Last night I saw The Magician at the Paramount. The 1926 silent film was part of Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays, which is, according to last night's hosts, the longest-running silent film movie series in the country. Lindy West is running a lovely review of The Magicianin this week's print edition*, so I'll leave that to her. I love going to silent movies with live musical accompaniment. It doesn't matter what kind of movie. I'm partial to slapsticky comedies with someone playing a Wurlitzer, but Murnau's Sunrise at the Triple Door for SIFF was a particular treat.

But here's the thing: Every time I go to see a silent movie in a theater, somebody stands up and makes a long and boring speech putting the movie (and often the directors and actors) into historical context beforehand. These speeches are almost never less than 15 minutes long, and I have never seen an entertaining one. One guy who tours with silent movies even sings before and after the movies, which was one of the most embarrassing moments I've ever experienced in a movie theater.

Last night, before The Magician, Dennis James, who is probably the best silent movie organist I've ever heard, basically read the director's Wikipedia entry for ten minutes. And then he took questions. The questions, especially about how he reconstructed the score for the film, were interesting, but much of the audience was so tired of being talked at that they weren't paying attention.

Here's my question: If it's so vital, why isn't this information just put into the program? The best way to make people not care about the importance of something is to lecture them about it. I think silent movies stand up on their own merits: They're charming, funny, and easy to understand regardless of the cultural and chronological gaps that exist between audience and art.

There are two more movies in this edition of Silent Movie Mondays. You should go to them. But I do recommend showing up ten minutes late so you can appreciate the film without being told why you should appreciate the film.

* Allow me to say it for you: "Derrr! Derrr! There's a print edition of The Stranger? Derr!"