Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival: Two by Buster Keaton!

Presented as part of the 2024 Silent Film Festival. This special screening includes two classics directed by and starring Buster Keaton, and both with live accompaniment!

First up is SHERLOCK JR (1924) with a live piano score by Tom Roberts: Keaton’s classic about a lovestruck projectionist who falls asleep during a show and dreams he has entered the film as a detective is a delightful and ingenious comedy. Sherlock Jr. is a high point of silent cinema, featuring one of Keaton’s cleverest conceits, and doubling as a reflection on cinema itself. About Tom Roberts: Tom Roberts is one of the leading scholars of early jazz piano in the world today (as stated by Ricardo Sciavales in The Heart and Soul of Stride, Blues, and Swing Piano). He has performed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Statler Brothers Show on TNN, and A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Tom was pianist for Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks in New York City and pianist and musical director for Leon Redbone for six years. Tom has recorded over 40 compact discs and has performed throughout the United States and Europe.

And then our second film, THE NAVIGATOR (1924), with a live score by The Pittsburgh Film Orchestra: In this revered silent comedy, the wealthy and impulsive Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton) decides to propose to his beautiful socialite neighbor, Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire). Alhough Betsy turns Rollo down, he still opts to go on the cruise that he intended as their honeymoon. When circumstances find both Rollo and Betsy on the wrong ship, they end up having adventures on the high seas, allowing Keaton plenty of opportunities to display his trademark agility. About the Pittsburgh Film Orchestra: The Pittsburgh Film Orchestra began life in 2007 as the Ivy Leaf Orchestra, an ensemble formed to provide live musical accompaniment for silent films. Our first performance was for the 1917 Douglas Fairbanks feature, A Modern Musketeer. Since then the Pittsburgh Film Orchestra has provided music for a wide variety of classic comedies and dramatic films. The ensemble utilizes music published between 1885 and 1930, including hundreds of compositions specifically written for theatre orchestras and movie accompaniment. We call ourselves an orchestra even though by modern standards we’re really a chamber ensemble because that was the tradition in the silent era; as long as you had at least two instrumentalists, you had an orchestra! The PFO is a flexible ensemble (ranging from 2 to 22 players), and the ensemble emulates the best aspects of film accompaniment from the silent era to provide an emotionally and aesthetically satisfying viewing experience.

Directed by Buster Keaton

Rated NR