Sunday, January 12, 2014

Letter From An Unknown Woman (1948)

WHO: Joan Fontaine, who died last month at the age of 96, stars in this.

WHAT: An exquisite masterpiece. Read Farran Nehme (a.k.a. the the Self-Styled Siren)'s wonderful article on it.

WHERE/WHEN: Today at the Stanford Theatre at 3:45 and 7:30.

WHY: Bless the Stanford for its flexibility; it was able to put together a four-film program of Fontaine films as a quick fill-in between the end of its last Preston Sturges/Marx Brothers program, and it's next program, and this is the final day to see her incredible face in close-up on their big screen.

The next Stanford series begins Friday, and is devoted to Frank Capra. For about seven weeks the theatre will run multiple-night stands of all of Capra's 1930s and 1940s features except for four (Rain Or ShineBroadway Bill, and the recently-screened Lady For A Day and It's a Wonderful Life are the only no-shows from this period). The venue will also spend two nights apiece showing his top-notch Why We Fight documentaries from his World War II service (February 12-13) and his Bell Telephone Science films including Hemo the Magnificent and more (February 19-20). Best of all, the venue will hold six screenings of two of Capra's silent films, with live musical accompaniment by Dennis James on Wurlitzer organ. Both That Certain Thing (January 24-26) and The Power of the Press (January 29-30) are very rarely revived, and were not part of the last, silent-heavy, Capra retrospective at the Pacific Film Archive in 2010.

Dennis James will be returning to the South Bay March 14th to accompany Robert Wiene's The Hands of Orlac at the California Theatre in San Jose, as part of the Cinequest Film Festival.

HOW: Letter From An Unknown Woman screens on a double-bill with Fontaine's own favorite role in The Constant Nymph, both in 35mm.

1 comment:

  1. Both prints were beautiful, great double feature!

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