PARAMUS, N.J. – Bergen Community College will continue its “Cinema Ciccone” silent film series featuring “Docks of New York” Tuesday, Feb. 11, “A Santa Notte” Thursday, Feb. 13 and “The Adventurer” Thursday, Feb. 20. The films will begin at 7 p.m. in the Anna Maria Ciccone Theatre (400 Paramus Road) at the College’s main campus and feature live musical accompaniment by silent film performers, while the Feb. 20 will include an opening act comedy performance by “Uncle” Floyd Vivino.
Among the world’s foremost silent film musicians, Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton will perform their unique blend of keyboards, vocals and percussion for “The Docks of New York.” Meanwhile, Academy Award-nominated film score composer John La Barbera and Susan Aquila, an electric violin virtuoso, will perform live musical accompaniment for “A Santa Notte” and “The Adventurer.
Ticket prices for the general public are $15, with discounts offered to senior citizens/Bergen faculty and staff ($10) and students ($5). Guests can purchase tickets for all three films for $30. For additional information, please call (201) 447-7428 or visit tickets.bergen.edu.
Each silent film brings its own unique plot to the series:
- Tuesday, Feb. 11: “Docks of New York” – Roughneck Bill Roberts (George Bancroft) falls hard for Mae (Betty Compson), a wise and weary dance-hall girl, in Josef von Sternberg’s evocative portrait of working-class waterfront folk. Fog-enshrouded cinematography by Harold Rosson (The Wizard of Oz), expressionist set design by Hans Dreier (Sunset Boulevard), and performances by Bancroft and Compson make this one of the legendary director’s finest works, and one of the most exquisitely crafted films of the era.
- Thursday, Feb. 13: “A Santa Notte” – Based on a popular Neapolitan song, ‘A santanotte’is one of the few films directed by Elvira Notari, Italy’s earliest and most prolific female filmmaker at Dora Film. The print of the film that will be screened is made from two separate elements, a black-and-white duplicate preserved at Cineteca Nazionale and a nitrate print indicating the color processes used, found in the archives of George Eastman House.
- Thursday, Feb. 20: “The Adventurer” – An American short comedy film made in 1917 written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin plays an escaped convict on the run from prison guards. He falls into favor with a wealthy family after he saves a young lady (Edna Purviance) from drowning, but her suitor (Eric Campbell) does everything he can to have Chaplain apprehended by the officials. “The Adventurer” is the last of the 12 films made under contract for the Mutual Film Corporation.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
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