One of the greatest films of the silent era will be featured Wednesday night at the Cleveland Cinematheque to mark the inaugural 鈥�.鈥� And the film has an Ohio connection.
The 1928 film "The Wind" stars Lillian Gish, one of the most famous actresses of the silent era, who was born in Springfield. Cinematheque Director John Ewing says 鈥溾�� is an excellent introduction to silent film, which he calls cinema in its purest form.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just dialogue driven as so many movies are. You really have to focus on the visuals," Ewing said. "When a great director puts together an amazing sequence鈥攁nd you'll see some really glorious sequences in 鈥楾he Wind鈥欌�攈e鈥檚 doing something that you really can't put into words. You couldn't write it. You couldn't translate it into a novel. You couldn't do it in the theater. It's cinema. The closest equivalent, to me, is just like listening to music. So, it's like visual music if you will.鈥�
Ewing adds that 鈥淭he Wind鈥� will be projected from a 35mm film print featuring a music track created shortly after the silent era. Silent Movie Day was established earlier this year by a group of nationally renowned film preservationists.
"My whole feeling about silent films is that it's kind of a blank slate. I don't feel that the musical accompaniment needs to [always] be appropriate to the era," Ewing said.
鈥淵ou know, with 80 percent of silent films already lost, they're always advocating for funding to keep preserving other silent films that are still around. And also, just getting theaters to show them.鈥�
Director Victor Seastrom (also spelled Sj枚str枚m) may be best-known to modern audiences for his role in Ingmar Bergman鈥檚 1957 classic "Wild Strawberries."
In a , Martin Scorsese even lauded "The Wind."
