Northern Michigan University’s French program is presenting its 11th annual classic silent film with grand piano accompaniment. The Phantom of the Opera, a 1925 horror film with English subtitles starring Lon Chaney in the title role, will be screened at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, in the Ontario room of the University Center. Admission is free. Pianist Robert Buchkoe will provide the music.
A phantom haunts the Paris Opera House. He causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he "loves" a star. The film is based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra and is directed by Rupert Julian.
“It is the idea of the Phantom, really, that fascinates us: the idea of a cruelly mistreated man going mad in self-imposed exile in the very cellars, dungeons and torture chambers where he was, apparently, disfigured in the first place,” said the late film critic Roger Ebert. “His obsession with Christine reflects his desire to win back some joy from a world that has mistreated him. Leroux and his adapters have placed this sad creature in a bizarre subterranean space that has inspired generations of set designers... the Phantom is invested by the intense and inventive Lon Chaney with a horror and poignancy that is almost entirely created with body language.”
A reception with refreshments will follow the film screening.