The School of Music presents a screening of Cecile B. DeMille's 1929 silent film The Godless Girl, with live organ accompaniment by Dennis James, in the School of Music Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4.
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| Cecile B. DeMille |
The event is free and open to the public.
The Godless Girl has been described by modern film critics as a look at brutal conditions in juvenile reformatories that shocked moviegoers and led to reforms.
Originally shot as a silent film, some sound was added to The Godless Girl to help it compete in the emerging world of talking pictures.
The screening is part of the reintroduction of the film to modern audiences. A film print preserved by the George Eastman House recently premiered at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and the film is featured in a DVD project, Treasures of American Film Archives, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Film Preservation Board.
This is the fourth in an annual series of silent film screenings on campus with live accompaniment by James, who tours internationally as a composer and musician specializing in recreating historically-informed scores for silent film. The series is hosted by the USC School of Music and Film Studies Program.
For more information, call the film studies office at 7-2361.
Scene from The Godless Girl, above, and Dennis James, below
