Horror-ble!: The Hands of Orlac

This is a silent 1924 horror film directed by Robert Wiene.  Orlac (Conrad Veidt), a famous pianist, is maimed in a tragic train accident. At the same time, the convicted murderer Vasseur is to be executed. When Orlac's hands cannot be saved, despite the pleading of his anguished wife (Alexandra Sorina), the doctor replaces them with Vasseur's hands, unbeknownst at first to everyone.

When Orlac finds out the source of his hands, he is of course plagued by this and even afraid to touch his wife now with those murderous hands. Some new crimes are committed where Vassuer's fingerprints are found, but that seems impossible because Orlac now owns those hands. But Orlac sleepwalks, and since the hands have a mind of their own, he is fearful that he is the culprit.

Meanwhile there is a mysterious man plotting against Orlac. He blackmails Orlac for money in order to keep quiet about the hands and Orlac's suspected commission of the new crimes. His identity is revealed, then revealed again, and we question just how much Orlac was guided by the hands.

Meet: David Robinson

Meet David Robinson, a film critic and director of a niche film festival, the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy.   You should visit the website and read the history about how this festival was formed, it is deserving to be made into a movie itself!

Mr. Robinson appeared at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2011 and I was captivated by the selections of early silent short films he brought with him.  Some links to videos he brought with him are below. 

Cochon Danseur
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2tP9s8y2Ic

Acrobates Japonais (Les Kiri-Kis Acrobates)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6BtCxtni9Y

Those Awful Hats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Those_Awful_Hats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORwC7gNyUaY

Chess Fever
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_Fever
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3727820471573567512


You can see that many of these early films had a lot of humor and art, even if it was a new medium then.  I was pleased see he is returning for the 2012 fest and have put his program on my "must-see" calendar.

The Artist

This French film played at the Chicago International Film Festival this year as its Closing Night film.  It stars Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, as silent film stars in Hollywood.  The story is a little bit A Star is Born, a little bit Singin' In the Rain.  Dujardin, as popular star george Valentin (no doubt a play on Rudolf Valentino) has enjoyed a successful career as a leading man in silent films.  It is now the mid-1920s.  Bejo is pretty young thing Peppy Miller, hoping to make it big in Hollywood, and they have a "meet-cute" at a premiere.  Valentin, despite being married, is taken with her.  As her star rises, his falls, due to two key events of that time.