Series

The Days of Silent Cinema: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto at Indiana University

Founded in 1982, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto is considered the world’s leading international silent-film festival, presented annually in the northern Italian town of Pordenone. Indiana University will be the host of an inaugural U.S. satellite festival, bringing U.S. premieres of some of the highlights from the October 2019 festival in Pordenone. Join IU Cinema, IU Libraries Moving Image Archive, and the Music Scoring for Visual Media program in the Jacobs School of Music for three days of rare and new restorations of silent films with live musical accompaniment. One $40 festival pass will gain entry for all screenings, or single tickets can be purchased for $8 per screening. Full festival schedule—which will include additional screenings, workshops, and lectures—will be posted on cinema.indiana.edu closer to the festival.

This program is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Myerson Family Fund and the Office of the Bicentennial. Special thanks to Ed Myerson, Kaili Peng, and Kelly Kish.

Curated by Jay Weissberg, Rachael Stoeltje, Laura Horak, Maggie Hennefeld, and Jon Vickers.

 

PLEASE NOTE: Events in this series take place at IU Cinema and at the IU Libraries Screening Room (Wells Library 048). Ticketing for all  events in this series will be managed through IU Cinema.

 

Additional The Days of Silent Cinema films, which take place outside of IU Cinema:

U.S. PREMIERE

Nasty Women Program 1: Tyranny at Home

(1906–12) Directed by Various Directors

October 31 – 7 pm – $8 single ticket or $40 festival pass

Not rated – 2K DCP – 70 min

Location: IU Libraries Screening Room (Wells Library 048)

Silent film with piano accompaniment/Curators Maggie Hennefeld and Laura Horak are scheduled to be present. Embracing the much-debated term used in a recent Presidential campaign, Horak and Hennefeld—both responsible for challenging publications on gender and queer studies and early cinema—curated a tribute to what became a feminist rallying cry: “Nasty Women.” A century before “pussy hats” and late-night feminist satirists, silent comedienne characters and feminist activists spoke truth to patriarchal power with their disregard for gendered social norms and feminine corporeal decorum. These short European comedic films reveal Nasty Women seizing the reins of institutional power and exposing the absurdity of the system. Silent films with English intertitles. Contains mature content.

 

CANCELLED: Beverly of Graustark

(1926) Directed by Sidney Franklin

November 1 – 12 pm – $8 single ticket or $40 festival pass

 

REPLACEMENT FILM: What Happened to Jones

(1926) Directed by William A. Seiter

November 1 – 12 pm – $8 single ticket or $40 festival pass

Not rated – 2K DCP – 70 min

Location: IU Libraries Screening Room (Wells Library 048)

Silent film with piano accompaniment. On the night before his wedding, a young man plays poker with friends. When the game is raided by the police, he escapes into a Turkish bath on ladies night, ending up disguised in drag and with difficult explanations to make. Silent film with English intertitles.

 

Joan the Woman (1916) Directed by Cecil B. DeMille

November 1 – 2 pm – $8 single ticket or $40 festival pass

Not rated – 2K DCP – 138 min

Location: IU Libraries Screening Room (Wells Library 048)

Silent film with piano accompaniment. Premiering Christmas Day, 1919, the film is Cecil B. DeMille’s first historical drama and great spectacle. A dream of the life of Joan of Arc (Geraldine Farrar) inspires a WWI British officer the night before he is set to embark on a dangerous mission from which he is unlikely to return. The elaborately filmed battle sequences, provocative images, and dramatic hand-colored final scenes set the stage for DeMille's later spectacles. Silent film with English intertitles. Contains mature content.

 

Sally, Irene and Mary (1925) Directed by Edmund Goulding

November 2 – 2 pm – $8 single ticket or $40 festival pass

Not rated – 2K DCP – 58 min

Location: IU Libraries Screening Room (Wells Library 048)

Silent film with piano accompaniment. Sally, Irene and Mary looks behind-the-scenes at the romantic lives of three chorus girls and the men who surround them. Sally is self-assured and looking for a sugar daddy. Irene (Joan Crawford, in one of her first credited roles) is a hopeless romantic easily deceived by con men. Whereas Mary, the heart of the story, seeks to leave show business behind to settle down. Silent film with English intertitles. Contains mature content.