Sidewalk Stories

Charles Lane / USA / 1989 / Romance-Comedy-Silent

Starring: Charles Lane, Nicole Alysia, Sandye Wilson

Doors: 7:30pm

Film: 8pm

On a wintry Greenwich Village street, street portrait artist Charles Lane (the writer/director himself) battles a bullying, giant fellow artist, strokes attractive businesswoman Sandye Wilson’s cheek a little more than needed to get those proportions right, then gets stuck with adorable tot Nicole Alysia when her gambler dad gets knifed — all in b&w silence… and without the use of a single intertitle. An homage to Chaplin’s The Kid (and other movies) set in a then-tough Village environment (Lane squats in a wreck slated for demolition) and clearly capturing the plight of the homeless, Sidewalk Stories retains a magical sense of the fable, until a final, startling switch to… Winner of the Prix du Public at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a 15-minute ovation, Sidewalk Stories became a hit independent film around the world, but then disappeared: it’s never been on DVD or home video. Restored by Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata.