London & South East

January

 

 

 

 

 

 4 January

From Sorcerer’s Scissors to Adolph’s Busy Day: A New History of British Animation Part 1  (Screening format – DCP) The early years of British animation are brought back to the big screen in this eclectic programme of shorts freshly remastered by the BFI National Archive. Dance with Len Lye’s peanut-loving monkey, sing along with Anson Dyer’s cartoon Carmen, dodge Joe Noble’s shadow boxing with Sammy and Sausage, and just plain marvel at Hector Hoppin and Anthony Gross’ magnificent Technicolor Fox Hunt (1936).  Introduced by Jez Stewart, Curator (Animation) BFI National Archive.With live piano accompaniment from Costas Fotopoulos.  BFI Southbank, London  Link

6 January

Metropolis (Dir. Fritz Lang, 1927) (Screening format –not known , 149 mins ) Made in Germany during the Weimar period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder (Gustav Frohlich), the wealthy son of the city’s ruler, and Maria (Brigitte Helm), a poor worker, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes of their city. Filming took place in 1925 at a cost of approximately five million Reichmarks, making it the most expensive film ever released up to that point. It is regarded as a pioneering work of science fiction and is among the most influential films of all time. Following its world premiere in 1927, half an hour was cut from Fritz Lang’s masterpiece and lost to the world. Eighty years later a spectacular discovery was made when the footage was found in a small, dusty museum in Buenos Aires. The film was then painstakingly reconstructed and digitally restored so that at last audiences could see the iconic futuristic fairy tale as Lang had envisioned it. Find out more at silentfilm.org .  With recorded soundtrack.   ICA, London   Link

10 January

Second Fiddle (Dir. Frank Tuttle, US, 1923) (Screening format – 35mm, ?mins) Second Fiddle refers to the position held by Jim Bradley (Glenn Hunter) within his family. Jim becomes a garage mechanic while older brother Herbert (Townsend Martin) goes off to college. On Herbert’s return home, he has no difficulty in stealing Jim’s girlfriend, Polly Crawford (Mary Astor).  But trouble comes in the form of murderer Cragg (William Nally) and it is then a question of who will prove the braver brother.  Find out more at allmovie.com .  Presented by Kennington Bioscope.  Introduced by renowned film historian Kevin Brownlow screening a print from his own collection.  With live musical accompaniment.  Cinema Museum, Lambeth, London    Link

12 January

Show People (Dir. King Vidor, US, 1928) (Screening format – 35mm, 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, Marion begins her journey through the strange world of the dream factory… Look forward to cameo appearances by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and King Vidor himself! Find out more at moviessilently.com   .  With live piano accompaniment by Cyrus Gabrysch.  Birkbeck Cinema, London WC1 Link

14 January

Arsenal (Dir. Aleksandr Dovzhenko, USSR, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 87mins) Soldiers return to Ukraine to find their homeland teeming with strife and dissension, gripped in a conflict between nationalist forces and communists. One faction of soldiers, led by Timosh (Semyon Svashenko) supports the communists and takes command of a munitions factory at Kiev, converting the weapons arsenal into a fortress.  Still reeling from the trauma of war, Timosh and his comrades engage in a violent crusade that soon spreads across Ukraine. The second half pivots on the collision of Ukrainian nationalism and Soviet power with the Reds and the Whites, the Kiev strike, massacres and executions, religious processions with serpentine banners and mighty, bushy mustaches in extreme close-up! Dovzhenko’s progressive approach to editing – he was one of the pioneers of Soviet Montage – camerawork and narrative construction mark him out as an enduringly distinctive voice whose films retain their importance to this day.  Find out more at  imdb.com .  With live musical accompaniment by Bronnt Industries Kapital.  Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley, London Link

Gallant Hearts (aka Diler Jagar) (Dir. GP Pawar, Ind, 1931) (Screening format – DCP, 111mins) Continuing the BFI’s India on Film season from 2017, today they present Gallant Hearts, one of very few surviving Indian silents. This film shows the influence of Hollywood and particularly Douglas Fairbanks on the developing Indian film industry. Set in a storybook India, which allowed disparate Indian audiences to enjoy this adventure film, it features a spirited Zorro-like heroine and a hero straight out of The Thief of Baghdad.  When the good king of Magadh is poisoned by his brother, the evil Kalsen, the king’s infant son Chandrapratab is smuggled out by a loyal retainer and grows up in a forest to become the acrobat Hamir (Hamir) in love with his partner, the beautiful Saranga (Lalita Pawar). But they have not seen the last of the evil Kalsen…Find out more at imdb.com .  With live musical accompaniment.  BFI Southbank, London  Link

19 January

Merry Without Melodies: A World of Silent Animation (Screening format – DCP)  To coincide with this month’s screening of early British animated shorts, newly remastered by the BFI National Archive, we offer a look at what was happening overseas in international animation during that period. To Émile Cohl’s absurdist doodles, Ladislaw Starewicz’s insect dramas and the adventures of a small screw in Soviet Russia, we add some more familiar faces, such as Felix the Cat. Introduced by Jez Stewart, Curator (Animation) BFI National Archive.  With live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne.  BFI Southbank, London  Link

21 January

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Dir.Wallace Worsley, US, 1923) (Screening format – not known, 117mins) A classic silent film, full of drama, frights, romance, and excitement – Quasimodo’s story is told with the thrilling addition of a live score – bringing this extraordinary movie to life like never before.  Quasimodo is ordered to kidnap a gypsy girl, Esmerelda, by his wicked master, and an unlikely friendship forms between them. However, the reclusive hunchback is tested to his limits when Esmerelda is framed for attempted murder, and must fight back against the powers that have subjugated him. Victor Hugo’s tragic tale of the deformed bellringer and his love for Esmeralda, a doomed gypsy girl, has been filmed so many times and it’s not hard to see the film’s ageless appeal. While some movie lovers who cite the 1939 Charles Laughton version as their favorite interpretation, the general consensus  is that Chaney remains the definitive Quasimodo. Find out more at  wikipedia.org. With live organ accompaniment by Nick Miller.  St John’s Church, Hyde Park, London W2 Link

Variety (Dir. E A Dupont, Ger, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 94mins) Actor Emil Jannings was one of the most esteemed actors of his time, working with directors such as F.W. Murnau and Josef von Sternberg, before moving to America to become the first winner of the Oscar for Best Actor, and ending his career in disgrace after appearing in Nazi propaganda films. In this seamy melodrama, he plays Boss Huller, a former trapeze artist who abandons his family for a younger colleague (Lya De Putti). When the couple becomes a professional trio, a love  triangle is formed, and tragedy ensues. The film features some of the most inventive camerawork of the period, its ‘unchained’ approach making for breathtaking performance scenes. Find out more at moviessilently.com .  Presented as part of the 2018 International Mime Festival.  With live musical by acclaimed musicians Stephen Horne and Martin Pyne, who perform Horne’s original score which was received with great acclaim at last year’s HippFest.  Barbican, London Link

 25 January

Sunrise; A Song of Two Humans (Dir. F W Murnau, US, 1927) (Screening format – DCP, 94mins) F W Murnau’s debut American film, made at the technical zenith of the silent era  but already heralding the arrival of the talkies being one of the first silents made with synchronized musical score and sound effects soundtrack.  The simple story of a husband’s betrayal of his wife with a treacherous city girl, Sunrise moves from a fairytale-like depiction of rural life to a dynamic portrait of the bustling modern American city. Explored in elaborate tracking shots by Charles Rocher and Karl Struss’s pioneering camerawork, the city set was one of the most costly yet produced.  The result was a commercial flop, though the achievement did not go unheralded: Sunrise was awarded a special Oscar for unique and artistic production at the first ever Academy Awards and Janet Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.  The film’s legacy has endured, and it is now widely considered a masterpiece with many calling it the greatest film of the silent era. Find out more at theguardian.com.  Introduced by renowned film director Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire, Revolution etc).  With Hugo Riesenfeld recorded score.  BFI Southbank, London  Link

 

27 January

From Sorcerer’s Scissors to Adolph’s Busy Day: A New History of British Animation Part 1  (Screening format – DCP) The early years of British animation are brought back to the big screen in this eclectic programme of shorts freshly remastered by the BFI National Archive. Dance with Len Lye’s peanut-loving monkey, sing along with Anson Dyer’s cartoon Carmen, dodge Joe Noble’s shadow boxing with Sammy and Sausage, and just plain marvel at Hector Hoppin and Anthony Gross’ magnificent Technicolor Fox Hunt (1936).  With live piano accompaniment from Andrew Youdell.  BFI Southbank, London  Link

28 January

Safety Last (Dir. Fred C Newmeyer/Sam Taylor, US, 1923) (Screening format – not known, 73mins) A boy (Harold Lloyd) moves to New York City to make enough money to support his loving girlfriend (Mildred Davis), but soon discovers that making it in the big city is harder than it looks. When he hears that a store manager will pay $1,000 to anyone who can draw people to his store, he convinces his friend, the “human fly,” (Bill Strother) to climb the building and split the profit with him. But when his pal gets in trouble with the law, he must complete the crazy stunt on his own. The image of Harold Lloyd hanging desperately from the hands of a skyscraper clock during Safety Last!  is one of the great icons of film history (although it was achieved with a certain amount of film trickery) and this remains one of the best and best loved comedies of the silent era.  Find out more at rogerebert.com.  With live piano accompaniment by Lillian Henley.  Palace Cinema, Broadstairs, Kent  Link

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 .  With live musical accompaniment by electro-improvisational group Grok.  Genesis Cinema, London  Link

 

NB. Whilst every effort has been taken to ensure that the information contained in these listings is accurate, silentfilmcalendar.org can take no responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies. You are strongly advised to confirm with the venue that the event remains as detailed, particularly if traveling any distance to attend.