This show is a part of STG's 2009-2010 Season. Learn more here
 

Featuring Jim Riggs on the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ
 

With innovative, illusionary cinematic techniques, trick photography with superimposed images, dissolves and cuts - Silent Movie Mondays: Adventure Stories to Silent Classics explores the early works of visionaries who created a science fiction film world from such malleable objects as cardboard cut outs, clay, and cedars. An Arabian prince, an evil sorcerer, underwater adventures, and baby brontosaurus populate the dreamland uncovered in the THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, and LOST WORLD, easily some of the eras most innovative forays into science fiction and fantasy filmmaking. Catch these handcrafted films that boldly go where no CGI-laden Star Wars, or Harry Potter movie ever can, an imagined world constructed of the tactile not the digital.

November 2nd - 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA
(Stuart Paton, USA, 1916, 105 min)
The prototype of the special effects spectacular, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA is a groundbreaking production marshalling the expertise underwater experts Ernest and George Williamson. This production, financed by Universal, would require location photography, large sets, exotic costumes, sailing ships, and a full-size navigable mock-up of the surfaced submarine Nautilus. It was also the first feature film version of Jules Verne’s classic tale (mixed with plot elements from another Verne novel, The Mysterious Island). Allen Holubar stars as Captain Nemo, whose military efforts mirror preparations for the war that the world was facing when this feature was filmed. The only previous attempt to produce the film was in short form back in 1907 by pioneering science fiction filmmaker George Méliès of Voyage to the Moon fame.

November 9th - THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED
(Lotte Reiniger, Germany, 1926, 67 min)
Climb aboard a flying horse and fly away to the kaleidoscopic world of The Arabian Nights! THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED - the oldest extant feature-length animated film - is a breathtaking work of art. Created in 1926 by 23 year-old German teacher Lotte Reiniger, the film tells the story of an Arabian prince, an evil sorcerer, and a captured princess using silhouette-animation techniques. ACHMED is a vital part of film history and a breathtaking work of art. The film is made of nearly 300,000 camera shots, a meticulous triumph of imagination and animation. Legendary French filmmaker Jean Renoir proclaimed the film “a masterpiece,” adding that Lotte Reiniger was “born with magic hands.”

November 16th - THE LOST WORLD
(Harry O. Hoyt, USA, 1925, 106 min)
A wonder from the pre-Jurassic (the Cinezoic) period, 1925's THE LOST WORLD, now beautifully restored. Known as "the granddaddy of all prehistoric monster movies," based on a tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, THE LOST WORLD is a live-action feature with stop-motion animated creatures by Willis O'Brien, who went on to create King Kong. O'Brien's creatures topped all other movie monsters, not only for their fierce realism but for their individual, sometimes impish personalities; just as Kong became the darling of the Surrealists, you'll bond with Brontosaurus and his cynical sneer. He may simply be reacting to the acting of his captors in an expedition headed by Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) whose account of a "lost world" has made him the laugh of London. The laughs stop when London Bridge is falling down under Bronty's weight. Cinematographer Arthur Edeson (The Thief of Bagdad) captures the netherworldliness of an Amazon jungle plateau where prehistoric life has been preserved, a spectacle magically photographed (and gorgeously toned) on sets more bonsai than miniature. This was reportedly the first in-flight movie too! Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.