Lineup: International Silent film fest 2015

MANILA, Philippines – Silent movies may be a thing of the past, but the success of the International Silent Film Festival Manila year after year is proof that these kinds of films have indeed a steady following. Although tickets are given for free 30 minutes before each film, one has to line up for an hour – or two – prior to a screening to secure a seat.
 
The secret? Nay, secrets: the chance of one to catch these films on the silver screen is next to nil because most of them are from overseas, they are rare (80% of silent films the world over are lost) – and even if one had seen the flicks – the screenings are accompanied by live music. 
 
The 2015 edition of the International Silent Film Festival Manila will feature 9 films from 9 countries on its 9th year. The participating countries include Germany Philippines, Spain, Japan, Italy, France, Thailand, Austria, and the United States.
 
The 3rd generation of nearly 60 year old Dixie/Swing group The Executives will play live during the screening of Robert Wiene’s Orlac’s Hande, 1924, from Austria – the filmfest’s opening film – at 8 pm on Thursday, August 27.  In the film, world-famous pianist Paul Orlac loses his hands to a train accident. His wife convinces the surgeon to transplant the hands of someone who had just died. Orlac realizes that his hands have “a will of their own,” not knowing that they once belonged to a recently-executed murder.

 

Popular rock band Kjwan will set to music John Nelson’s Brides of Sulu, 1934 from the Philippines – or what remains of it today – at 5 pm on Friday, August 28. A lovely Mohammedan Moro princess who had been betrothed in marriage to a noble chief runs away with a pagan pearl diver. “Inflamed tribesmen launch a furious pursuit to recapture their princess,” the film fest brochure stated.

 
Indie-jazz pop quartet Hidden Nikki will regale viewers with music that would go with 4 Japanese short films produced from 1929-1932 ranging from 14 to 21 minutes each at 7:30 pm on Friday, August 28. The shorts are:

• Mansaku Itami’s Kokushi Muso (Peerless Patriot), 1932, which is about master swordsman Ise Isenokami who experiences defeat twice in the hands of an impostor
• Yasujiro Ozu’s Wasei KenkaTomodachi (Fighting Friends, Japanese Style), 1929. Friends Tomekichi and Yoshizo love homeless girl Omitsu, who in turn loves Okamura. The two friends catch Okamura with a geisha and presume that she is his lover, but later turns out to be Omitsu’s sister.

 

Both shorts have been digitally restored.

• Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokkan Kozo (A Straightforward Boy), 1929 – Bunkichi kidnaps a boy named Tetsubo who turns out to be a quite a handful. Bunkichi’s attempts to get rid of him become futile, and tables are turned when the boy incites his playmates to demand toys and goodies from Bunkichi.

 

• Torajiro Saito’s Ishikawa Goemon No Hoji (A Buddhist Mass for Goemon Ishikawa), 1930. Edo period legendary robber Goemon Ishikawa’s descendant Goro is in love with Sayoko, the daughter of an antique shop owner. Goro wants to elope with Sayoko, but her father beats Goro one night. Now a ghost, Goro seeks the help of his ancestor in convincing Sayoko’s father to let them marry.

The Royal Thai Navy Traditional Ensemble is flying in from Bangkok, Thailand, to play live for Ittisoontorn Vichailak and Chatrichalerm Yukol’s The Overture, 2014,  at 1 pm on Saturday, August 29.

The Overture is based on the life of palace musician Sorn Silapabanleng –  master of ranad-ek –  or the traditional Thai wooden xylophone. When the Thai government bans the playing of Thai instruments, he takes up his ranad-ek mallets and “improvises, blending Thai and Western music, aimed at defying the rules of the government, and to teach a lesson about culture and heritage,” the filmfest brochure stated.

Silent Filmfest suki, German composer, musician and conductor Pierre Oser returns to Manila for the 3rd time – but with Jaimar Palispis and Big Jazz Balloon this time. They will tap instruments like the kulintang and agong for Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin: Die Sinfonie Der Grobstadt (Berlin: Symphony of a Great City), 1927, a documentary of a typical day in 1920’s Berlin, at 5 pm on Saturday, August 29.

The Dingdong Fiel Trio will play live music to Ricardo de Banos’ Don Juan Tenorio (1922), from Spain at 7:30 pm on Saturday, August 29. Based on the Spanish play written by Jose Zorrilla in 1844, this flick depicts the life of classic seducer Don Juan Tenorio whose latest fancy is a novice who’s about to take her holy vows. This film premiered in Manila in 1924.

Harmonica blues-based group Ian Lofamia band will play while Rene Clair’s Paris Qui Dort (Paris Asleep), 1924 is screened at 3 pm on Sunday, August 30. An airplane’s pilot and its passengers take over Paris when they are the only ones left awake after a crazy scientist hypnotizes and immobilizes Paris with a mysterious beam.

 

Quintessential rock band The Dawn – which celebrates its 25th year – will play during the screening of  Mario Caserini and Eleuterio Rodolfi’s Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompeii, or The Last Days of Pompeii, 1924, at 5 pm on Sunday, August 30.

Pompeiian Glaucus buys blind slave Nidia to save her from an abusive owner. Nidia falls for her new master, who however has eyes only for Jone, who also happens to be the love interest of Isis high priest Arbace.

Nidia seeks Arbache’s help in capturing the heart of Glaucus, but Arbache gives her a false love potion that affects his mind, not his heart. Glaucus ends up in hot water after a disciple of Arbace is murdered; and right after Mt. Vesuvius erupts.

Silent Filmfest “veteran” Razorback performs to F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1927 of the United States of America at 7:30 pm on Sunday, August 30. In Sunrise, a farmer’s wife runs to the city when she discerns the evil plan of her husband and his lover to drown her. Her husband follows her, eventually regaining her trust; and they rediscover their love for each other.

The International Silent Film Festival happens at the Shang Cineplex of Shangri-La Plaza Mall from August 27 to 30. Admission is free on a first-come, first-served basis.

The opening on August 27 is invitational; there are limited seats for the general public. For more information, check out the Facebook page here. – Rappler.com