Film installation with live musical performances.
An ode to the origins of cinema. The evening begins on a lighter note as we unveil a series of rarely seen, pre-Code silent comedies from the dawn of American cinema built around the theme of "Strange Love," featuring single-reel shorts from the Edison Co., director Leo McCarey, and performers like Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Bill Morrison's mesmerizing visual poetry, composed of ghostly figures excavated from decaying nitrate material, transitions us into the darker, more mysterious side of early film alchemy, as we explore our European cinematic forebears' fascination with fantasy and fear in works by early cinema pioneer George Méliès (in brilliant colour restoration), Segundo de Chomón and Gaston Velle. "Strange Lives" takes the programme from the tantalizing, serpentine dances of Loie Fuller to the rarely seen two-reel carnival horror film The Unknown by Tod Browning, starring Joan Crawford and the legendary Lon Chaney.
Each of the films is accompanied by one of four highly talented Toronto musicians, who will perform an improvised live score.
Curated by the TIFF programming team of Aliza Ma and Shane Smith, and featuring (in order of appearance): Laura Silberberg (piano), Fern Lindzon (piano and harmonium), William O'Meara (piano), and Mitch Akiyama (live mixed soundtrack).
STRANGE LOVE
7:00-10:00pm and 1:00am-4:00am
Jack and the Beanstalk
dir. Edwin S. Porter (Edison)
1902, 10 min.
The Cook
dir. Roscoe Arbuckle
1918, 22 min.
Reckless Romeo
dir. Roscoe Arbuckle
1917, 23 min.
Number, Please?
dir. Hal Roach
1920, 20 min.
Innocent Husbands
dir. Leo McCarey
1925, 20 min.
Bad Boy
dir. Leo McCarey
1925, 19 min.
Alice in Wonderland
dir. Cecil Hepworth
1903, 9.5 min.
How Bridget's Lover Escaped
dir. George Méliès
1907, 8 min.
The Bachelor's Paradise
dir. George Méliès
1901, 2 min.
Danse du papillon
dir. Alice Guy-Blaché
1900, 1 min.
Cinderella
dir. George Méliès
1899, 5.5 min.
The Brahmin and the Butterfly
dir. George Méliès
1901, 2 min.
Les Kiriki, acrobates Japonais
dir. Segundo de Chomón
1907, 3 min.
La Grenouille
dir. Segundo de Chomón
1901, 3 min.
A Butterfly's Changes (La Métamorphose du papillon)
dir. Gaston Velle
1904, 5 min.
Voyage sur Jupiter
dir. Segundo de Chomón
1907, 8.5 min
Light is Calling
dir. Bill Morrison
2004, 8 min.
STRANGE LIVES
10:00pm-1:00am and 4:00am-7:00am
The Pearl Fisher (Le Pêcheur de perles)
dir. Ferdinand Zecca
1907, 9 min.
The Hallucinations of Baron Munchausen
dir. George Méliès
1907, 11 min.
Le Papillon fantastique
dir. George Méliès
1909, 2 min.
Les Roses magnique
dir. Segundo de Chomón
1906, 3 min.
Tentation de Saint-Antoine
dir. George Méliès
1898, 2 min.
Long-Distance Wireless Photography
dir. George Méliès
1908, 6 min.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
dir. George Méliès
1907, 10 min.
The Magician's Cavern
dir. George Méliès
1901, 2 min.
Bluebeard
dir. George Méliès
1902, 11 min.
Le Spectre rouge
dir. Segundo de Chomón
1907, 9.5 min.
La peine du Talion
dir. Gaston Velle
1906, 4 min.
The Haunted House
dir. Segundo de Chomón
1908, 6 min.
Les 400 farces du Diable
dir. George Méliès
1906, 4 min.
The Devil and the Statue
dir. George Méliès
1901, 2 min.
La Danse du feu
dir. George Méliès
1899, 1 min.
The Devil in a Convent
dir. George Méliès
1899, 3 min.
The Devil's Castle
dir. George Méliès
1896, 3 min.
The Unknown
dir. Tod Browning
1927, 49 min.
Habeas Corpus
dir. Leo McCarey
1928, 20 min.
Light is Calling
dir. Bill Morrison
2004, 8 min.