rapsis, who accompanies more than 100 screenings each year at venues around the nation

Rapsis improvises live scores for silent films using a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of the full orchestra.

"It's kind of a high wire act," Rapsis said. "But for me, the energy of live performance is an essential part of the silent film experience."

The Arlington Grange of Winchester will present Buster Keaton in 'Sherlock Jr.' (1924) and 'The Cameraman' (1928) on Friday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. in Grange Hall, 9 Mechanic St., Winchester, N.H. The public is welcome to attend this family-friendly event, which features live musical accompaniment for both films. Suggested donation is $7 per person to defray expenses.