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Twelve films from nine countries, including an Academy Award winner and two short comedies by one of Japan’s finest filmmakers, will be screened for free at the Ninth International Silent Film Festival in Manila, to be held at Shangri-La Plaza’s Shang Cineplex in Mandaluyong City from August 27 to 30.
At a recent press conference, Lisbeth Strohmeier, cultural attaché of the Austrian Embassy in Manila, said the festival—dubbed by its organizers as the “only one of its kind in Asia”—would “transport spectators back to the beginning of the 20th century, when movies were required to convey strong expressions beyond the limitations of speech.”
One film in the festival is Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (United States, 1927; August 30, 7:30 p.m.), by German director F.W. Murnau, best known for his classic vampire movie Nosferatu. It’s about a young farmer who, at the behest of the seductive city girl he falls for, attempts to drown his horrified wife, who then flees to the city. The regretful farmer then pursues her there, and their love is renewed in the process.
Praised by critics as one of the best films of the silent era, Sunrise won the Unique and Artistic Production prize at the first Oscar ceremony in 1928, as well as helped star Janet Gaynor win the best actress award. In addition, the film has been included in the National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress.
Also included in the festival are four Japanese short comedies (August 28, 7:30 p.m.): Kokushi Muso (Peerless Patriot, 1932), Ishikawa Goemon No Hoji (A Buddhist Mass for Goemon Ishikawa, 1930), Wasei Kenka Tomodachi (Fighting Friends, Japanese Style, 1929) and Tokkan Kozo (A Straightforward Boy, 1929).
The latter two—the first, about two friends who love a homeless girl, who loves another man; the second, about a man unable to control the sweets-loving boy he has kidnapped—were helmed by Tokyo Story filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, whom Shuji Takatori, director of the Japan Foundation in Manila, described as “the most Japanese of all directors, because of his unique style of minimalism.” Takatori noted that these “two comedies are (among Ozu’s) early films, inspired by an American comedy that he liked very much.”
The Philippines is represented by Brides of Sulu (1934; August 28, 5 p.m.), a Philippine-American co-production directed by John Nelson that was previously shown a few years ago. It tells the story of a Muslim princess and her pagan pearl diver-lover who defy moral and religious laws when he helps her escape her arranged marriage to another man. This prompts her father to send men (played by real Muslim tribesmen) to pursue the lovers.
Joaquin Anton P. Cu-Unjieng, project development officer of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, said Brides of Sulu is “quite an archetypal love story, and sees the lengths (people) would go to be with the one they believe they love and are destined to be with.”
Joining the festival for the first time are Austria, which is offering Orlacs Hände (The Hands of Orlacs, 1924; August 27, 8 p.m.), about a renowned pianist who loses his hands in a train accident and finds that the hands transplanted on him have, as Strohmeier said, “a will of their own”; and Thailand, which is presenting The Overture (2004; August 29, 1 p.m.), about Laung Pradith Phairao, a 1940s palace musician known for his mastery of the Thai traditional wooden xylophone, called ranad-ek.
Completing the line-up are Germany’s Berlin die Sinfonie der Großstadt (Berlin, Symphony of a Great City, 1927; August 29, 5 p.m.); Spain’s Don Juan Tenorio (1922; August 29, 7:30 p.m.), which, Instituto Cervantes de Manila director Carlos Madrid noted, was first shown in Manila’s now-gone Cine Lux in 1924; France’s Paris Qui Dort (The Crazy Ray, 1924; August 30, 3 p.m.); and Italy’s Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompei (The Last Days of Pompeii, 1924; August 30, 5 p.m.).
Enhancing the screening of these movies are some of the country’s top bands that will play live music for their assigned films. These include The Dawn (Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompei); Razorback (Sunrise), whose music for the film was described by band manager and festival musical curator Patrick Pulumbarit as going to be “loud” and “electric”; Kjwan (Brides of Sulu); and The Executives (Orlacs Hände), a group of mostly amateur musicians that was founded by the late Sen. Raul Manglapus in 1957. Alvin I. Dacanay
For more information, visit the Ninth International Silent Film Festival in Manila Facebook page.