PRESENTING
Chicago’s Music Box Hosts Alfred Hitchcock’s Restored Silent Films
THE NAME ALFRED HITCHCOCK IS SYNONYMOUS WITH STYLIZED THRILLERS that captivated audiences with stunning cinematography and tight storylines. But even the auteur was once a neophyte, and now’s your chance to see the famous director’s earliest films at Chicago’s Music Box theater.
The Lakeview landmark is screening the “Hitchcock 9”- touted as “nine tales of murder, lust, blackmail, romance, obsession and suspense.” These silent treasures have been restored in the “biggest and most complex restoration project undertaken by the BFI National Archive to date,” according to the theater’s website.
Hitchcock, who once who commented that “silent pictures were the purest form of cinema,” contended that every film student should “learn how to make silent films because there is no better form of training.”
“For him, it was the visual aspect of filmmaking—framing, montage and camera movement—that mattered most,” writes Joel Gunz at Alfred Hitchcock Geek. “And to hear him describe it, these techniques could only be mastered in an environment in which audible dialogue was not an option
The Hitchcock 9 comprises The Pleasure Garden (1925); The Lodger (1927); The Ring (1927); Downhill (1927); The Farmer’s Wife (1928); Easy Virtue (1928); Champagne (1928); The Manxman (1929) and Blackmail (1929).
Two of the films- The Lodger (The collection’s ”crown jewel” ) and The Ring (an exploration of “rings as metaphors” ) will be accompanied by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. The 5-piece chamber ensemble’s accompaniments have been hailed by the New York Times as “often breathtakingly beautiful and always in the strict service of the film.”
The theater’s house organist Dennis Scott, “dubbed the “Master of Magic Notes” by Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of the comic genius Harold Lloyd,” will accompany the remaining titles.
The festival opened Friday night with a screening of Blackmail, but the remaining films are scheduled now through Tuesday, Aug. 13th. Check out the rest of the film schedule here. Tickets are $10-$12 for adults; $8-$10 for students.
