Calling all film enthusiasts! If you’re a fan of classic horror movies, you won’t want to miss the upcoming series of 35mm screenings of Tod Browning’s films. The series features Browning’s most famous works, including the haunting and beautifully stylized Dracula, which is considered the director’s only true horror film.
Another highlight of the series is Freaks, a transgressive and unnerving masterpiece that is both daringly compassionate and charged with horror. Despite its infamous “one of us” chant, the film denounces the very horrors it portrays.
In addition to Dracula and Freaks, the series will also feature The Unholy Three, an unsettling melodrama starring Lon Chaney as a ventriloquist. The film follows a trio of swindlers and former sideshow castmates as they impersonate a respectable family of shopkeepers.
For those interested in silent films, the series will also include a new restoration of The Unknown, widely considered Browning’s crowning achievement. The film is a Freudian pile-up of repressed desires, castration anxiety, and Oedipal subtext, and will include approximately 10 minutes of previously lost shots and sequences.
To enhance the viewing experience, select screenings of Browning’s silent films will feature live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin, one of the foremost silent film composers in the world. Sosin has 49 years of performing experience at major film festivals and archives, and will be joined by Joanna Seaton for Outside the Law (1920).
Organized by Tyler Wilson and Madeline Whittle, the series is made possible by the support of the Cinémathèque française, Eye Filmmuseum, Netherlands, George Eastman Museum, Library of Congress, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Donald Sosin, and Joanna Seaton.
Tickets for the screenings will go on sale on Thursday, February 23 at noon, with early access for FLC Members beginning Wednesday, February 22 at noon. General admission tickets are $15, while students, seniors, and persons with disabilities can purchase tickets for $12. FLC Members can purchase tickets for $10. A 3+ Film Package is also available for savings, with discounts applied automatically in the cart. For those interested in attending all of the screenings, limited All-Access Passes are available for $79, and Student All-Access Passes are available for $39.
