Coastside Film Society screens a Silent Film Masterpiece with Live Musical Accompaniment.

Feature: VARIETY (1925, 72 minutes)

“A little-seen yet engaging tale of betrayal and jealousy, set within the seamy-by-default world of carnivals and circuses”. Film Fanatic.org

Obscure today, Variety is a major work of German Expressionism. A story about a crime of passion distinguished by great performances and the wonderful visuals which were the hallmarks of the movement. A rare treat! This not a film that has been commercially released. The Film Society had it transferred from an original 35 mm print.

German director E.A. Dupont’s silent masterpiece features the lighting and camera work of cinematographer D.P. Karl Freund, lending the work an expressionist flair and a dark neo-realistic undertone. The basic plot is simple if perhaps a bit tawdry: A man abandons his wife and child to join the circus and to run away with a beautiful trapeze artist. His new girlfriend is tempted by another handsome circus performer. There’s lots of conflict under the big top! The film has superlative cinematography and we’re adding music to make it extra exciting.

The music in question is provided by Montara's own Shauna Pickett-Gordon. This is the fifth time that the Film Society has hired Pickett-Gordon to write a score for one of our silent film screenings and to play that score live on her grand piano during the screening. Why go to all this effort when canned music is much cheaper? Check out the short video of Pickett-Gordon at work during our February Silent Film Night to see just how great she can be:  www.bit.ly/SilentHMB

Critics agreed that Variety was a great ground breaking film when it was released in 1925 and it’s a film that still delivers. “Flashbacks from a prison straight out of a Van Gogh painting impressionistic lighting, lingering expressionist imagery, and giddily mobile camera work are all pushed to unprecedented extremes” says Time Out London.

More info at . http://hmbfilm.org/

THANKS METHODIST SANCTUARY FOR TEN GREAT YEARS

The Film Society thanks the Methodist Sanctuary for ten great years as the host of our monthly film nights. Unfortunately as a small nonprofit operating on a shoestring budget we can't afford the new rental fee the Church feels it must charge to cover its costs. Next month we will host a free movie night at the HMB Library. If any of you have suggestions for a new venue we could adopt in the future please let us know.