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Cinecon 53

I'm still trying to process all that transpired at Cinecon 53's opening gala last August 31st!!! With temperatures here in Los Angeles above one hundred degrees everyday this week, I was worried that the outdoor festivities would sour. But I needn't have worried. Cinecon is a class act. Cinecon isn't just movie showing, it's an event.

The gala didn't start until 5, but I showed up early to collect my badge and partake of the dealers rooms in the Loews Hollywood Hotel. It was the best decision I ever made. Now I don't really go in for all the movie posters, lobby cards, postcards, cigarette cards and the like, but I made a discovery this year. A guy named Marty who transfers film to DVD. I don't know how he does it without getting into copyright trouble, but all I've gotta say is bless him! And at 3-6 dollars a disc, it's affordable too. There were people there with stacks of DVDs to purchase. The DVDs are in plastic sleeves with typed labels on the front and you've gotta search thru boxes and boxes of DVDs to find stuff you're interested in. This one guy had a gigantic stack of DVDs and he was worried that he did not have enough time left to watch all his finds! But I defy any movie buff to walk away from that booth not broke! I found so many discs I ran out of money and had to put some back. And what did I walk away with? Buster Keaton (of course) and Max Linder.

After parting with all my money I headed over to the gala in The Egyptian Theatre courtyard. Luckily by then the temperature was manageable. And when I walked into the courtyard? There wasn't a line! The knowledgeable volunteers greeted us and asked us if we wanted a drink. Now that's living. There were cocktails and a buffet dinner. Awesome. The courtyard's in the shade and there was a nice breeze. I chatted with a nice mother and daughter from the Valley attending their first Cinecon and they were dressed up to boot. I met another couple with an actress wife with whom I discussed the TCM festival and it's insistence on exorbitant prices and cattle-call crowd tactics. Cinecon is the sane, dedicated bargain for all movie buffs. Food, wine, conversation - what more could any fan ask for? Movies! They were now about to start.

Cinecon, class act that it is, doesn't just show you the flick. There is a lot of fanfare. But extremely interesting fanfare. Cinecon 53 presented the actor/director/producer/writer Norman Lloyd with the Cinecon Legacy Award. Norman is 102 and happened to work with Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin in Limelight. How appropriate to have an actor that worked with Keaton give us a story with Keaton before the screening of Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)! Lloyd came up and talked about the end scene with Buster, Charlie, Nigel Bruce, Sydney Chaplin and himself as Charlie lies dying and the camera is pulling away. Norman said that during the filming of that scene, Buster was telling Charlie in a low whisper under his breath without his lips moving what the camera was doing and how long it was going to take and to just hold his pose and it would be just a few more seconds. Lloyd said he was a witness to Buster Keaton directing Charlie Chaplin! (Here's Lloyd talking about it in 2012 - at the 2:22 mark (below)). Now came the screening we'd been waiting for: Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr.! We were told the screening was dedicated to the memory of film preservationist David Shepard who passed away in January. This stellar film restoration couldn't have been seen without David's help. (Thank you David!) To add to the glory of the visual, a special new score was to be presented by a full orchestra. It was explained that the score was period and as complied and adapted from over 1000 pieces of music from the original cues from the silent era. Oh boy!!! The compilation/adaption as done by Scott Lasky and was being performed by his Famous Players Orchestra under his direction. Now I had attended TCM's premiere of Steamboat Bill Jr. with Carl Davis' new score last March 2016. I wasn't too keen on his music. But now the theater was darkening and the movie was starting...

Oh the titles were crisp and the opening expanse of the river was beautiful. The music was oh so soft and beautiful too. Nothing tinny like the canned music on many DVDs, and nothing like Davis' kinda overblown orchestration. This music fit. It didn't overpower the film, yet it matched the film's beauty and subtly. I think I've been ruined for any other type of silent music accompaniment. But lo, there is Buster on the screen! From now on all I can do is look at his FACE. Help. You can tell he is having so much fun with with this flick and is a master of his craft. Those eyes of his. I'm sunk. The Famous Players Orchestra did such a beautiful job. When Buster is doing his little pantomime in the jailhouse, the music they chose FIT the pantomime. I love these people. It ADDED to what Buster was doing on the screen. I've never experienced anything like this to this level before. Cliff Retallick is my favorite solo accompanist here on the West Coast, but for my money, the Famous Players Orchestra is it. Everyone clapped when Buster's name was on the screen, when he pulled his porkpie off his head and when the house fell around him. He's still so awesome.

The flick went by in a flash and then it was time to go. But no, Cinecon never ends with just one flick. There were 2 more tonight! Should I stay? Was it worth the extra hour and a half? I've never been disappointed with Cinecon's choice of films so I decided to stay. So glad I did. The next presentation was Now I'll Tell (1934) with Spencer Tracy, Helen Twelvetrees and Alice Faye. Wow what a surprise. The flick was about the life of Arnold Rothstein (you know, the guy who orchestrated the Black Sox Scandal of 1919) and the screenplay was loosely based on his wife Carolyn Rothstein's book about him. So yes it was a gangster flick, but without he overt violence and histrionics of the period. The whole cast worked beautifully together, with Spencer Tracy the youngest I'd ever seen him, and Alice Faye a spectacular knock out visually (her Jean Harlow period) and vocally by singing "Foolin' With the Other Woman's Man". UCLA Film and Television archive's director explained before that the film that the current screening was reconstructed from nitrate prints and nitrate negatives. This flick certainly deserved it and what a sparkling clear print it was. It felt like the movie was released yesterday.

So ended my whirlwind day with Cinecon 53. I certainly hope to be able to join the full 5 days of screenings in the future!