Funny Flicks - Silent Movies With Live Organ Accompaniment

Tickets available from 'The Good Life', 196 The Strand, Whakatane or by phone/text 027 310 0661, or at the door.

The Programme:
First half about 75 minutes:
"The General” 1926 (starring Buster Keaton)

Second half about 30 minutes:
“The Consequences of Feminism” 1906 (directed by Alice Guy)
“One Week” 1920 (starring Buster Keaton)

Total with interval about 2 hours.
The films are silent and in black and white. They will be enhanced by partially improvised live music played on the organ by Chris Hainsworth, who has been internationally recognised for his film accompaniment.

The Accompanist
New Zealander Chris is the titular organist of the Cathedral of Béziers, France, where he has lived for over 20 years. He frequently tours New Zealand and with original and entertaining programmes and has frequently performed in Whakatane: ‘A Rare Treat’ (2006) ‘Bach to Bacchus’ (2008), ‘Organ in the Park’ (2010), ‘The Te Kooti Trail’ silent movie (2011), ‘Pipes & Chips’ with Maurice Reid (trumpet) (2013) and ‘Goat & Boat’ silent movies and interludes with Andrei Freidine (clarinet) (2016).

In 2018 he accompanied Buster Keaton silent movies on the Wurlitzer at Baycourt, Tauranga. Chris’ events in Whakatane are always well received by sizeable audiences.

The Films
‘The General’
‘The General’ is a 1926 American silent comedy film released by United Artists. It was inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase, a true story of an event that occurred during the American Civil War. The film stars Buster Keaton who co-directed it with Clyde Bruckman.

At the time of its initial release, The General, an action-adventure-comedy made toward the end of the silent era, was not well received by critics and audiences, resulting in mediocre box office returns. The General has since been re-evaluated and is now often ranked among the greatest American films ever made.

The plot centres around Western & Atlantic Railroad train engineer Johnnie Gray and the two loves of his life, his fiancée Annabelle Lee and his locomotive, The General. When the American Civil War breaks out Johnnie is rejected for the Confederate Army and through misunderstanding is thought to be a coward by Annabelle and her family.

A year Johnnie is involved in a series of exciting escapades, including a furious locomotive chase between him and Union agents, which in the end prove to Annabelle that he is no coward.

‘The Consequences of Feminism’
‘The Consequences of Feminism’ is a 1906 French silent comedy film directed by Alice Guy. It was remade in 1912 as ‘In the Year 2000’.

The film is set in a society where the roles of men and women have been reversed. Slightly effeminate men sew, iron and take care of the children, while macho women drink and read newspapers in cafés, and court men.

‘One Week’
‘One Week’ is a 1920 American two-reel silent comedy film starring Buster Keaton, the first film to be released made by Keaton on his own. The film was written and directed by Keaton and Edward F. Cline.

The story involves two newlyweds, played by Buster Keaton and Sybil Seely, who receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift. The house can be built, supposedly, in "one week". A rejected suitor secretly re-numbers packing crates. The movie recounts Keaton's struggle to assemble the house according to this new "arrangement". Anyone who has tried to put together flat-pack furniture will get the idea.