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The first full day of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival was full indeed, consisting of four feature-length silent movies and a fascinating behind-the-scenes presentation on the restoration of The Half Breed, premiering this afternoon. Beginning at 11:00 in the morning and continuing on straig read more

San Francisco’s Castro Theatre was packed last night, full of excited patrons who came to the theatre for the opening feature of the internationally renowned San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The festival is known for encouraging quality restorations of silent films, and last night’s read more

That’s right folks, tonight Backlots will be returning to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival as an official member of the press! This year, like every year, the festival will feature some of the most fascinating films, restorations and speakers from the world of silent film over the cour read more

Today marks what would have been the 106th birthday of the legendarily versatile actress Barbara Stanwyck, who left her indelible mark on nearly every genre known to film. With a career spanning nearly 60 years, Stanwyck was equally at home on the small screen, starring in such series as The Big V read more

Left: Olivia de Havilland in “Alice in Wonderland” at age 16, and right: Olivia recently at the César Awards in Paris. Today marks the 97th birthday of the wonderful Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving icons of Hollywood’s Golden Age and the last principal cast member o read more

The Hitchcock 9 got underway at the Castro Theatre last night with a screening of the silent version of Blackmail (1929). San Francisco Silent Film Festival artistic director Anita Monga spoke before the screening, mentioning that Blackmail is the last of Hitchcock’s films restored by the BF read more

  Dear readers, I apologize profusely for my absence over the past 2 weeks. As many of you know, I am also a cellist, and have been occupied with preparing 2 very big pieces to be played at a master class next week. Hence, I’m afraid I will have to be absent some more next week–I read more

Around age 14, circa 1940. On June 1, 2013, Marilyn Monroe would have turned 87 years old. It is difficult to imagine what the rest of her life would have been like, had she survived whatever took place on that mysterious night of her death at the age of 36. She was at the height of her fame profes read more

A mix of light comedy and dark drama defines Swing High, Swing Low, the third movie to team Carole Lombard and frequent co-star Fred MacMurray and the only one that might be classified as a drama. At the beginning we see what looks to be a screwball comedy in the vein of the team’s earlier H read more

As the Academy Awards are broadcast from Hollywood, Gloria Swanson anxiously awaits the announcement of Best Actress. On a whim yesterday, I removed my trusty VHS of Sunset Boulevard from its spot in my movie library (organized alphabetically, by year) and put it in for an  impromptu viewing. Sunse read more

Today, May 12, would have been the 106th birthday of the great Katharine Hepburn. I often struggle trying to describe Katharine Hepburn, as mere adjectives don’t seem to suffice, and empty superlatives would have bored her. To say she was a woman ahead of her time would be stating the painfu read more

Between the years 1907 and 1931, the Ziegfeld Follies were the toast of New York. The lavish entertainment spectacle that featured beautiful girls in beautiful gowns was wildly popular among New York’s high society, as was its creator, Florenz Ziegfeld, whose life was as decadent as his show read more

Hello readers, Lara here to bring you an update on Backlots’ social media presence. As some of you may have noticed, the Facebook page had a technical issue for quite some time which prevented posts from appearing. However, I am proud to report that the page is back up and running! If you ha read more

We have lost another legend. Deanna Durbin died a few days ago, in her Paris home at the age of 91. If I were to characterize Deanna Durbin in any way, I would say that she was like a bright comet streaking through Hollywood. She did not stay long–she left Hollywood for married life in Franc read more

Well readers, the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival has come to a close. It has been a busy and very exciting 4 days, and your author is at once exhilarated, exhausted, and ready for next year! In my humble opinion, this 4th day held the best lineup of the festival. Gilda was first on the agenda at t read more

Day 3 started with a bang, as the first event of the day was a very special one. Jane Fonda was scheduled to have her hand and footprints put in the courtyard of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, right alongside those of her father, Henry Fonda. The event was very crowded, and the security tight an read more

Day 2 of the TCM Classic Film Festival got underway early this morning with screenings beginning at the 9:00 hour. Libeled Lady, my screening choice for this time block, began not long thereafter at 9:30, and this was one of the events I was most looking forward to. Libeled Lady is a read crowd-pl read more

The TCM Classic Film Festival kicked off today with a flurry of events taking place in the Roosevelt Hotel, followed by an array of screenings in the evening hours. The first official event that I attended was a very difficult trivia quiz hosted by Bruce Goldstein entitled “So You Think You read more

As a precursor to the official festivities of the TCM Classic Film Festival beginning tomorrow, members of the media were invited to a special press roundtable at which we could ask questions of relevance to our readers. The panel, consisting of TCM premier host Robert Osborne, head of programming read more

Following a lovely journey down California’s Highway 101 with stops in Carmel and Santa Barbara, I have arrived in Hollywood 4 days early for the TCM Classic Film Festival. In case any of my readers are unfamiliar with Backlots’ festival protocol, I will be enabling live tweets the day read more