Even though the vintage reels shown of Russian prima ballerina Anna PAVLOVA spooled three weeks ago in Pordenone, the aura of the dancer, her interminable legs, her precision on tip-toe and her incredible grace and femininity tinged with mystery, linger in the minds of all festival-goers who viewed them. According to the Giornate Diector David Robinson, in 1924 Pavlova (1881-1931) visited the Fairbanks studios, where The Thief of Bagdad was in productio...

THE MERRY WIDOW (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, US 1925) is the opening night film at the 2009 Giornate de Cinema Muto 200, The Music When I first accompanied The Merry Widow years ago, I was totally struck by this highly creative and inventive film adaptation of the operetta, directed by the genius Erich von Stroheim. Immediately I realized that my “one” piano + singer accompaniment wasn’t at all enough to serve this brilliant film. I started a serious quest to develop a score for the...