The University Record, November 6, 1995
Silent film series features The Sea Beast
By Bernie DeGroat
News and Information Services
The Program in Film and Video Studies will launch its silent film series with a showing of the movie classic The Sea Beast at 7 p.m. Friday (Nov. 10) at the Michigan Theater.
Based on Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, the film includes an improvised organ score played live by the Michigan Theater’s pipe organist, Paul Lauter.
The Sea Beast was directed by Willard Webb and stars John Barrymore as Ahab Creely. It will be presented in association with the Museum of Art exhibition “Unpainted to the Last: Moby Dick and American Art, 1930-1990.”
Other films in the series include: Greed, 7 p.m. Jan. 5; Metropolis, 7 p.m. Feb. 14; Ben Hur, 7 p.m. March 23; and The Merry Widow, 3 p.m. April 28.
“The series offers some of the most visually exciting films produced during the 1920s, an era in which the film industry, both in America and abroad, demonstrated a sophisticated approach to cinematography, costuming, set design and lighting,” says Gaylyn Studlar, director of the Program in Film and Video Studies.
“All of the films in the series show why the silent-film era was often regarded by many film makers who went on to make `talkies’ as the movies’ most interesting era, when the art of the moving picture achieved a state of primal perfection.”
Tickets for The Sea Beast are $6 (regular admission,) $5 (students) and $4 (Michigan Theater members,) and are available at the door. To purchase tickets for the entire silent film series, call 668-8463. For more information, call the Program in Film and Video Studies, 764-0147.
