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"The Last Command" Highlights FOLA's Silent Movie Festival, Aug. 17

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FOLA will continue its summer tradition of featuring a classic silent movie enhanced by the music of Jeff Rapsis on Saturday, August 17 at 7 PM in the Heald Auditorium of the Ludlow Town Hall.

The feature movie will be "The Last Command". The Last Command is a 1928 silent film directed by Josef von Sternberg, and written by John F. Goodrich and Herman J. Mankiewicz from a story by Lajos Bíró. Star Emil Jannings won the first Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

In 1928 Hollywood, director Leo Andreyev (William Powell) looks through photographs for actors for his next movie. When he comes to the picture of an aged Sergius Alexander (Emil Jannings), he pauses, then tells his assistant (Jack Raymond) to cast the man. Sergius shows up at the Eureka Studio with a horde of other extras and is issued a general's uniform.

The film then flashes back ten years to Czarist Russia, which is in the midst of the Revolution. Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, the Czar's cousin and commander of all his armies.

During a campaign against the Bolsheviks, the general is confronted by two enemy spies, Leo Andreyev and a beautiful woman, Natalie (Evelyn Brent). While he jails Leo, he falls in love with Natalie. He is then captured by the Bolsheviks. Natalie,in a plot to kill Sergius, discovers that she has fallen in love with the general and helps him escape from the train.

Ten years later, having fled to America, Sergius is reduced to poverty, eking out a living as a Hollywood extra. When he and the director finally meet, Sergius recognizes him. Leo, in an ironic act calculated to humiliate him, casts him as a Russian general in a battle scene. He is directed to give a speech to a group of actors playing his dispirited men. When one soldier tries to incite a mutiny, telling the general that "you've given your last command", he whips the man in the face as instructed, just as he had once struck Leo. Losing his grip on reality, he imagines himself genuinely on the battlefield, besieged by enemies, and passionately urges his men to fight for Russia. Overstraining himself, he dies, inquiring with his last words if they have won. Moved, Leo tells him they have. The assistant remarks, "That guy was a great actor." Leo replies, "He was more than a great actor - he was a great man."

Jeff Rapsis will be returning to Ludlow to provide the musical background to this classic silent drama.

For information, call (802) 228-3238.

"When Harry Met Star" Next FOLA Movie, July 20

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Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan Star in "When Harry Met Sally" on Saturday, July 20 at 7 PM in the Heald Auditorium of the Ludlow Town Hall.

When Harry Met Sally... is a 1989 American romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The story follows the title characters from the time they meet just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years of chance encounters in New York City. The film raises the question "Can men and women ever just be friends?" and advances many ideas about relationships that became household concepts, such as "high-maintenance" and the "transitional person".

The film covers the lives of the two characters, Sally and Harry, as they casually meet over the years while suffering failures in marriage ande love with others. The origins of the film were derived from Reiner's return to single life after a divorce. An interview Ephron conducted with Reiner provided the basis for Harry. Sally was based on Ephron and some of her friends. Crystal came on board and made his own contributions to the screenplay, making Harry funnier. Ephron supplied the structure of the film with much of the dialogue based on the real-life friendship between Reiner and Crystal.

While the essence of the movie may be described as a romantic comedy, the effective theme of the story is: "Can a woman and man be good friends sans sex?" Harry and Sally appear to be proof that such a relationship is possible. During the process, the film produces some very memorable situation, not the least of which is Sally demonstrating a fake reaction to a sexual encounter while having lunch in a New York deli. This produced the famous line from another woman diner following Sally's demonsration, "I'll have what she had!"

The movie is rated R.

When Harry Met Sally is open to everyone and is free; donations to cover the coswt of the presentation are appreciated. Popcorn will be provided by Berkshire Bank and FOLA will offer water. For information, call (802) 228-3238.