On December 18, St. Petersburg’s year-long Silent Film + Live Music festival came to a successful conclusion with its final monthly showing featuring Harold Lloyd’s first full-length film, Dr. Jack (1922). Our Russian partner, NGO Tour de Film, was forced to turn people away as the over-capacity crowd was practically hanging from the balcony at the city’s historic Rodina Movie Center. Providing the perfect period sound, St. Petersburg’s own Easy Winners Ragtime Band (complete with homemade instruments) impressed everyone with their Russian take on the American musical genre. Both before and after the showing, St. Petersburg film fans asked: “What’s next?” The answer is the U.S. Consulate’s February Film Noir Festival, kicking off with Humphrey Bogart starring in John Houston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941) and ending with Denzel Washington starring in Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress (1995).
