PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Jay Weissberg, director of the 36th Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto).

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

Director of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto), joined us for a chat about the 36th edition, as it approached its conclusion. It was, indeed, another stellar edition of the most important silent film festival in the world. It included all types of films from the first thirty years of silent cinema, in a celebration not only of silent film, but also of film preservation. Weissberg provides us with a detailed overview of this year’s program, sharing with us, as he does, his knowledge and passion for silent film and cinema in general. He begins by talking about the Giornate’s opening film, The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928), and the closing film, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927), both accompanied by live orchestral scores composed by Carl Davis. (Both films, he tells us, are also incredibly still unavailable on DVD.) He also tells us about the program on Soviet Travelogues, the reason why actress Louise Brooks was chosen as the cover girl for this year’s Giornate catalog, the festival’s tribute to the great silent era actress Pola Negri, the screening of titles from the golden age of Scandinavian cinema, and a lot more.

For the Festival website, click here.