Silence is Golden
A double-feature silent movie with live music accompaniment filled the house at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre yesterday. I hadn't heard much about the star of the films, Douglas Fairbanks, except that he was the first ever "action star" of the movies.
Seeing a silent film in a theater with a full house and live music is really a unique experience, and a wonderful one. Jeff Rapsis, who works for the Manchester Hippo, comes up with the music off of the top of his head with minimal preparation, and yesterday he played for about two-and-a-half hours. The music enhances the show by adding suspense, comedy, drama, any emotion you can think of. Seeing him in action, I would mourn the loss of such theater musicians, except we have one in our midst.
Rapsis accompanies different silent films each month on the last Sunday of the month. However, there will be a special screening on Valentines Day instead of the final Sunday in February. "The Sheik" staring Rudolph Valentino will be shown. I don't know what that is, but there were many swoons in the audience when Rapsis announced it. Valentino started the craze of Latin lovers, Rapsis said.
