The
Globe and Mail writes on the
4th annual Toronto Silent Film Festival, running this year from March 29 to April 3. Launched by Torontonian Shirley Hughes in 2009, the festival draws film buffs from across the city with its diverse selection of classic films and contemporary films.
"When Shirley Hughes launched the Toronto Silent Film Festival in 2009, she never thought that a modern-day silent film like The Artist could claim the Best Picture Oscar, sparking a revival of interest in early cinema."
"The festival, which gets under way March 29, has long placed importance on connecting the past to the present. The opening night film, Our Dancing Daughters (1928), starring a young Joan Crawford, draws many parallels to the Oscar-winning film. 'It's a great example of a jazz-age film,' said Ms. Hughes, claiming that Ms. Crawford greatly influenced Bérénice Bejo's portrayal of Peppy Miller in the award-winning film."
"But The Artist, about the downfall of a silent actor at the onset of the talkie era, would have you believe that silent film production ceased entirely after 1928. 'The medium lived on,' said Ms. Hughes. “One of the films we're showing, F.W. Murnau's Tabu, was made in 1931. Chaplin released Modern Times in 1936. Some of Jacques Tati's films, even the opening sequences in Pixar films like Wall-E and Up, are practically silent. It never really went away.'"
original source Globe & Mail