Sat. Nov. 4
Doors – 7:00 PM
Film – 8:00 PM
Tickets - $12
1hr 8min | NR | Comedy/Drama | USA
Live Organ Accompaniment by Lance Luce
Brace yourselves for the magical and magnificent sounds of our Mighty Wurlitzer!
It’s another installment of our ongoing silent film series, Silents at the Senate. This time we’re screening one of the most significant, well regarded, and beloved silent films, The Kid. Watch as Charlie Chaplin’s iconic face and physicality grace our screen. Listen as organist Lance Luce enhances the action with the Senate’s powerful theater organ.
A poignant and charming mixture of pathos and playful comedy, The Kid is a masterwork in visual storytelling and one of the most financially and artistically successful films of the silent era.
It should not be missed.
Released in 1921, The Kid marks a turning point for Charlie Chaplin, who wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film. Previously Chaplin had almost exclusively appeared in or directed short films, almost all of which were comedies. With The Kid, however, he set out to not only lengthen the runtime, but also break free from the constraints of pure comedy and create a perfect blend of what he termed, “raw slapstick and sentiment.” There was perhaps no better vessel to achieve that aim than through his beloved character, the Tramp. With his trademark ill-fitting clothes, silly mustache and clownish walk, Chaplin’s iconic vagrant had already delighted audiences for years. But never had he pulled so deliberately upon their heartstrings as he does in The Kid, which proclaims at the start to be, “a picture with a smile—and perhaps, a tear.”
Which is exactly what our organ is built for. From comedy to melodrama, from epic and grandiose to idyllic and domestic, the theater organ is an instrument built to evoke the full spectrum of human emotion. But first and foremost, these instruments were built so that they might enhance the feelings a filmmaker endeavored to provoke within the viewer. Indeed, there is no better way to enjoy a silent film than with a theater organ, blasting air through its pipes and notes into your ears, blending its aural artistry seamlessly with the visual artistry on screen.
We’ll see you at the theater!
The Senate Theater and The Detroit Theater Organ Society is supported by The Michigan Arts and Culture Council and The National Endowment for the Arts.