Waxworks (1924) - Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival

Description

As part of the 2024 Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival, Jump Cut presents Waxworks (1924) with live musical accompaniment by Zombo, Tuesday, October 1st at 7pm at the Parkway Theater & Film Lounge in McKees Rocks!

The Film:

Waxworks (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett) was the final film Paul Leni directed in Germany before striking out for Hollywood, where he made such classic genre films as The Cat and the Canary, The Man Who Laughs, and The Last Warning. Its sophisticated medley of genres was in fact what inspired Universal’s Carl Laemmle to invite Leni to come to Hollywood, as Laemmle was hoping to capitalize on the emerging comedy-horror craze of the 1920s. Stylistically, Waxworks was celebrated as a late example of German Expressionism. Its stylized sets (designed by Leni), fantastical costumes, chiaroscuro lighting, and startlingly bold performances are characteristic of that cinematic movement and contribute to the film’s lasting appeal.

The three episodes of Waxworks are united by the character of a young poet (William Dieterle), who is hired by the owner of a wax museum to create backstories for a trio of the museum’s figures: Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid (Emil Jannings), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt), and Jack the Ripper (Werner Krauss). The stories with leading actors of Weimar cinema are depicted successively, the poet casting himself together with the daughter of the wax museum’s owner at the center of each tale. Though the poet and the daughter play different characters every time, they are always lovers threatened by an animated wax figure tyrant.

As the original German version of Waxworks has not survived, this newly restored English edition—a joint effort by the Deutsche Kinemathek and Cineteca di Bologna, L’Immagine Ritrovata (with funding from the German Commission for Culture and the Media)—is composed of vintage export prints and additional film materials from archives around the world.

Door open at 6pm, film at 7pm. 

Tickets $15 in advance, $18 at the door.

Date & Time

Tue, Oct 1, 2024 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Venue Details

The Parkway Theater & Film Lounge

644 Broadway Avenue
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania 15136

Jump Cut Theater