Donnerstag, 22. November 2012

filmmusik.at

Welcome to my 3rd newsletter!

informations about past and future of my silent movie work
Buster Keaton & Harold Lloyd

Coming:

Buster Keaton & Harold Lloyd
at the Austrian Filmmuseum, Vienna


December/ January will bring Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd silent movies to Vienna´s Filmmuseum.

I will perform for:


6.12., 18h30: The Cook/ Back Stage/ The Garage (Buster Keaton)
7.12., 18h: Playhouse/ The Boat/ Paleface
19h30: Seven Chances
21h: College
14.12., 20h30: The Navigator
15.12., 19h: Safety last!
21.12., 21h: Steamboat Bill Jr.
22.12., 21h: Baloonatic/ Sherlock Jr.
4.1.13, 21h Three Ages
5.1.13, 19h30 The frozen north/ Daydreams/ The electric house
21h: Speedy
Steamboat Bill Jr - Buster Keaton

Steamboat Bill Jr

William "Steamboat Bill" Canfield is the owner and captain of a paddle steamer that has seen better days. He eagerly awaits the arrival of his college student son, whom he has not seen since the lad was a baby, expecting a big, husky man like himself to help him compete with businessman John James King and his brand new, luxurious riverboat. He is sorely disappointed with his slight, awkward offspring, who shows up with a pencil moustache, a ukulele and a beret. He becomes outraged when he discovers that his son and King's daughter Kitty, also visiting her father, know each other and are in love. Both business rivals are determined to break up the relationship.
When Canfield's ship is condemned as unsafe, he accuses King of orchestrating it. He assaults his enemy and is put in jail. His son tries to free him by bringing him a loaf of bread with tools hidden inside, but his scheme is detected. The sheriff hits Canfield Jr. on the head, sending him to the hospital.
Then a cyclone hits, tearing down buildings and endangering the ships. As Canfield Jr. makes his way through the town, a building front falls all around him - Keaton's best known stunt. He reaches his father's ship and rescues first Kitty (stranded on a floating house), then his father (by ramming the ship into the sinking jail, which has also been blown into the river), and finally Kitty's father. When Kitty goes to her hero, she is puzzled when he jumps into the water. However, his purpose becomes clear when he returns, towing a minister in a lifebuoy.

(source: Wikipedia)
Gerhard Gruber at the Motovun Film Festival 2007

In the past:

"A page of madness" (Kurutta Ippeiji) at the Motovun Film Festival 2007

with benshi Ichiro Kataoka, Tokyo and pianist Gerhard Gruber

A Page of Madness - Kurutta Ippeiji is a silent film by Japanese film director Kinugasa Teinosuke, made in 1926. It was lost for fifty years until being rediscovered by Kinugasa in a shed in 1971. The film is the product of an avant garde group of artists in Japan known as the shinkankaku-ha (or School of New Perceptions) who tried to overcome naturalistic representation.


Directed by: Teinosuke KinugasaYear: 1926. Running time: 60'
Written by: Yasunari Kawabata, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Minoru Inuzuka
Music: Gerhard Gruber, benshi Ichiro Kataoka, script translation Jun Takahashi
Producer: Teinosuke Kinugasa
A page of madness

The film takes place in an asylum. Although cut together in an ever maddening maelstrom, the film loosely tells the story of the janitor of the asylum. His wife is one of the patients. One day their daughter shows up at the asylum to tell her mother about her engagement. This sets off a number of subplots and flashbacks which stitch together the family history (for instance, why the mother is a patient and why the daughter is unaware of her father's job as a janitor).
The film does not contain intertitles, making it difficult to follow for audiences today. The print existing today is missing nearly a third of what was shown in theaters in 1926.
Ichiro Kataoka and Gerhard Gruber