Beau Geste (1926) New 4K MoMA Restoration with live accompaniment by Pittsburgh Film Orchestra
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New 4K restoration with live accompaniment by the Pittsburgh Film Orchestra!
The 4th annual Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival marks centennial films from 1926, a time just before the dawn of sound and color when the artistry of telling stories silently was peaking. The festival lineup this year includes 11 important films at 11 different venues across Pittsburgh, with 7 musicians or bands accompanying them live. You'll see swashbuckling, pioneering animation, post-war fervor, cultural icons, expressionism, and much more!
Herbert Brenon’s sweeping adaptation of P. C. Wren’s adventure novel created an enduring template for tales of legionnaire brotherhood and desert warfare. Ronald Colman stars as Michael ‘Beau’ Geste, the eldest of three devoted brothers who join the French Foreign Legion after being falsely suspected of stealing a valuable family sapphire. The film’s most indelible sequence—a desert fort populated entirely by dead soldiers propped up along the parapets—remains one of silent cinema’s most haunting images. Cinematographer J. Roy Hunt captures the expansive Algerian landscape (actually the Arizona desert) with painterly precision, while Brenon balances intimate character drama with spectacular military action. Noah Beery’s sadistic Sergeant Lejaune provides a memorably vicious antagonist whose cruelty tests the bonds of fraternal loyalty and honor at the heart of this classic adventure tale.
The Pittsburgh Film Orchestra: A Silent Film Ensemble will provide live underscoring for this festival screening of Beau Geste. The PFO has been accompanying silent film for 20 years and for this performance they have adapted the original 1926 touring roadshow score created by Hugo Reisenfeld. Reisenfeld's score beautifully weaves together French ballet and opera, original themes, and period photoplay music to create a dramatic and moving work. The ensemble for the evening will be a piano trio, emulating the small "orchestras" that played in neighborhood theatres like the Harris at the time of the film's premier. Eric Cook, organist at the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh leads, Christie Kecskemethy of the Butler Symphony and Rebecca Cook of the Franklin Silver Cornet Band provide support on violin and flute.
Directed by Herbert Brenon
1926 | USA | English language intertitles | DCP
The 4th annual Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival marks centennial films from 1926, a time just before the dawn of sound and color when the artistry of telling stories silently was peaking. The festival lineup this year includes 11 important films at 11 different venues across Pittsburgh, with 7 musicians or bands accompanying them live. You'll see swashbuckling, pioneering animation, post-war fervor, cultural icons, expressionism, and much more!
Herbert Brenon’s sweeping adaptation of P. C. Wren’s adventure novel created an enduring template for tales of legionnaire brotherhood and desert warfare. Ronald Colman stars as Michael ‘Beau’ Geste, the eldest of three devoted brothers who join the French Foreign Legion after being falsely suspected of stealing a valuable family sapphire. The film’s most indelible sequence—a desert fort populated entirely by dead soldiers propped up along the parapets—remains one of silent cinema’s most haunting images. Cinematographer J. Roy Hunt captures the expansive Algerian landscape (actually the Arizona desert) with painterly precision, while Brenon balances intimate character drama with spectacular military action. Noah Beery’s sadistic Sergeant Lejaune provides a memorably vicious antagonist whose cruelty tests the bonds of fraternal loyalty and honor at the heart of this classic adventure tale.
The Pittsburgh Film Orchestra: A Silent Film Ensemble will provide live underscoring for this festival screening of Beau Geste. The PFO has been accompanying silent film for 20 years and for this performance they have adapted the original 1926 touring roadshow score created by Hugo Reisenfeld. Reisenfeld's score beautifully weaves together French ballet and opera, original themes, and period photoplay music to create a dramatic and moving work. The ensemble for the evening will be a piano trio, emulating the small "orchestras" that played in neighborhood theatres like the Harris at the time of the film's premier. Eric Cook, organist at the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh leads, Christie Kecskemethy of the Butler Symphony and Rebecca Cook of the Franklin Silver Cornet Band provide support on violin and flute.
Directed by Herbert Brenon
1926 | USA | English language intertitles | DCP
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Where is it happening?
Harris Theater, 807 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222-3750, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherPittsburgh Silent Film Society
