---

 

 

 

 

---

 

1 April

Do Detectives Think (Dir. Fred Guiol, US, 1927) + Habeas Corpus (Dir. Leo McCarey/James Parrott, Us, 1928) + Double Whoopee (Dir. Lewis R Foster, US, 1929) + Leave ‘Em Laughing (Dir. Clyde Bruckman, US, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 19/20/20/21  mins). In Do Detectives Think, when an escaped convict vows revenge on the judge who sentenced him, the judge engages a detective agency which sends its two best men, Laurel and Hardy, to protect him!  In Habeus Corpus, the boys are hired by the mad Professor Padilla to steal a body from a local graveyard on which he can carry out his experiments. But the ‘body’ isn’t as dead as they think! Double Whoopee sees the boys as humble employees at a swanky hotel leaving chaos in their wake.  Look out for a brief appearance by Jean Harlow. In  Leave ‘Em Laughing , when Stan gets toothache Ollie tries to help, but the more he helps, the more things go wrong! Look out for Edgar Kennedy making his first of many appearances in a L&H film.   Find out more at   laurel-and-hardy.com.  With live organ accompaniment by Donald Mackenzie.  Regent Street Cinema, London Link

6 April

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, UK, 1927)  (Screening format – not known, 91 mins ) In The Lodger, a serial killer known as “The Avenger” is on the loose in London, murdering blonde women. A mysterious man (Ivor Novello)  arrives at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting looking for a room to rent. The Bunting’s daughter (June Tripp)  is a blonde model and is seeing one of the detectives (Malcolm Keen) assigned to the case. The detective becomes jealous of the lodger and begins to suspect he may be the #avenger.  Based on a best-selling novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, first published in 1913, loosely based on the Jack the Ripper murders,  The Lodger was Hitchcock’s first thriller, and his first critical and commercial success. Made shortly after his return from Germany, the film betrays the influence of the German expressionist tradition established in such films as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) and Nosferatu (1922). Find out more at silentfilm.org   Presented by the Beaconsfield Film Society.  With live musical accompaniment and an introductory talk by Marisa and Daniel Cornford.  National Film and Television School , Beaconsfield. Link

10 April

Blind Husbands (Dir. Erich von Stroheim, US, 1919) (Screening format – not known, 99mins) In Erich von Stroheim’s directorial debut an Austrian officer sets out to seduce a neglected young wife. In suggesting that a woman had the right to seek love outside of an unsatisfying marriage, the film presents quite an advanced moral viewpoint for its time and the film is now considered a masterpiece of the silent era.  Born in 1885 into a Jewish family of hat-makers in Vienna, Stroheim emigrated to the USA in 1909 where became one of the greatest Austrian film directors of the silent era. His reputation for extravagance, insistence on complete artistic freedom regardless of economic considerations, and his uncompromising and sophisticated treatment of controversial subject matters ended his career as a Hollywood director in the late 1920s.   Find out more at  obscurehollywood.net.  With recorded soundtrack.  Austrian Cultural Forum, London SW7 Link

11 April

The Canadian (Dir. William Beaudine, US, 1926) (Screening format – not known, 80 mins)  Adapted by Arthur Stringer from W. Somerset Maugham’s 1913 Broadway play The Land of Promise, The Canadian was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and directed by William Beaudine. Its star, Thomas Meighan, had previously appeared in a 1917 adaptation (retaining the play’s original title) with Billie Burke as his leading lady. In this remake she is replaced by Mona Palmer, as a refined Englishwoman who finds it expedient to enter into marriage with an unsophisticated wheat farmer in Alberta, Canada. This unsteady match faces greater tribulations amid hostile weather and burgeoning financial problems.    Find out more at silentfilm.org  A Kennington Bioscope presentation.  With live musical accompaniment. The Cinema Museum, Lambeth   Link

15 April

The Adjutant of the Czar (Dir. Vladimir Strizhevsky, Ger, 1929) (Screening format – DCP, 98mins)  Half screwball, half melodrama, this vehicle for one of the silent era’s greatest romantic leads, Ivan Mozzhukhin, makes full use of those soulful, penetrating eyes.  This little-known film tells of a lighter-than-air romance between a Czarist officer and a passport-less girl who are obliged to share a sleeper compartment on an overnight train.  Their burgeoning relationship is tested when revolutionary zeal meets implacable loyalty in the heightened atmosphere of pre-revolutionary Russia.  Find out more at wikipedia.org .   With live piano accompaniment.  Introduced by the BFI’s Bryony Dixon.  BFI Southbank, London   (No link yet)

19 April

A Restoration of Nosferatu (1922) This show-and-tell lecture will illustrate many of the issues encountered and (with varying degrees of success) resolved in a digital restoration of Murnau’s Nosferatu. This talk will begin with a description of the original production and the technology used to make the film. The film’s own troubled history complicated the film’s physical reconstruction, and that impacted the digital restoration. This talk will primarily explore the complex and subjective issues currently floating around in many analog-versus-digital discussions of film and how those opinions can influence the determination of what the restored version should look like if the goal is to replicate the original projected image at the time of first release. Can digital restorations generate valid preservation copies of photo-chemical materials?  Presented by The Miskatonic Institute Of Horror Studies. Introduced by Mark Rance.  The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London.  Link

22 April

London Symphony (Dir.  Alex Barrett, UK, 2017) (Screening format – not known)  London Symphony  is a brand new silent film – a city symphony – which offers a poetic journey through London, a cosmopolitan city facing a challenge to its identity in the current political climate.  It is an artistic portrait of the city as it stands today, and a celebration of its culture and diversity. Find out more at londonsymphfilm.com .  With recorded score.  Picture House Central, London. Link

The Suffragette (Dir. Urban Gad, Ger, 1913)  + Make More Noise (Dir. Various) (Screening format – not known, 60/?? mins)  In The Suffragette, silent film diva Asta Nielsen, one of the most popular leading female actors of the silent era and one of the first international movie stars, plays a militant British Suffragette, who gets involved in a plot to murder a government official. Including depiction of suffrage protests and imprisonment, the film has gained popularity and wide appeal, while limited in its overall support of the cause. Find out more at allenjohn.over-blog.com(in French).     Followed by highlights from Make More Noise! (BFI National Archive) a collection exploring the representation of pioneering women in the first decades of the 20th century.   Introduced by Naomi Paxton.  With live musical accompaniment by Wendy Hiscocks.  Barbican, London  Link

25 April

Les Résultats du féminisme (The Consequences of Feminism) (Dir. Alice Guy-Blaché, Fr, 1906) (Screening format – not known, 7 min) This silent comedy, directed by the visionary pioneer who helped create narrative cinema, shows a vision of a future of gender reversal in which men are the objects of sexual harassment and exploitation. Find out more at wikipedia.org Being screened as part of Woman of Wonders, an evening of short films and a panel discussion (including Silent London‘s Pam Hutchinson) to illustrate the power of women on screen.  Castle Cinema, London E9 Link

Brighton: Symphony Of A City (Dir. Lizzie Thynne, UK, 2015) + Le Voyage Dans la Lune (Trip to the Moon) (Dir. Georges Melies, Fr, 1902), (Screening format – not known, 48/13 mins).  The daily activities and extraordinary events in the seaside town of Brighton are evocatively captured in modern silent Brighton: Symphony Of A City,  wittily echoing the silent classic, Berlin Symphony of a City (1927). All-weather bathers plunge into winter seas at sunrise. Residents work, commute, flirt and play and do surprising things in their offices. Homelessness and gentrification collide; we glimpse forgotten attractions in sparkling amateur movies from Screen Archive South East. ‘Father Neptune’ is dunked in a raucous ritual from 1951; 1930s marchers celebrate the anniversary of the Soviet Union and modern protestors commemorate Gaza. The elegant ferris wheel, a contemporary icon destined for destruction, marks the passage of time. The day culminates in night-time revelry, astounding puppetry and the winter solstice festival, ‘The Burning of the Clocks’. A kaleidoscopic view of this unique seaside town, which evokes the past in the present and the extraordinary in the everyday. Brighton Symphony of a City was a Brighton Festival Commission for its 50th anniversary in 2016 where it premiered with a live performance of the score by the Orchestra of Sound and Light.  Find out more at brightonsymphony.com.    A Trip to the Moon  is a 1902 French adventure film inspired by a wide range of sources, including the works of novelist Jules Verne The film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore its surface, escape from an underground city of  lunar inhabitants and return to Earth.  Filmed in the overtly theatrical style which marked out Méliès’ work, the film remains the best-known of the hundreds of films made by Méliès, and is widely regarded as the earliest example of the  science fiction film genre and, more generally, as one of the most influential films in cinema history.  Find out more at filmsite.org.     Brighton: Symphony Of A City features a recorded score by composer Ed Hughes performed by the Orchestra of Sound and Light. Picture House, Greenwich  Link

26 April

Foolish Wives (Dir. Erich von Stroheim, US, 1922) (Screening format – not known, 117mins)  In Stroheim’s 1922 film a con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.  When released in 1922, the film was the most expensive film made at that time, and billed by Universal Studios as the “first million-dollar movie” to come out of Hollywood. Originally, von Stroheim intended the film to run anywhere between 6 and 10 hours, and be shown over two evenings, but Universal executives opposed this idea. The studio bosses cut the film drastically before the release date. Find out more at sensesofcinema.com.  With live musical accompaniment by John Sweeney.  Austrian Cultural Forum, London SW7 Link

26 – 28 April

When You Fall Down  Inspired by the career of Buster Keaton, James Dangerfield has created a musical that explores the silent star’s life and career. The show follows Keaton’s life from his first filmmaking experiences in 1917 to his signing on with MGM 11 years later. When You Fall Down previewed this year in London, and received its premiere at the 2017 International Buster Keaton Festival in Michigan, USA. Featuring original music and songs, join us for this show celebrating “The Great Stone Face” and the magic of movie-making. Tabard Theatre, Chiswick, London   Link

28 April

Show People (Dir. King Vidor, US, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 79mins) This delightful King Vidor comedy  features Marion Davies (also the film’s producer) as Peggy Pepper, an aspiring young actress fascinated by the allure of Hollywood. After meeting Billy Boone, the slapstick comedy actor played by William Haines, Peggy begins her journey through the strange world of the dream factory.  Davies is a knockout as the aspiring actress, but will her emerging ego destroy her career or will she realize who her real friends are? Look out for cameo appearances by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and King Vidor himself… as well as the real Marion Davies!! Find out more at moviessilently.com .  With live organ accompaniment by Donald MacKenzie.  St John’s Notting Hill, London Link

29 April

Battleship Potemkin (Dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 75mins) Considered one of the most important films in the history of silent pictures, as well as possibly Eisenstein’s greatest work, Battleship Potemkin brought Eisenstein’s theories of cinema art to the world in a powerful showcase; his emphasis on montage, his stress of intellectual contact, and his treatment of the mass instead of the individual as the protagonist. The film tells the story of the mutiny on the Russian ship Prince Potemkin during the 1905 uprising.Their mutiny was short-lived, however, as during their attempts to get the population of Odessa to join the uprising, soldiers arrived and laid waste to the insurgents.  Battleship Potemkin is a work of extraordinary pictorial beauty and great elegance of form. It is symmetrically broken into five movements or acts. In the first of these, “Men and Maggots,” the flagrant mistreatment of the sailors at the hands of their officers is demonstrated, while the second, “Drama on the Quarterdeck,” presents the actual mutiny and the ship’s arrival in Odessa. “Appeal from the Dead” establishes the solidarity of the citizens of Odessa with the mutineers. It is the fourth sequence, “The Odessa Steps,” which depicts the massacre of the citizens, that thrust Eisenstein and his film into the historical eminence that both occupy today. It is unquestionably the most famous sequence of its kind in film history, and Eisenstein displays his legendary ability to convey large-scale action scenes. The shot of the baby carriage tumbling down the long staircase has been re-created in many films. The sequence’s power is such that the film’s conclusion, “Meeting the Squadron,” in which the Potemkin in a show of brotherhood is allowed to pass through the squadron unharmed, is anticlimactic.  Find out more at classicartfilms.com. With live musical accompaniment by electro-improvisational group Grok.  Genesis Cinema, London  Link