A sneak peek of things to come For the Love of Film (Noir) Blogathon.
One of my favorite Joan Crawford films, Sudden Fear.
Faces of Film Noir
Photos of a few of my favorite actors and actresses associated with Film Noir.
and, finally, Sunset Boulevard.
Please make your donation to support film preservation and the make the gun molls of film noir happy by clicking here and donating some much needed loot. The Faceboook page has a nifty paypal link here and your donation will make you eligible for some grand raffle prizes!
Charles Chaplin in The Adventurer in which he romances Edna Purviance
John Gilbert and Lillian Gish romance in La Boheme (directed by King Vidor)
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival Winter Event is happening just shy of Valentine's Day this year. February 12, 2011 at the Catro Theater.
Love is in the air and I can't help it!
Birgitte Helm ready for some romance in L'Argent
From the SF Silent Film Festival Press Release:
Complete Winter Event Program: Our early program It's Mutual (1:00 pm, $15) is a collection of sparkling shorts by Charlie Chaplin, made during his stint at the Mutual Film Corporation where he honed his craft and became the genius director we think of today. The shorts - The Pawnshop, The Rink, and The Adventurer - contain some of the funniest moments ever put to screen, and are a glimpse into the development of this master of cinema. And supplying the perfect accompaniment to Chaplin's brilliance will be Donald Sosin at the baby grand piano. 35mm film prints from the David Shepard Collection.
Continuing our tradition of presenting world-class blockbusters at the Winter Event afternoon show, we present Marcel L'Herbier's L'Argent (3:30 pm, $15) accompanied by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
The evening show, La Bohème (8:00 pm, $17) is devoted to the one of the themes movies have excelled at from the beginning - the love story! This eternal romance set in bohemian Paris of the 1830s has been filmed many times, but King Vidor's classic starring Lillian Gish as Mimi and John Gilbert as Rodolphe is the definitive version. New 35mm print courtesy of Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive. The Master of the Mighty Wurlitzer, Dennis James, will accompany this perfect Valentine's weekend fare.
At 6:30 there will be a Winter Event Celebration Party ($20) on the Castro's mezzanine. Delicious hors d'oeuvres, hearty drinks, and pleasing conversation to be had by all! The extraordinary Michel Saga will serenade on the barrel organ, singing songs of old Paris.
The Film Preservation Blogathon - For the Love of Film (Noir) will run the week of February 14 through February 21, 2011. It's not too early to make a donation while you wait for all the good stuff that will be posted during the week of the blogathon.
Please do your bit and donate $5, $10, $15 or $20 to support the Film Noir Foundation. Even in these economically challenging times a few dimes will save something we can't easily replace. We can't save every single precious frame of film noir, but we can try. I'm a glass half full person, please help!
Your donation to the Film Noir Foundation can be made at any dollar amount when you hit the paypal link on their site or you can become a rod carrying member at the following levels:
Gunsel up to $49 Receive the NOIR CITY SENTINEL electronic newsletter (e-mail address required)
Muscle $50 - $99 Receive the NOIR CITY SENTINEL. the most recent Noir City poster and souvenir-edition festival program.
Henchman $100 - $249 All of the above plus a Film Noir Foundation T-shirt. (Please specify size and men's vs. women's in the PayPal note.)
Torpedo $250 - $499 Receive all of the above plus a signed first edition of Eddie Muller's novel, The Distance.
Kingpin $500+ The whole shebang plus a series pass to NOIR CITY 9 in San Francisco in 2011 and recognition in the souvenir program.
Please make your donation to support film preservation and the make the gun molls of film noir happy by clicking here and donating some much needed loot. The paypal link here will make you eligible for some grand raffle prizes!
Here is a partial list of bloggers who've made the commitment to blog (myself included):
Tony Dayoub of Cinema Viewfinder Ed Howard of Only the Cinema Patricia Schneider at The Lady Eve’s Reel Life Vanwall Green at Vanwall’s Land Sam Juliano of Wonders in the Dark Joshua Ranger of AudioVisual Preservation Solutions Donna Hill at Strictly Vintage Hollywood Ben Kenigsberg at Time Out Chicago David Steece of Randomaniac Beth Ann Gallagher at Spellbound Peter Nellhaus at Coffee, Coffee, and More Coffee Jacqueline Fitzgerald of Film Noir Blonde Bill Ryan at The Kind of Face You Hate Betty Jo Tucker of Reel Talk Movie Reviews R.D. Finch at The Movie Projector Peter Gutierrez Bob Fergusson at Allure Steve-O at Film Noir of the Week and Back Alley Noir Brian Darr at Hell on Frisco Bay DeeDee at Darkness to Light Hilary Barta at Limerwrecks Hedwig Van Driel at As Cool as a Fruit Stand Paula Vitaris at Paula’s Movie Page Jacqueline T. Lynch at Another Old Movie Blog Tinky Weisblat of In Our Grandmothers’ Kitchens Doug Bonner at PostModern Joan Kevin Olson at Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies Gareth at Gareth’s Movie Diary Meredith of Or Maybe Eisenstein Should Just Relax Java Bean Rush John Greco of Twenty-Four Frames Vince Keenan at VinceKeenan.com Ivan G. Shreve of Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear Darren at The Movie Blog Brandie of True Classics: The ABCs of Classic Film Mat Viola of Notes of a Film Fanatic Joe Thompson from The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion Bill Wren of Piddleville Ms. Zebra of Germans Like Heavy Make-Up
After 3 years of witty, visually stunning and often bust a gut hilarious postings, The Silent Movie Blog is going silent. Iris and fade out, the end.
Thanks to Chris Snowden for 3 fun-filled years, time sure flies when you are having fun. He's shutting down the blog to get to some things that have been back-burnered too long. He's still running Unknown Video and we'll simply have to guess what's coming.
Before it's too late, you can see a few postings he's left up and see what you've missed if you've not been there before. Tempus Fugit!
The Danish Film Institute has posted filmographical details and the complete 1919 short His Musical Sneeze, featuring Lloyd Hamilton and Virginia Rappe, with a jaunty score by Ben Model. This is a rare glimpse of Virginia Rappe on film, since very few of the comedies in which she was featured survive. This film is also important as the producer was Rappe's fiance Henry “Pathe” Lehrman. The film is directed by Jack White.
Virginia Rappe is best remembered as the actress who died after Roscoe Arbuckle's 1921 Labor Day party in San Francisco. Joan Myers is currently working on a manuscript about the case and has researched Rappe extensively. See this post for example. Myers' forthcoming book is one I am most anxious to read, the bits I've been privy to have been relevatory, to say the least!
Since I probably won't have the next post up until after the new year, Happy New Year and welcome 2011!
2011 already brings us a new gift, a gorgeous coffee table book on the blonde bombshell Jean Harlow. You can pre-order it here.
The press blurb states:
In these pages, renowned Harlow expert Darrell Rooney and Hollywood historian Mark Vieira team to present the most beautiful--and accurate--book on Harlow ever produced. With more than 280 rare images, the authors not only make a case for Harlow as an Art Deco artifact, they showcase the fabulous places where she lived, worked and played from her white-on-white Beverly Glen mansion to the Art Deco sets of Dinner at Eight to the foyer of the Café Trocadero. Harlow in Hollywood is a must for every film buff, Harlow collector, and book lover. Like Harlow herself, Harlow in Hollywood is irresistible
I am sure this is 100% accurate. Mark Vieira's books are nothing but top drawer productions and his collection is incredible, matched with the collection of the preeminant collector of Jean Harlow, Darrell Rooney, this will be a wonderful book to grace your bookshelves and your coffee table for years to come.
She starred in the famous "Three' Company" episode of Entourage, starred with three of Hollywood' toughest guys in 13: Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham and Alexander Skarsgard, will play one of the leads in the all-star cast of 2010' Georgia, a film about the war between Russia and Georgia, she speaks both English and French fluently, is a first-generation Canadian, after both her parents immigrated from Morocco.
No. 2 - Marisa Miller.
She was discovered by Mario Testino, one of the most famous photographers in the world, she is currently one of the famous Victoria's Secret Angels, appeared on the cover of the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition sans bikini top, kept us up-to-date in 2009, thanks to her Sports Illustrated "Best of Marisa Miller" calendar and also ran a surf school in California before becoming a serious model.
No.3 - Kate Beckinsale.
She speaks English, French and Russian; and had us hot for vampires long before Twilight and True Blood by sporting a rubber catsuit in Underworld - also appeared opposite Robert De Niro and Sam Rockwell in 2009' dramedy Everybody' Fine, and of course, was chosen as Esquire magazine' "Sexiest Woman Alive" in 2009. She is rumored to be attached to 2011' Underworld 4.
No.4 - Alessandra Ambrosio
She was famous for wearing lingerie made entirely of candy for the 2005 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, she stayed in Gisele Bundchen's apartment when she first moved to New York, and participated in the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show just three months after giving birth to a baby girl, also appeared with fellow Victoria's Secret Angels Adriana Lima, Selita Ebanks, Marisa Miller, Miranda Kerr, and Heidi Klum on an episode of How I Met Your Mother and is the National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
No.5 - Jessica Alba.
She teamed up with writer/director Robert Rodriguez for the assassin movie Machete, gave birth to a baby girl, Honor Marie, in 2008 and still has the same smoking figure she had from the Dark Angel days, made a guest appearance as herself on the 2009 episode of The Office called "Stress Relief", plays a prostitute in 2010's The Killer Inside Me opposite golden boy Casey Affleck and then recently starred in The Lonely Island's I Just Had Sex video ahaha. =)
Those are the TOP 5... but special mentions for two others though...
Cheryl Cole at No.8.
She released her debut album, 3 Words, in October of 2009, she plans to reunite with Girls Aloud in the studio, replaced Sharon Osbourne as a judge on The X Factor, and then she is often referred to in England as "the nation's new sweetheart" - and Lily Allen wrote a cheeky song inspired by Cheryl called "Cheryl Tweedy.
Eva Mendes - No.9
Eva starred opposite Nicolas Cage in Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans in 2009, played Will Ferrell's wife in the upcoming comedy The Other Guys, also starring Mark Wahlberg, teamed up with Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington for the upcoming Last Night, a film that rivals Closer in its portrayal of infidelity and then had an advertisement for Calvin Klein banned because of an exposed nipple and also posed topless for Vogue Italia.
