Stummfilmtage Bonn

[sally]

guess it'll just be me wittering on about this, but they've just released the 2021 line up, and there's a girl in tails! a travelogue across the dolomites! wallace beery being hot and bad! another czech silent! (haven't we seen them all by now, amazing!) lyda borelli in 1915! ♥♥♥ a max linder that apparently has zero views on letterboxd (perhaps because it's only just appeared there) in any case max in a decent print!

downsides, no subs. upsides, online & free!

https://twitter.com/silentfilmbonn/stat ... 6813343747

[niminy-piminy]

ha, i bookmarked the dandy doppelprogramm!

https://www.internationale-stummfilmtag ... nkiers-fux
THE KIDNAPPING OF FUX THE BANKER (…) was once considered a milestone, if not a breakthrough, hailed by some as the best Czech film to date. And the stakes were high. With its relatively generous budget, criminal plot, emphasis on architecture and decoration, star cast, “fashion parade” and unprecedented media support, this American-style comedy was anticipated as the saviour of the country’s film industry, then at a point of deepening crisis. It was generally taken for granted that Anton’s film would sell well abroad (which wasn’t the case, despite the warm reception at home), and elevate Czech film to an international standard. In this light it’s no surprise that THE KIDNAPPING really does wear its internationalism on its sleeve. The opening scene sets the atmosphere through a simple but witty sequence of close-ups: a hand having a nail filed, a laughing manicurist, a typist, a barber at work. As the subsequent shot reveals, the person being pampered is not a woman but an elegantly dressed man – banker Fux – introduced in an intertitle as “a prematurely widowed banker and mondain [who] can’t forget his work, his appearance, or flirting...”.

[St. Gloede]

Where does it say no subs?

(Used ctrl + f on both the website and the announcement thread)

[sally]

oh i was just going on the experience of last year, their website was incredibly uninformative tbh i didn't even look for that info this year...also i meant no english subs, there were german subtitles for the non-german intertitles. if there are eng subs this year that'll be a pleasant bonus, but i wasn't holding my breath

[sally]

i lied! flickan i frack has english subtitles!

[sally]

pile of fucking shite. no option to stream in slightly lower quality so i just get endless unwatchable fucking buffering and stuttering. guess i'm not watching any of their fucking films or giving a donation then

[niminy-piminy]

i was probably out of mind (my mind must have been kidnapped) when i bookmarked "The Kidnapping of Fux the Banker" because i see it was streamed on Wed and i set my reminder for this evening. in any case, will try to see that milestone/breakthrough film sometime. (considering the post above, i am not asking if "anyone" has seen it and how it was...)

[sally]

i saw it, though through constant rage & frustration, so my assessment may not be correct, but it was: madcap. bonkers. if this was a czech attempt to be international then it's after the zany mack sennett stuff. it wasn't particularly icky! i laffed a couple of times but chuckles through tears of streaming anger don't stick and i don't think i'll remember it a year from now.

didn't help coming after max, who i don't think i've ever seen in HD, and he looked so old and creepy, although this may also be streaming effect.

everyone raving about zuflucht but to me it was grotesque henny porten ham-vehicle, an unintentional (?) kammerspiel parody only redeemed by francis (franz) lederer's freckles lit up like an adored saint, who knew he could be so fresh faced

best so far is of course lyda borelli acting the shit out of foliage in flower of evil. any italian diva film from the 1910's is my catnip....

[niminy-piminy]

i was sort of suspicious that the notion of "kidnapping of a banker" in the 1920s Czechoslovakia was not even remotely close to the concept of the kidnapping of a banker in 1970s West Germany and Karel Lamac and Anny Ondra were anything but Bader & Meinhof forerunners. but i still want to watch this milestone/breakthrough missed opportunity.

[niminy-piminy]

Karel Lamac and Anny Ondra were anything but Bader & Meinhof forerunners but THE KIDNAPPING OF FUX THE BANKER was still an enchanting film! thus i feel it is my patriotic duty to share my excitement in Res.!!!

it is one of the rare films that doesn't hide the charms of the local men.
hard to decide if more cool is a hairdo with as if forgotten comb, or a mustache as if embracing the nose (worn by the local men of any social background — be it an illicit producer of high-percentage beverages, a cop, or a duke).



no wonder, such alluring gentlemen easily pop up one by one in feminine dreams.




however, local ladies also don't lack charm and can easily trigger the male gaze that exceeds the diopter limits, or drive a man crazy, or make him jump out of the window.





especially, if girls self-style themselves as dirty lolitas (with a tinge of paraphilic infantilism).



btw. i am convinced this film offers the first kung-fu kick scene in the history of Czech cinema!




i am also convinced that bird lovers will delight in Sherlock "Duck" Holmes's cap that makes him look like a creature with a beacon.


etc., etc., etc.
in sum, the acting in this film is absolutely superb!



last but not least, in case the remarkable sculptures in the background (in the scene when the heroine invites her father on semi-incestuous rendezvous) catch/caught your attention...


... then i can tell you those are part of František Palacký Memorial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franti%C5 ... lack%C3%BD
this art-nouveau monument can be still found in Prague and it was extensively featured in a video made by my friend (we were together a few times in cinema) for a local band of the name Skrol (for the song "Lament"). i like this video (this song), i recalled it while noticing Palacký Memorial in the film and thus i am urged to make it part of this review.

https://youtu.be/hoa6hcXAGbo

Palacký Memorial was made by a sculptor Stanislav Sucharda (1866-1916) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Sucharda (Palacký Monument mentioned in this wiki entry). in November 2019, i attended an exhibition of Stanislav Sucharda, and there were two artworks that became subjects of my snaphosts.

first, a private memorial (of doomed love) that was commissioned by a girl whose lover died in WW1. part of her commission was (allegedly) demand for these hyper-naturalistic eyes (with a hypnotic gaze). not sure, if it is obvious from the snapshot but these eyes inserted in these statues give the memorial pleasingly odd vibes of deep/sick love/infatuation.


second, a relief from 1898 called "Wage/Vampire" depicting "a monster of capitalism sucking last droplets of blood from the body of a dying worker".
once again, it is from 1898!
so, no product of the post-WW2 commie socialist realism (in 1898 this country was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled by the family of feudal entrepreneurs from House of Habsburg Ltd.).


not to end this review by speaking about something completely unrelated, i would also like to point out that many recent re-releases of the local silent films are accompanied by contemporary soundtracks (and i noticed it was occasionally criticized by some cinephiles).
THE KIDNAPPING OF FUX THE BANKER also comes with newly made tunes and, in my opinion, this new soundtrack fits the film well and i liked it no less than the film.

so, all who appreciate in their lives the beauty, idleness, and desire will certainly appreciate this film too.
and once starting to watch this film anything can halt your entertainment.

[sally]

i am familiar with this monument! 1:26:48 quite a thing to see in 1911...

https://youtu.be/YT8soh0a8o4?t=5208

[niminy-piminy]

i am familiar

oh, i still didn't watch this Kříženecký set but i never put it aside from my watchlist.
i guess, you should come to visit plagueless Prague (sooner or later), Sally!
i accumulated on this forum already enough material to prepare a local "silent films topos tour".

[niminy-piminy]

additional side note:
self-styled (Gothic) Lolita reading Decameron in THE KIDNAPPING OF FUX THE BANKER is BETTY IN BLUNDERLAND

[sally]

i guess, you should come to visit plagueless Prague (sooner or later), Sally!

lol, i haven't been more than 10 miles from my front door since march 2020. & why on earth would i want to go to prague when you delight us all with pictures on here? (what difference would actually being there make? apart from being bewildered, lost and despairing at my language-dead tongue) and then what's the point of a photograph when you can just describe it? and what's the point of a description when you can just say 'there's something'? and then what's the point of that when i can just crawl under the duvet and go back to sleep again?

[niminy-piminy]

you mentioned in the past going to paris after the plague will be over. and your familiarity with františek palacký monument somehow made me think prague would be a more suitable place to make a post-plague detour. but i admit it is hard to argue against apathy. i am stoic myself. i also believe in the principle of the least effort. and thus trying to convince the fellow stoic into some pointless action would certainly sound highly hypocritical.

[Lencho of the Apes]

This year's edition of the festival has some potential whoppers.

https://www.internationale-stummfilmtage.de/en/home-en

[sally]

i'm so disgusted....i unfollowed most of silent film twitter cuz it was either just creepy perving on dead american women (much more interested in dead men) or people eulogising live screenings that are irrelevant if you don't live in london. so missed the announcement for this! (also i suspect that twitter is fucked and doesn't seem to show me things from people i'm still actually following)

anyway, watched:

congratulations on your promotion - yevheniia (ivha) hryhorovych (1932)

plus points: rare female ukrainian director, lyrical outside shots
the buts: it's about kids so meh

[sally]

the last night - a w sandberg (1928)

yo, a subtitled, restored gösta ekman at the peak of his cuteness

(was meaning to watch this for ages in a double-bill with the 1915 blom version (valdemar psilander at the peak of his hotness) but then subbed the subtitled one in first so now i have a vague clue what valdemar is up to)


SIGH, that mouth

[sally]

castle of wind and clouds - toko yamazaki (1928)

female director??? can't find any info at all....anyway nice to see a japanese silent for once, and nice fight scenes

[sally]

lullaby - max mack (1916)

always enjoy the communal experience of these streamed silents, if only because i then get to chase cineanalyst's idiotic reviews on letterboxd (chooses to watch hundreds of silent films and then complains about the melodramatic acting? that's what i come for! how you don't come to appreciate it after so long, baffling, obtuse)

but finally a 1910s film....i wonder why i do enjoy these more than the 20s tho....

anyway, after 'twice lived' i get a bit nervous when mack puts his heroines near water

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Yes, I'm the same way. Prefer the '10s to the '20s. The '10s tend to feel more oneiric, more experimental, more of a sense of discovery. By the '20s, things are settling in to established classical film style, established genres (including genres of the avant-garde), etc.

[sally]

ah, that's a generous explanation. i just assumed for me that i was some old british aversion to intimacy and that medium shot is quite close enough thank you

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Also quite true! I much prefer the medium shot aesthetic. Like group paintings. That way, I can see what's going on always...

[greennui]

I watched Italia: Fire and Ashes, some neat restored footage of the divas and some Piero Marelli representation but overall it didn't really give me that much. Maybe they didn't want to clutter up the screen too much but I would have liked to have known from which film every shot was from with some text in the corner or whatever.

[sally]

was gonna watch that, but watched the trailer and it felt like watching porn....all the juicy clips....and somehow i then wanted to watch it less....or watch the actual films themselves...which is odd cuz i usually go gaga over compilation films

think i might have a little film fatigue again....