The Silent Treatment
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Silent film fans, the time has come to rejoice! Every first Wednesday of the month, get ready to receive The Silent Treatment: our ongoing series of artfully chosen feature films from all corners of the pre-sound era — choice picks that are rarely screened theatrically, or are not available on DVD! Curated by film archivists/TST Newsletter publishers Brandee Cox and Steven Hill, The Silent Treatment showcases a wide variety of early cinema in the best available formats for film lovers with an enthusiastic and adventurous spirit. For breaking news on what films/special guests will be on tap for future shows, check out TST’s Facebook fan page! In addition, get the lowdown on all your favorite silent stars and filmmakers with TST’s bi-monthly digest, available for free download at the Silent Treatment website! Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
THE SILENT TREATMENT: Dressed To Kill (1928)
Description coming soon…Music by resident Cinefamily accompanist Cliff Retallick!
Dressed To Kill Dir. Irving Cummings, 1928, 35mm, 70 min. (Archival print courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art)
A Moonshine Feud 1920, 35mm, approx. 15 min. (Archival print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive)
THE SILENT TREATMENT: Louise Brooks in "Diary of a Lost Girl"
There’s a reason the name Louise Brooks elicits sighs every time it’s mentioned at the Cinefamily: her ferocious charisma and otherworldly beauty cemented her status as an icon well before she retired from the silver screen, at the age of 32. From her comic role opposite W.C. Fields to multiple turns as troubled, willful heroines in the films of legendary German Expressionist auteur G.W. Pabst, Brooks shines as an actress capable of endless nuance and versatility — as she understood the impact both her inner and outer beauty could bring to the screen. Here, in her second and final collaboration with Pabst, Brooks gives a delicately restrained performance as the naive daughter of a prosperous pharmacist who stuns her clan by becoming pregnant. After being put through the repressive reform school ringer, she escapes to a brothel where she becomes liberated and lives for the moment with radiant physical abandon. Pabst’s escalating nightmares are heightened by Brooks’ sensitive portrayal of a truly lost girl whose hard-earned redemption is as beautiful a vision as the star herself.
Dir. G.W. Pabst, 1929, 35mm, 116 min.
