Three birthday parties were celebrated, but yours truly received the best gift of all

Future fans of past movies at the Essanay Silent Film Museum in Niles, Calif. this weekend.

The big news this weekend at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum was not one but three kids' birthday parties at the Saturday night comedy show.

So I got to play 'Happy Birthday' three different times, with each version up a key for dramatic emphasis.

Really, it was a joy to see so many young folks in attendance at a silent film program. And what's more, they reacted.

Chaplin's 'The Cure' (1917) and Keaton's 'Neighbors' (1920) started things off strong.

But the films of the second half — Charley Chase in 'Dog Shy' (1926) and Laurel & Hardy's early 'The Second Hundred Years' (1927) — provoked a reaction that truly soared off the Richter Scale for laughter.

The Chase film, which I'd never accompanied before, is a crackerjack comedy that brought the comedy pot to a high boil.

That set the stage for 'The Second Hundred Years,' which I've always felt was Laurel & Hardy lite, or at least unformed, as it's from the time before their characters had been fully developed.

Well, that didn't matter last Saturday night. Seldom have I heard such laughter in a theater! And right from the very start, too. Everything the two did was capital F FUNNY! And everything everyone else did was funny, too.

I love it when this happens, just for the sheer joy of conjuring up laughter from the ghosts of comedians who worked nearly a century ago now. There's nothing quite like it.

But for an accompanist, it's also a gift because once the laughter barn starts burning, there are stretches where it doesn't matter what you play due to the uproarious, sustained laughter.

Really. I couldn't believe the laughs that Stan Laurel could get from using a spoon to chase a cherry around a saucer, again and again and again. Amazing!

So a good time was had by all, including the many young folks who crowded the front rows. What a pleasure to bring a silent film program to life for tomrorow's film fanatics. There may have been three birthdays being celebrated, but I felt like I was the one getting the gift.

Speaking of which, this weekend's performance resulted in a much-appreciated shout-out on Twitter from L.D. Writer, who was in attendance:

"@jeffrapsis was incredible by the way. Easily some of the best silent film accompaniment I've ever enjoyed. Thanks for flying out West!"

No, thank you for such kind words!

I'll be back on the West Coast on Friday, June 28 to accompany a Chaplin program at the Niles museum.

But right now it's time to focus on what's coming up later this week. Performances include a special pre-Memorial Day program on Thursday, May 23 at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, and then Harold Lloyd's classic comedy 'Safety Last' (1923) at the Wilton (N.H.) Town Hall Theatre.

More info coming!

You know you've arrived when your name gets written on cardboard! In permanent ink!

A long trip to accompany short films at the Niles (Calif.) Essanay Silent Film Museum

On this weekend's California-style menu: short comedies, including Chaplin's 'The Cure' (1917).

Before we talk film, let's hear it for frequent flier miles!

And also for cutthroat competition in the Boston-to-San Francisco market, where no less than four airlines are duking it out. Delta, United, JetBlue, Alaska. And I might be leaving one out.

That means something like 15 daily non-stops each way (I'm not kidding) between the two cities. And that in turn means low fares.

But who actually pays cash? Instead, I cross the continent with a paltry outlay of frequent flier miles. Take that, Lewis & Clark!

And this confluence of competition and machines that travel at 550 mph enables me to occupy a semi-regular schedule at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, across the bay from San Francisco.

Why Niles? Well, it's the only theater I can think of that runs a different full-evening program of silent films (shorts and features) each and every week all year round. And they've kept that pace going for more than a decade!

So just as religious pilgrims follow Spain's Camino de Santiago, as a silent film accompanist eager to practice the craft, I make my own pilgrimage to silent film holy ground. Plus, they often run William S. Hart features than never get shown anywhere else.

I love sitting in the dark and getting absorbed by an obscure drama that might have thrilled my great-grandparents.

By semi-regular, my visits work out to twice a year: usually May and then November. But this year, a scheduling quirk has enabled me to also be at Niles for their annual "Chaplin Days" festival in June.

But first up: Saturday, May 18, where I'll sit in for a program of comedy shorts starring many of the big names: Chaplin's 'The Cure'; Keaton's 'Neighbors'; Laurel & Hardy's 'Second Hundred Years,' and Charley Chase in 'Dog Shy.'

It's an honor to do music for these pictures, which for me and so many others were the gateway drug that got us into silent film. I love to think that the audience for Saturday night's show might be a few folks who will make their own discovery of this unusual art form.

That's important to remember. The films may be familiar, or even old hat, to long-time silent film fans (although I don't think I've ever accompanied the Chase comedy), but not to most other people. So a key part of accompanying them, I think, is to remember the spirit of surprise and delight that often also accompanies seeing them for the first time.

Well, if you're in the Bay Area, please stop in for a visit. And if you miss this weekend, I'll be back on Friday, June 28 to accompany Chaplin's 'Shoulder Arms' (1918) as part of the Museum's annual "Chaplin Days" celebration.

See, while under contract with the Essanay Film Co., everyone's favorite tramp filmed several comedies (including 'The Tramp') at the firm's studio in Niles, in and around the neighborhood. (Hence the "Holy Ground" reference above.

It's really quite a connection to Chaplin's early years, and the museum makes the most of it. And I'm delighted to be helping out with this year's edition.

For more info on the Niles Essanay museum, visit http://nilesfilmmuseum.org/. And for an idea of what "Chaplin Days" is like in Niles, check out the photo below:

Best of New England, according to Yankee...plus 'Safety Last' on Saturday, 5/11 in Brandon, Vt.

Hey, that's me in Yankee Magazine's recent "best of" listings!

Thrilled to be recognized by Yankee Magazine, even if they didn't get around to actually mentioning my name.

Still — glad to see this distinction bestowed upon the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H., where I've accompanied silent films every month for 12 years and counting.

Next up for me: opening night on Saturday, May 11 for this year's silent film series in Brandon, Vt.

Leading off the monthly line-up is Harold Lloyd's thrill comedy 'Safety Last' (1923). Showtime is 7 p.m., and admission is free, although donations are accepted.

Lots more info on the screening and this series in the press release, which I've pasted in below.

For now, I want to state for the record that this evening's screening of 'Sherlock Holmes' (1916) at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse in Plymouth, N.H. was fabulous!

We enjoyed a bigger-than-normal turnout of about 60 people, not one of whom had seen the film before. Nice!

Response was strong throughout — you could tell the audience was fully engaged by the nearly continuous reactions, which fed on themselves as they traced the story's arc. It's great when that happens!

And the score fell together very effectively. I brought strong material to start, I thought, and the film's leisurely pace gave ample time to develop it.

I even managed to hit all the sound effects cues: door bell, "dingy" bell, police whistles. So it was a very satisfying evening!

Not even the guy who publicly complained that the warm-up music was too loud was able to throw me off my game.

Really — I wasn't one minute into my "Welcome to the Flying Monkey" remarks when he raised his hand. I should have known.

"You know, these movies were shown with piano music," the guy groused. "What you're doing is TOO LOUD. You need to turn it down!"

This caught me off guard. I could tell that besides the issue of volume, he was clearly expecting a simple acoustic piano texture, and here I was with my digital synthesizer working with a full orchestra texture.

Like other accompanists, I work hard to create music that fits a film's atmosphere, captures a scene's emotional temperature, and supports the story.

So what do you say to a guy who is expecting piano music, and is publicly carping about the music before you've even started the adventure of accompanying it?

I tried being diplomatic, but he interrupted, repeating his complaint that the music was TOO LOUD.

But then he overstepped.

"Let's take a vote right now. How many people think the music is too loud?"

At that point, a good portion of the audience moaned and essentially shut him down. So that was that.

Fortunately, the negative energy didn't derail my efforts to score 'Sherlock Holmes.' In fact, it may have served to sharpen my game.

Maybe I should bring this guy with me for every screening.

And on second thought...naaaah.

Hope to see you Saturday night for 'Safety Last.' Remember to drive carefully!

* * *

From 'Safety Last' (1923): the shot seen 'round the world.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent film classic 'Safety Last' on Saturday, May 11 in Brandon, Vt.

Thrill comedy climaxed by Harold Lloyd's iconic building climb; with live music at Town Hall

BRANDON, Vt.—It's an image so powerful, people who've never seen the movie still instantly recognize it.

The vision of Harold Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock, from the climax of his silent comedy 'Safety Last,' (1923), has emerged as a symbol of the "anything goes" spirit of early Hollywood and the magic of the movies.

See how Harold gets into his high-altitude predicament in a screening of 'Safety Last,' one of Lloyd's most popular films, on Saturday, May 11 at 7 p.m. at Brandon Town Hall, Route 7, Brandon, Vt.

Admission is free; donations are encouraged, with all proceeds support ongoing restoration of the Town Hall, which dates from 1860 and is being brought up to modern standards as funds allow.

Over the years, silent film donations have helped support projects including disabled access to the 19th century building; renovating the bathrooms; and restoring the structure's original slate roof.

'Safety Last' marks the opening of the 2019 Brandon silent film series. The screening is sponsored by local residents Tracey Holden and Kirk Thomas.

The story of 'Safety Last' follows young go-getter Lloyd to the big city, where he hopes to make his mark in business and send for his small town sweetheart. His career at a downtown department store stalls, however, until he gets a chance to pitch a surefire publicity idea—hire a human fly to climb the building's exterior.

However, when the human fly has a last-minute run-in with the law, Harold is forced to make the climb himself, floor by floor, with his sweetheart looking on. The result is an extended sequence blending comedy and terror designed to hold viewers spellbound.

Lloyd, along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, is regarded as one of the silent screen's three great clowns. Lloyd's character, a young go-getter ready to struggle to win the day, proved hugely popular in the 1920s. While Chaplin and Keaton were always favored by the critics, Lloyd's films reigned as the top-grossing comedies throughout the period.

'Safety Last' launches the ninth season of monthly silent film screenings in Brandon, bringing fans a taste of movie-going when motion pictures were a brand new art form.

"Put the whole experience back together, and you can see why people first fell in love with the movies," said Rapsis, a practitioner of the nearly lost art of silent film accompaniment.

Rapsis performs on a digital synthesizer that reproduces the texture of the full orchestra, creating a traditional "movie score" sound.

"Seeing 'Safety Last' with an audience is one of the great thrill rides of the cinema of any era, silent or sound," Rapsis said. "Harold's iconic building climb, filmed without trick photography, continues to provoke audience responses nearly 100 years after film was first released."

Harold hangs in there.

Tributes to the clock-hanging scene have appeared in several contemporary films, most recently in Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' (2011), which includes clips from 'Safety Last.'

CRITIC COMMENTS ON ‘SAFETY LAST’:

"Impossible to watch without undergoing visitations of vertigo, Safety Last's climactic sequence is all it's reputed to be.”
—TV Guide

"Harold Lloyd manages to make the characters sympathetic enough to carry the audience's concern on his journey of crazy stunts and mishaps. One of the best of this era."
—David Parkinson, Empire Magazine

"The climb has both comic and dramatic weight because it is both a thrilling exercise in physical humor and a thematically rich evocation of the pressures men feel to succeed, lest they be viewed as less than a man."
—James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

Other films in this year's Brandon Town Hall silent film series include:

• Saturday, June 15, 7 p.m.: 'Chicago' (1927) starring Phyllis Haver. The original big screen adaptation of the notorious Jazz Age tabloid scandal, based on real events. Dancer Roxie Hart is accused of murder! Is she innocent or headed for the slammer? Later made into the popular Broadway musical. Screening sponsored by Nancy and Gary Meffe.

• Saturday, July 13, 7 p.m.: 'Woman in the Moon' (1929) directed by Fritz Lang. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, a grand sci-fi adventure epic about the first rocket ship to the moon. The final silent feature from German filmmaker Fritz Lang (director of 'Metropolis'), 'Woman in the Moon' laid the groundwork for all outer space movies to come. Ponder a vision of the future as imagined by one of yesterday's great moviemakers. Screening sponsored by Pam and Steve Douglass.

• Saturday, Aug. 10, 7 p.m.: 'Our Hospitality' (1923) starring Buster Keaton. Classic comedy/drama about a long-running family feud. Filled with great gags and a timeless story that culminates in a dramatic river rescue where Buster nearly lost his life for real! Screening sponsored by Bill and Kathy Mathis, in memory Of Maxine Thurston.

• Saturday, Sept. 14, 7 p.m.: 'The Beloved Rogue' (1926) starring John Barrymore. Epic costume adventure based on the life of 15th century French poet François Villon. Wrongly banished from the Royal Court and sentenced to death, can the patriotic poet save France from an evil plot and while he's at it, win the hand of his noble beloved? Screening sponsored by Donald and Dolores Furnari, Sally Wood, Edward Loedding and Dorothy Leysath, and Connie Kenna.

• Friday, Oct. 25, 7 p.m.: 'Faust' (1926), directed by F.W. Murnau. Emil Jannings stars in this terrifying version of the classic tale. A visual tour de force, full of creepy characters and frightening images. Our annual 'Chiller Theatre' presentation for Halloween! Screening sponsored by Jan Coolidge and Nancy and Gary Meffe.

See Harold Lloyd's iconic thrill comedy 'Safety Last' (1923), to be shown on Saturday, May 11 at 7 p.m. at Brandon Town Hall, Route 7, Brandon, Vt. The program is free and open to the public. Free will donations are encouraged. For more information, visit www.brandontownhall.org. For more about the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com

For more information about the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

Warmer weather, a busier silent film schedule: four days, three screenings, three states

Tonight! 'Sherlock Holmes' (1916) starring William Gillette at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse in Plymouth, N.H.

April showers bring May flowers, and also a fresh bouquet of silent film screenings here in my home area of northern New England.

Consider: after a quiet month, suddenly the calendar is blooming with three separate shows in three states over the next four days.

First up: it's the original (and recently rediscovered) 'Sherlock Holmes' (1916) starring stage actor William Gillette, which I'm accompanying tonight (Thursday, May 9) at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse in Plymouth, N.H.

More details about this screening is found in the press release, which I've pasted in at the bottom of this post.

But then Saturday, May 11 is opening night of another season of silent film screenings in Brandon, Vt.

We'll run Harold Lloyd's great thrill comedy 'Safety Last' (1923) to launch the monthly series, which runs through October. All screenings are at the Brandon Town Hall and Community Center. Showtime is 7 p.m.

Then on Sunday, May 12, it's another big silent comedy, but this time in Massachusetts: Buster Keaton's 'The General' (1926) at the Natick Center of the Arts in Natick, Mass.

Showtime is 4 p.m., and I'm hoping for inclement weather to make a comedy about the Civil War more of an appealing 'Mother's Day' draw. We'll see.

With this weekend, the pace of silent film screenings picks up as we head into summer. I'll keep hopping through Halloween, mostly in my home turf, but with upcoming adventures in San Francisco, Cleveland, Buffalo, and possibly other places.

As the title cards on Johnny Carson's 'Tonight Show' used to say: More to come!

But for now, here's the press release with details about tonight's 'Sherlock Holmes' screening. Hope you'll deduce that it's worth seeing!

* * *

Stage actor William Gillette in the original 'Sherlock Holmes' (1916).

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

It's elementary! Rediscovered 'Sherlock Holmes' movie at Flying Monkey on Thursday, May 9

Original film adaptation, missing for nearly a century, on the big screen with live musical accompaniment

PLYMOUTH, N.H.—The first-ever movie adaptation of 'Sherlock Holmes,' a silent film released in 1916 and recently rediscovered, will screen this month at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth.

The original 'Sherlock Holmes' will be shown with live music on Thursday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center, 39 South Main St., Plymouth, N.H.

General admission is $10 per person.

Like many films from the silent era, the 'Sherlock Holmes' movie was long considered lost until a nearly complete copy was discovered in 2014 at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.

The film has since been restored, allowing movie-goers to again see the only screen appearance of stage actor William Gillette.

Gillette originated the role of Sherlock Holmes in a popular stage adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of the legendary British detective.

Stage actor William Gillette in 'Sherlock Holmes.'

Gillette performed as the brilliant Holmes more than 1,300 times over three decades, touring the nation and popularizing Conan Doyle's sleuth.

A popular stage actor, Gillette made no other known movie appearances. But his interpretation of the Holmes character laid the groundwork for all actors who would later play the role, including Basil Rathbone and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Set in Victorian-era London, the original 'Sherlock Holmes' is an episodic crime drama that incorporates the plots of several Conan Doyle tales.

Running about 90 minutes, it features all major characters of the Holmes stories, including companion Dr. Watson and nemesis/rival Prof. Moriarty.

It was filmed in 1915 in the Chicago studios of the Essanay Film Co., with exterior shots of the Windy City doubling for Victorian London.

The restoration was premiered several years ago at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

A scene from 'Sherlock Holmes' (1916).

The film 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.

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."

Upcoming titles in the Flying Monkey's silent film series include:

• Thursday, June 20, 6:30 p.m.: 'Safety Last' (1923) starring Harold Lloyd. The iconic image of comedian Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a downtown clock is only one small piece of a remarkable thrill comedy that has lost none of its power over audiences. See it for yourself on the big screen and with an audience.

The original ‘Sherlock Holmes' (1916), starring William Gillette in the title role, will be shown with live music on Thursday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center, 39 South Main St., Plymouth, N.H. General admission is $10; for more info, call (603) 536-2551 or visit www.flyingmonkeynh.com.

Today's French lesson courtesy Abel Gance: 'Roulette' = little wheel; 'La Roue' = BIG film

Proof that people really WILL turn out to see Abel Gance's 'La Roue' (1923). Well, a few, anyway.

Once in awhile I like to scale a mountain.

Sometimes it's an actual mountain, like Kilimanjaro in Africa, which I climbed in 2015.

Other times it's an aesthetic mountain, such as doing live music for Abel Gance's 'La Roue' (1923), a movie that runs about 4½ hours.

That's what I did this weekend, over two screenings on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28 at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.

That's a lot of film, and it's a lot of music. But it came together in a way that was very satisfying, I thought.

As you might imagine, a 4½-hour silent French drama didn't exactly sell out the house, especially when competing with a nice spring weekend in New Hampshire.

Still, just over a dozen brave souls took advantage of a rare chance to experience Gance's highly regarded drama the way it was intended to be shown — in a theater on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience.

What made it work for me was that I'd created a suite of inter-related musical ideas that were all based on four ascending notes in the minor scale: A, C, D, and E.

Played in sequence, and repeated and varied, they made for a great way to bring to life the many railroad-in-motion images that occur throughout Gance's film.

And the range of moods and emotions they can carry just on their own is quite wide, depending on how they're played and what kind of bass line or supporting harmony is applied.

Ivy Close and Séverin-Mars in 'La Roue.'

And when played all at once, they create a pungent chord (a minor triad with an extra note added in) that has just enough of a characteristic dissonance to hold its own as a motif. It sounds vaguely like a train whistle, too, which is a bonus.

Then I took the same four notes and they became the bass line of a yearning melody that was also present throughout. (Someday I'll get some fancy software to capture and post it here, but not today.)

And with just those elements, I had enough material to carry me along with the film on its long journey from the congested railroad yards of Nice to the high-altitude climax on the wide-open slopes of Mont Blanc.

I hadn't studied the film prior to the screening, which was by intent. I wanted to respond to the film musically the same way an audience would in seeing it for the first time. And 4½ hours is just too much to prepare in advance anyway.

A scene from 'La Roue' (1923).

This worked out well, for the most part. However, if I could do it again, I would be better prepared for moments such as when we see a character repeatedly blow a whistle. I would have done that as well.

Also, there are at least two dreamy dissolves to a medieval fantasy setting. Had I known that was coming, I would have transitioned to a plucked string or guitar texture to better underscore the proposition.

Finally, the professional of one of the characters is making violins, so I should have expected sequences in which a violin gets played. There indeed were, and for those to really work from a keyboard requires some real preparation and strategy, neither of which I had.

Still, it all held together really well. And there's so much room in a 4½-hour movie that you can't help but just come up with material that comes in handy.

For 'La Roue,' some rowdy tavern scenes early on gave birth to a rude melody with a lot of repeated notes that was catchy enough to keep re-appearing anytime excess of any kind was depicted onscreen.

And for the scenes between Norma and her violin-making pseudo-brother, a quiet waltz-like tune in 3/4 time just came naturally to my fingertips near the start, and continued to reappear at tender moments for the rest of the film.

So 'La Roue' turned out to be a grand adventure musically as well as cinematically. For the small group who attended both parts (and the few who say either just Part 1 or Part 2), I salute your willingness to take a chance on Gance.

Will I ever do 'La Roue' again? Well, I may circle around to it. Har!

Looking ahead: the pace of screenings picks up this month with summer series starting in Brandon, Vt.; Ogunquit, Maine, ad Somerville, Mass. I also have one-off shows at venues ranging from the Antrim (N.H.) Town Hall to the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Niles, Calif.

Stay tuned for more details!

'La Roue' (1923) this weekend in Wilton, N.H.: A film so big we can't show it all at once

An original poster for 'La Roue' (1923) directed by Abel Gance, showing in two parts this weekend at the Wilton (N.H.) Town Hall Theatre.

Once in awhile, it's good to stretch yourself.

That's what I'll do this weekend in creating music for 'La Roue' (1923), a drama from French director Abel Gance.

It's 4½ hours long, so we'll show it in two parts over two days: Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28 at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.

Showtime for both days is 4:30 p.m. Free admission, with a suggestion donation of $5 per person for each screening to support the Town Hall Theatre's silent film series.

Plenty more info is in the press release attached below. But a few last-minute thoughts:

For the music, I've developed some basic material that I'll use in scoring the 'La Roue,' which is French for 'The Wheel,' as in the wheel of life.

But how will it come together? I really don't know until the lights go down and 'La Roue' starts rolling.

However, the span of 4½ hours gives an accompanist an enormous canvas with which to work. And it's not only length, but the pace and style of the film that contributes to this sense of possibility.

As a drama, it's not so dependent on split-second timing as comedy. Instead, the music can grow more naturally out of the emotions as they develop on screen.

In short, you can really get into it. So I'm looking forward to losing myself in the world of this family that Gance brought to the screen nearly a century ago. As I said, stretching myself.

Séverin-Mars as Sisif in 'La Roue,' or what I might look like after accompanying the film.

Speaking of which...I'm also excited just by the idea of this film being shown as intended: on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience.

It's a very rare chance to experience a work of art that otherwise doesn't exist, at least as its creator envisioned.

That's true of all cinema, I suppose. But just as an art museum often can display only a fraction of its collection to the public, this is a rare chance for this ambitious Gance masterwork of early cinema to be taken out of the archive and be experienced again, even if only for a day. (Or, actually, two.)

I encourage you to see it this way, as a rare opportunity to view something, rather like a solar eclipse.

And thus take advantage of what seems to be a rainy weekend in our part of the world to spend a little quality (and quantity) time with Abel Gance at the Town Hall Theatre.

See you there!

* * *

An original poster for Abel Gance's 'La Roue.'

MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Abel Gance epic 'La Roue' (1923) to be shown in two parts on 4/27 and 4/28 in Wilton, N.H.

Rarely screened French silent film blockbuster to be run in back-to-back screenings with live music at Town Hall Theatre

WILTON, N.H.—It's a two-day cinematic event!

A critically acclaimed French silent drama that runs nearly 4½ hours long will be shown in two parts at the Town Hall Theatre over the weekend of Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28.

'La Roue' (French for 'The Wheel'), a sprawling family drama about a railroad engineer and his children, will be screened with live music by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis.

The film will be broken into two parts roughly equal in length. The first installment will screen on Saturday, April 27 at 4:30 p.m., while the second will screen on Sunday, April 28 at 4:30 p.m.

Admission is free; a donation of $5 per person at each screening is suggested to help defray expenses.

"This is a rare chance to see one of the most influential films of early cinema on the big screen, and with live music, as it was intended to be shown," said Rapsis, who provides music for the Town Hall Theatre's monthly silent film series.

'La Roue' was directed by visionary French filmmaker Abel Gance. Released in 1923, it set the stage for Gance's later 'Napoleon' in its use of innovative cinematic devices, particularly rapid cutting.

'La Roue' opens with Sisif, a widowed railway engineer, rescuing an infant girl from a spectacular train crash.

Sisif adopts the girl, knowing only that her name is Norma, and raises her with his son.

This sets in motion a family drama that unfolds over the ensuing decades, leading to tragedy in far-flung locations.

A scene from Abel Gance's drama 'La Roue.'

The current version of 'La Roue' is a partial reconstruction of the original 1923 release, which ran an astonishing nine hours and which Gance intended to be shown over three days.

Gance later cut the film to two hours so it could fit into one evening, with much of the original version lost in the process.

In 2008, restorers gathered material from 'La Roue' from archives worldwide and pieced together the 4½-hour version being shown at the Town Hall Theatre.

"Early filmmakers such as Abel Gance or Germany's Fritz Lang would push the limits of the medium with tremendously ambitious projects," Rapsis said.

"So once in awhile, it's worth putting these pictures back on the big screen as they were intended to be shown, just as it's worth going to Paris to see the real Mona Lisa instead of just looking at a picture in an art book."

The Town Hall Theatre's long-running silent film series has proven a worthy forum for the occasional multi-day vintage blockbuster.

"Last year at the Town Hall Theatre, we ran Fritz Lang's massive two-part silent film version of 'The Nibelungen' mythic tales," Rapsis said. "Reaction was strong enough for us to try another two-day event this season."

From Abel Gance's 'La Roue.'

Critics today regard 'La Roue' highly for Gance's visual innovations.

In 2008, David Kehr of the N.Y. Times wrote that 'La Roue' "...still fascinates as a grab bag of experimental techniques...which clearly dazzled audiences of the time with the formal possibilities of this still relatively new medium. Circular forms, drawn from the title image, appear with maddening regularity: in the charging wheels of Sisif’s locomotive, the faces of ominously ticking clocks, the ring dance of a band of happy peasants."

Jason Sandors of Fandor.com described 'La Roue' as an "epic romance of forbidden love and doom, shot with no expense spared amidst the chaotic railways of Nice and the high-elevation peaks of Mont Blanc. One of the most influential films of the silent era, its editing style of rapid, rhythmic cuts had never been seen before. 'La Roue' heralded an entirely new approach to filmmaking that inspired Sergei Eisenstein and Alexander Dovzhenko (among many others)."

For the music, Rapsis has created new material that he will use to improvise the score live for both screenings.

"Creating a movie score on the fly is kind of a high-wire act, but it can often make for more excitement than if everything is planned out in advance," Rapsis said.

Rapsis performs on a digital synthesizer that reproduces the texture of the full orchestra, creating a traditional "movie score" sound.

'La Roue' (1923), directed by Abel Gance, will be screened in two parts on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28 at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

Part I will be screened on Saturday, April 27 at 4:30 p.m.; Part II will run on Sunday, April 28 at 4:30 p.m. Both parts are about 2¼ hours long.

Admission is free; a donation of $5 per person at each screening is suggested to help defray expenses. For more info, visit www.wiltontownhalltheatre.com or call (603) 654-3456.
Jeff R.

Helping out my friends at Harvard, then 'Metropolis' at Plymouth's Flying Monkey

Coming on Thursday, April 18: László Moholy-Nagy, American, Still from Lightplay: Black-White-Gray, 1930. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

I sometimes joke that I'm the world's most obscure superhero: SILENT FILM ACCOMPANIMENT GUY, ready to respond at a moment's notice to aid any silent film in need of live music.

(Still waiting for the call from Marvel Comics...)

But something like that actually happened last week when I was contacted by the Harvard Museums at Harvard University, where they're in the midst of an ambitious look at the Bauhaus school of design that flourished in Weimar-era Germany.

The program includes a series of film screenings, and turns out a program of short experimental movies scheduled for Thursday, April 18 turned out to be all silent!

Oh no! What to do?

So the call came in to SILENT FILM ACCOMPANIMENT GUY, who immediately agreed to rush to the rescue and create soundtracks for all the various clips.

And as incentive, I was told "...our resident piano is an ebony Bechstein model C, serial number 177972, from 1985 and approximately 7’4” in length."

Wow! A chance to work with an instrument of that caliber is not to be missed. (And it'll be a reminder that I have to get my own piano tuned once again after a long winter of pounding.)

A view of the Harvard Art Museums, which resulted when several adjacent galleries were renovated a few years back and put under one roof. It's next door to the Harvard Film Archive, where I regularly accompany silent films.

If you're interested in attending, the program is free! It's Thursday, April 18 at 6 p.m. at the Harvard Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge, Mass. Here's a link to more details.

Just as other superheros must occasionally engage in mind-boggling feats of strength, this particular show prompted SILENT FILM ACCOMPANIMENT GUY to do some heavy lifting, schedule-wise.

To accommodate Harvard, it was necessary to shift a scheduled screening of Metropolis from that night to another date.

And so Metropolis, originally set for Thursday, April 18 at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H., is now running one week later, on Thursday, April 25.

(And how appropriate is this "superhero" theme? Superman's city = Metropolis!)

Showtime is 6:30 p.m. for Fritz Lang's epic futuristic quasi-theological cinematic fantasy. I've developed some strong material for this incredible film. It's 2½ hours long and a real workout, but I love scoring it.

Here's the press release with a lot more info. See you there!

An original poster for 'Metropolis,' screening on Thursday, April 25 at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth, N.H.

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more info, contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Restored classic film 'Metropolis' to screen at Flying Monkey on Thursday, April 25

Landmark early sci-fi fantasy epic, with half-hour of rediscovered footage, to be shown with live music

PLYMOUTH, N.H.—A silent film hailed as the grandfather of all science fiction fantasy movies will be screened with live music this month at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center.

'Metropolis' (1927), an epic adventure set in a futuristic world, will be shown on Thursday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey, 39 Main St., Plymouth, N.H. General admission is $10.

Original music for 'Metropolis' will be performed live by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer and silent film accompanist who performs at venues around the nation.

(The screening was originally scheduled for Thursday, April 18, but has been moved to Thursday, April 25 due to a scheduling conflict.)

'Metropolis' (1927), regarded as German director Fritz Lang's masterpiece, is set in a society where a privileged elite pursue lives of leisure while the masses toil on vast machines and live in poverty.

From 'Metropolis': Man meets Machine.

The film, with its visions of futuristic factories and underground cities, set new standards for visual design and inspired generations of dystopian fantasies from Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner' to Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil.'

In reviving 'Metropolis' and other great films of cinema's early years, the Flying Monkey aims to show silent movies as they were meant to be seen—in high quality prints, on a large screen, with live music, and with an audience.

"All those elements are important parts of the silent film experience," said Rapsis, who will improvise an original live score for 'Metropolis' on the spot. "Recreate those conditions, and the classics of early cinema leap back to life."

In 'Metropolis,' the story centers on an upper class young man who falls in love with a woman who works with the poor. The tale encompasses mad scientists, human-like robots, underground spiritual movements, and industrial espionage, all set in a society divided between haves and have-nots.

The version of 'Metropolis' to be screened at the Flying Monkey is a newly restored edition that includes nearly a half-hour of missing footage cut following the film's premiere in 1927. The lost footage, discovered in 2008 in an archive in Argentina, has since been added to the existing 'Metropolis,' allowing plot threads and characters to be developed more fully.

When first screened in Berlin, Germany on Jan. 10, 1927, the sci-fi epic ran an estimated 153 minutes. After its premiere, the film's distributors (including Paramount in the U.S.) drastically shortened 'Metropolis' to maximize the film's commercial potential. By the time it debuted in the U.S. later that year, the film was only about 90 minutes long.

A scene from 'Metropolis.

Even in its shortened form, 'Metropolis' became a cornerstone of science fiction cinema. Due to its enduring popularity, the film has undergone numerous restorations in the intervening decades in attempts to recover Lang's original vision.

It was widely believed that this would be the most complete version of Lang's film that contemporary audiences could ever hope to see. But, in the summer of 2008, the curator of the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine discovered a 16mm dupe negative of 'Metropolis' that was considerably longer than any existing print.

It included not merely a few additional snippets, but 25 minutes of "lost" footage, about a fifth of the film, that had not been seen since its Berlin debut.

The discovery of such a significant amount of material called for yet another restoration, a 2½-hour version that debuted in 2010 to widespread acclaim. It's this fully restored edition that will be screened at the Flying Monkey.

" 'Metropolis' stands as an stunning example of the power of silent film to tell a compelling story without words, and reach across the generations to touch movie-goers from the real future, which means us," said accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who provides live music for silent film screenings throughout New England.

To accompany a silent film, Rapsis uses a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of the full orchestra. The score is created live in real time as the movie is screened. Rather than focus exclusively on authentic music of the period, Rapsis creates new music for silent films that draws from movie scoring techniques that today's audiences expect from the cinema.

Other upcoming silent film/live music presentations at the Flying Monkey include:

• Thursday, May 9, 6:30 p.m.: 'Sherlock Holmes' (1916) starring William Gillette. Recently discovered in France after being lost for nearly a century, see this original 1916 adaptation of Sherlock Holmes stories as performed by William Gillette, the actor who created the role on stage and performed it more than 1,000 times. With the blessing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Gillette's play combines elements of four classic short stories into a memorable battle with arch-nemesis, Prof. Moriarty.

• Thursday, June 20, 6:30 p.m.: 'Safety Last' (1923) starring Harold Lloyd. The iconic image of comedian Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a downtown clock is only one small piece of a remarkable thrill comedy that has lost none of its power over audiences. See it for yourself on the big screen and with an audience.

The restored 'Metropolis' will be shown on Thursday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center, 39 Main St., Plymouth. General admission is $10. For more info, visit www.flyingmonkeynh.co or call (603) 536-2551.

For more information on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

CRITIC'S COMMENTS on ‘METROPOLIS’

“'Metropolis' does what many great films do, creating a time, place and characters so striking that they become part of our arsenal of images for imagining the world.”
—Roger Ebert, 2010, The Chicago Sun-Times

“If it comes anywhere near your town, go see it and thank the movie Gods that it even exists. There’s no star rating high enough.”
—Brian Tallerico, Movieretriever.com

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!

* * *
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/

Accompaniment from small town to big city: it's a 'Safety Last' kind of silent film weekend

In Harold Lloyd's thrill comedy 'Safety Last' (1923), the story follows our hero from small town to big city as he pursues success and fulfillment.

This weekend, I'll follow a similar path.

On Friday, March 29, I'll accompany a silent film (in this case, 'Safety Last') in the town hall of Winchester, N.H.

The screening is at 7 p.m. and sponsored by the Arlington Grange No. 139, and you don't get much more small town than that.

Then, on Sunday, March 31, it's down to the big city (in this case Boston, or actually Somerville, Mass.) for a screening at the Aeronaut Brewing Co.

The film is 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' (1927), which we're showing in honor of the 130th birthday of the iconic Parisian landmark.

And in the spirit of Harold Lloyd's high altitude stunting, the film climaxes with a chase among the tower's upper beams and girders.

Thus my journey from small town to big city, all in service of silent cinema.

Will I find film scoring success in my own journey this weekend?

Come and find out. Below is a press release about Friday night's screening of 'Safety Last' in Winchester. Hope to see you there.

And I'll be back with info about 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' in a soon-to-follow post.

* * *

TImeless comedy: Lloyd in 'Safety Last.'

TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent film classic 'Safety Last' on Friday, March 29 in Winchester, N.H.

Thrill comedy climaxed by Harold Lloyd's iconic building climb; with live music at Town Hall

WINCHESTER, N.H.—It's an image that's so powerful, people who've never seen the movie it came from still instantly recognize it.

The vision of Harold Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above downtown Los Angeles, from the climax of his silent comedy 'Safety Last,' (1923), has emerged as a symbol of the "anything goes" spirit of early Hollywood and the magic of the movies.

See how Harold gets into his high-altitude predicament in a screening of 'Safety Last,' one of Lloyd's most popular films, on Friday, March 29 at 7 p.m. at Winchester Town Hall, 1 Richmond Road, Winchester, N.H.

The program, sponsored by Arlington Grange #139 of Winchester, will be accompanied live by silent film musician Jeff Rapsis. The show is open to the public, with $7 per person donation requested to help defray costs.

The program aims to recreate the experience of movie-going when motion pictures were a brand new art form.

"Put the whole experience back together, and you can see why people first fell in love with the movies," said Rapsis, one of the nation's leading silent film accompanists. Rapsis performs on a digital synthesizer that reproduces the texture of the full orchestra, creating a traditional "movie score" sound.

Lloyd and feathered friend.

The story of 'Safety Last' follows young go-getter Lloyd to the big city, where he hopes to make his mark in business and send for his smalltown sweetheart. His career at a downtown department store stalls, however, until he gets a chance to pitch a surefire publicity idea—hire a human fly to climb the building's exterior.

However, when the human fly has a last-minute run-in with the law, Harold is forced to make the climb himself, floor by floor, with his sweetheart looking on. The result is an extended sequence blending comedy and terror designed to hold viewers spellbound.

"Seeing 'Safety Last' with an audience is one of the great thrill rides of the cinema of any era, silent or sound," Rapsis said. "Harold's iconic building climb, filmed without trick photography, continues to provoke audience responses nearly 100 years after film was first released."

Tributes to the clock-hanging scene have appeared in several contemporary films, most recently in Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' (2011), which includes clips from 'Safety Last.'

Lloyd, along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, is regarded as one of the silent screen's three great clowns. Lloyd's character, a young go-getter ready to struggle to win the day, proved hugely popular in the 1920s. While Chaplin and Keaton were always favored by the critics, Lloyd's films reigned as the top-grossing comedies throughout the period.

However, Lloyd's public image faded after his retirement in the 1930s, as Lloyd turned his energies to charitable causes such as the Shriners. He retained control over his films, refusing to release them for television and only rarely allowing them to be screened at revivals, fearing modern audiences wouldn't know how to respond to his work or to silent films in general. Lloyd died in 1971.

In recent years, Lloyd's family has taken steps to restore Harold's reputation and public image. They've released his work on DVD, and arranged for more frequent screenings of his films in the environment for which they were made: in theaters with live music and a large audience.

Despite Lloyd's fears, audiences continue to respond just as strongly to his work as when the films were new, with features such as 'Safety Last' embraced as timeless achievements from the golden era of silent film comedy.

Critics review 'Safety Last':

"Impossible to watch without undergoing visitations of vertigo, Safety Last's climactic sequence is all it's reputed to be.”
—TV Guide

"Harold Lloyd manages to make the characters sympathetic enough to carry the audience's concern on his journey of crazy stunts and mishaps. One of the best of this era."
—David Parkinson, Empire Magazine

"The climb has both comic and dramatic weight because it is both a thrilling exercise in physical humor and a thematically rich evocation of the pressures men feel to succeed, lest they be viewed as less than a man."
—James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

See Harold Lloyd's iconic thrill comedy 'Safety Last' (1923), to be shown on Friday, March 29 at 7 p.m. at the Winchester Town Hall, 1 Richmond Road, Winchester, N.H. Sponsored by Arlington Grange #139, the program is open to the public; a donation of $7 per person is requested to defray expenses.

Dashing across the pond tonight to accompany 'Cat and the Canary' in London tomorrow

What? I have to travel basic economy?!

Tonight I head off to London, where I'll accompany a screening of the great Paul Leni thriller 'The Cat and the Canary' (1927) tomorrow night at the Kennington Bioscope.

It's one of the most visually spectacular silent features ever made, I think. And I hope the music I have in mind will be worthy of what Leni put on screen.

I'll also do some business in London and Amsterdam before heading back to Boston on Thursday afternoon, arriving less than 48 hours after I left. Quick trip!

And I have to think: what an age we live in when it's possible to transfer yourself across the North Atlantic in less time than it takes for me to get through an issue of the Economist.

(That's how I get to sleep by the way. No drugs for me! Just buy the current issue of the Economist, open up any page, and in 10 minutes I'm dozing off. Works every time!)

What a difference from, say, when John Adams set out to win support from France for the then-new United States, and it took weeks, and then they were chased by actual pirates, and wound up landing in Spain, and then had to ride donkeys over the Pyrenees.

What would Adams make of us jetting at high speed seven miles above the ocean, making a journey so quick that there's not enough time for a decent night's sleep? (Unless you buy the Economist.)

Speaking of which: I've done this before, and I now know that the evening after an overnight trans-Atlantic flight is not the best time to be in top form when creating live music for a demanding feature film.

So I've built in a little down time on Wednesday afternoon to help things come together later that evening. Jeffie needs his nap time!

After all, don't want to disappoint those in the audience, which will include film historian Kevin Brownlow, who's scheduled to introduce the picture. (And they're running his 35mm print of the film, which I can't wait to see.)

When I get back, mud season in New Hampshire can only mean comedy!

And so the film calendar heads into a patch of hilarity in small towns throughout the Granite State.

Buster and friend in 'Our Hospitality' (1923).

On deck: Buster Keaton's 'Our Hospitality' (1923) on Saturday, March 23 in Danbury, N.H., and then 'Seven Chances' (1925) on Sunday, March 24 in Wilton, N.H. And then Harold Lloyd in 'Safety Last' (1923) on Friday, March 29 in Richmond, N.H.

And I'm especially excited about an unusual program coming up Sunday, March 31 at the Aeronaut Brewing Co. in Somerville, Mass.

For this one, we're celebrating the 130th birthday of the Eiffel Tower (really!) with a screening of 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' (1927), a comedy/thriller with a climax filmed high up among the struts and girders of the iconic structure.

The Aeronaut has done a splendid job promoting this event, so I'm pasting in the press release below in an attempt to encourage you to attend.

Unless you'd rather spend time with the Economist!

* * *

In Paris, high above it all.

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/