1 April
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. This screening will be extra special – showing here exactly 100 years to the day of its first release, introduced by a special guest (TBA) and with live musical accompaniment by a trio of stellar musicians, The Stephen Horne Trio. St George’s Bristol Link
The Kid (Dir. Charles Chaplin, US, 1921) + One Week (Dir. Buster Keaton/Eddie Cline, 1920) (Screening format – not known, 68/19mins) Chaplin’s first full-length feature The Kid is a silent masterpiece about a little tramp who discovers a little orphan and brings him up but is left desolate when the orphanage reclaims him. Beneath the comedy, there are definitely some more serious thematic elements at work and 
and the film is noted for its pathos. In that regard, the opening inter-title proves to be true: “A picture with a smile — and perhaps, a tear.”Chaplin directed, produced and starred in the film, as well as composed the score. Find out more at wikipedia.org . One Week sees Buster and his new bride struggling with a pre-fabricated home unaware that his bride’s former suitor has renumbered all of the boxes. Find out more at wikipedia.org With live musical accompaniment by Wurlitza. St Dominick Church . Link
Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Dir. Robert Wiene, 1920) (Screening format – not known, 77 mins) In the village of Holstenwall, fairground hypnotist Dr Caligari (Werner Krauss) puts on show a somnambulist called Cesare (Conrad Veidt) who has been asleep for twenty three years. At night, Cesare walks the streets murdering people on the doctor’s orders. A student (Friedrich Feher) suspects Caligari after a friend is found dead and it transpires that the doctor is the director of a lunatic asylum. Fueled by the pessimism and gloom of post-war Germany, the sets by Hermann Warm stand unequaled as a shining example of Expressionist design. Find out more at wikipedia.org. With live musical accompaniment by Minima. St Leonard’s Spital, Chesterfield Link
2 April
The Secrets Of The Silent Film Pianist –Discover the art of the silent film pianist. The craft of the improvising silent film pianist can seem mysterious. While watching the film with the audience, a musical score is invented and performed spontaneously – without any notated, composed music. Jonny Best is one of the UK’s leading silent film improvisers and a researcher of silent film music. In this short, accessible event Jonny will explain how this little understood practice works and demonstrate some tricks of the trade using clips from a variety of silent films. There’ll be a few minutes for a Q&A too. Link
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 Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Jonny Best. Link
9 April
The Eagle (Dir. Clarence Brown, US, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 80mins) Based on the novel Dubrovsky by Alexander Pushkin, Rudolph Valentino stars as the title character, a young Russian Cossack officer who rejects the Czarina’s (Louise Dresser) amorous attention and is promptly branded a deserter in this silent tale of love and revenge. On the eve of his dismissal he learns of his father’s ruin–his father had sent a letter pleading for the Czarina’s aid against Kyrilla (James Marcus), a gluttonous and treacherous neighbor who has stolen the family’s estate. Sentenced to death with a reward on his head for shunning the lusty Czarina, Vladimir escapes into the countryside and becomes the Black Eagle, a dashing masked vigilante who seeks to avenge the death of his father. But things get complicated when he falls in love with Mascha Troekouroff (Vilma Banky), Kyrilla’s daughter. Escaping for once his ‘Latin Lover’ persona, Valentino delivers a charismatic and seductive performance in this full-scale romantic adventure that shines with early Hollywood’s technical advancements and stylish production values. Find out more at iamhist.net. With live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney. Film Theatre, Glasgow Link
16 April
Nosferatu (Dir. F W Murnau, 1922) (Screening format – not known, 96mins) A German Expressionist horror masterpiece starring Max Shreck as the vampire Count Orlok. The film was an unauthorised adaption of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel. Stoker’s heirs sued over the adaption and a court ruling ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. However, a few prints survived and the film came to be regarded as an inspirational master work of the cinema. In the film, Count Orlok travels across Europe leaving a trail of death in his wake. Brilliantly eerie, with imaginative touches which later adaptions never achieved. Find out more at wikipedia.org With live musical accompaniment by Hugo Max. Prince Charles Cinema, London Link
Man Without Desire (Dir Adrian Brunel, 1923) (Screening format – 35mm, 92 mins) 18th-century Venetian Count Vittorio Dandolo (Ivor Novello) is devastated by the death of his lover Leonora (Nina Vanna) and loses all interest in life. Wishing to escape from his grief, he devises a method of putting himself in a state ofsuspended animation. He awakens 200 years later in 1920s Venice where he meets Genevia, Leonora’s double, who turns out to be a descendant of his former 
love. Falling immediately in love with Genevia, he proposes marriage which Genevia accepts. He then discovers that his 200-year slumber has left him with the ability to love but unable to experience passion, and the marriage remains unconsummated. The film was Brunel’s feature-length directorial debut and has been described as “one of the stranger films to emerge from Britain in the 1920s”. The film’s theme of loss of sexual desire, and by implication impotence, was exceptionally frank for its time; oddly however, it appears to have been passed for release without interference by the British film censors, who at this period has a reputation for extreme zealousness where sexual matters in film were concerned. Find out more at imdb.com Iintroduced by Josephine Botting, BFI Curator. With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
18 April
South (Dir. Frank Hurley, UK/Aus, 1919) (Screening format – not known, 88mins). Australian filmmaker Frank Hurley’s record of Shackleton’s 1914-17 Antarctic expedition is also a document of life – human and otherwise – striving to survive in the most adverse climatic conditions imaginable. More than a mere chronicle of an epic undertaking, the film is visually magnificent, its images of the vast frozen wilderness composed with a meticulous attention to framing and light. Restored with its original tinting and toning by the BFI National Archive and EYE Filmmuseum, this incredible film of true-life heroism and survival in the most formidable conditions is over a century old. It lives on as an enthralling testimony to the delicate balance between humanity and the natural world.Find out more at moviessilently.com Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Frame Ensemble ( Irine Røsnes (violin), Liz Hanks (cello), Trevor Bartlett (percussion), and Jonny Best (piano) ) , Link
19 April
Komödianten (aka Comedians, aka Strolling Players) (Dir. Karl Grune, Ger, 1925) (Screening format – 35mm, 58mins) Whilst renowned actor Axel Swinborne is recovering having accidentally fallen from a moving train, he makes the acquaintance of a third rate band of traveling players. He falls in love with the leading lady, Lya de Putti, and takes her back with him to Berlin. But jealousy, violence and tragedy beckons…. Find out more at de-m-wikipedia-org Presented by the Kennington Bioscope. With live musical accompaniment. Cinema Museum, London Link
20 April
Pandora’s Box (Dir. G W Pabst, Ger, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 135mins) Based on two plays by the German author Frank Wedekind, Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895), which Pabst himself had directed for the stage, and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora’s Box, 1904), the silent drama follows the tumultuous life of the showgirl Lulu whose un-selfconscious sexuality brings about the 
ruin of all those that fall for her and eventually her own. In a daring move, Pabst chose a little known American actress over the more experienced Marlene Dietrich for the part of Lulu, a decision that made the young Louise Brooks an international star. Her innocent looks paired with her natural erotic allure and sense of movement – Brooks was also a dancer – perfectly matched Pabst’s idea of his heroine as unwitting seductress. Subjected to cuts to eliminate some of its “scandalous” content and unfavourably reviewed by critics at the time, it is now considered one of the boldest and most modern films of the Weimar era highlighting Pabst’s command of camera language and montage. Find out more at silentlondon.co.uk . Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Frame Ensemble ( Irine Røsnes (violin), Liz Hanks (cello), Trevor Bartlett (percussion), and Jonny Best (piano) ) Link
21 April
The Primrose Path (Dir. Harry O. Hoyt, US, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 60mins) The Primrose Path stars Clara Bow as cabaret dancer Marilyn Merrill, in love with playboy Bruce Armstrong (MacDonald). He is also a drinker, a gambler, and pretty much worthless as a human being. Yet she sticks by him, even when he gambles with her boss and, when he loses, writes bad checks. But when Armstrong gets involved in diamond smuggling, things take a more serious turn. Not considered one of her greatest films, but anything with Clara Bow in is always worth watching. Find out more at wikipedia.org With live musical accompaniment by Dominic Irving. Arnolfini, Bristol Link
22 April
I Don’t Want to Be a Man ( Dir. Ernst Lubitsch, Ger, 1918) (Screening format – not known, 45mins) The question posed in I Don’t Want to Be a Man is ‘Why do men have all the fun?’ Chastised for her lack of ladylike manners, a rebellious young woman (the ever exuberant Ossi Oswalda ) dons top hat and tails and heads off to a fashionable Berlin night haunt. But she discovers that while it does have its high points, posing as a man also results in complications. This gender-bending romp, made shortly before the end of WWI, is an utter delight Find out more at sensesofcinema.com. Introduced by Silent London‘s Pamela Hutchinson. With live piano accompaniment by Meg Morley. Waterside Cinema, Bristol Link
Beverly of Graustark (Dir. Sidney Franklin, US, 1926) (Screening format – not known, 70mins) In Beverly of Graustark Marion Davies starred in yet another dual role as the American Beverly Calhoun who 
masquerades as her cousin Oscar, who happens to be the Prince of Graustark, a small European monarchy. This was the second time that Davies masqueraded as a male (the first being Little Old New York), and critics and audiences applauded the effort. The film is often cited as Davies’ most profitable film because of low production costs and big box office. Beverly of Graustark was the movie that really brought out Davies’ aptitude for physical comedy, establishing the persona later seen to such delicious effect in Show People and The Patsy (both 1928). Find out at moviessilently.com Introduced by City Poet Kat Lyon. With live piano accompaniment by Meg Morley. Waterside Cinema, Bristol Link
Nosferatu (Dir. F W Murnau, 1922) (Screening format – not known, 96mins) A German Expressionist horror masterpiece starring Max Shreck as the vampire Count Orlok. The film was an unauthorised adaption of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel. Stoker’s heirs sued over the adaption and a court ruling ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. However, a few prints survived and the film came to be regarded as an inspirational master work of the cinema. In the film, Count Orlok travels across Europe leaving a trail of death in his wake. Brilliantly eerie, with imaginative touches which later adaptions never achieved. Find out more at wikipedia.org With live musical accompaniment by Minima. Bramwell Memorial Institute, Buxton Link
23 April
The Saphead (Dir. Herbert Blache, US, 84mins) The Saphead was a hugely important film in shaping Keaton’s on-screen persona: the lonely, stone-faced man thwarted by circumstance, inept at the art of romance, yet undaunted in his struggle for love within a chaotic world. In 1920, having served a slapstick apprenticeship in the shorts of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Buster 
Keaton had earned the opportunity to headline his own series of two-reel comedies. The very moment at which he emerged as a star of his own shorts, Keaton was recruited to appear in his first feature film, The Saphead, based on a popular stage play. Keaton stars as Bertie Van Alstyne, the pampered son of a powerful Wall Street financier (William H. Crane). Having known no other lifestyle but privilege, he wanders through a variety of misadventures—an attempt at courtship, a trip to an illegal gambling den, and a tumble onto the floor of the Stock Exchange—oblivious to the obstacles that stand before him. Find out more at wikipedia.org. With live piano accompaniment by Lillian Henley. Palace Cinema, Broadstairs Link
29 April
Man With a Movie Camera (Dir. Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1929) (Screening format – DCP, 68mins)“An experiment in the creative communication of visible events without the aid of inter-titles, a scenario or theatre “aiming at creating a truly international absolute language of cinema,” is how the inter-titles describe what is about to be seen. Bold claims indeed, but in its awesome sophistication The Man with a Movie Camera does live up to them, making it one of the most contemporary of silent movies. The subject, the life of a city from dawn to dusk, was not original even for 1928, but its treatment was–the cameraman as voyeur, social commentator and prankster, exploiting every trick permissible with the technology of the day (slow motion, dissolves, split screens, freeze frames, stop motion animation, etc). A young woman stirs in her bed, apparently fighting a nightmare in which a cameraman is about to be crushed by an oncoming train. She wakes up, and the sequence is revealed to be a simple trick shot. As she blinks her weary eyes, the shutters of her window mimic her viewpoint, and the iris of the camera spins open. Self-reflexive wit like this abounds here–there’s even a delicious counterpoint made between the splicing of film and the painting of a woman’s nails. Find out more at openculture.com . With recorded score performed by The Alloy Orchestra. Picture House Cinemas Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Henley, Liverpool, Hackney, Stratford, Notting Hill, West Norwood, Southampton and York. Link
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 recorded score. Prince Charles Cinema, London 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 from Minima. Riverside Studios, London Link
30 April
City Lights (Dir. Charlie Chaplin, US, 1931) (Screening format – 16mm, 84mins) Subtitled ‘A Comedy in Pantomime’, City Lights is viewed by many as Chaplin’s greatest film – a ‘silent film’ released three years into the talkie era. The melodramatic film, a combination of pathos, slapstick and comedy, was a tribute to the art of body language and pantomime – a lone hold-out against the assault of talking film. The writer-director-star achieved new levels of grace, in both physical comedy and dramatic poignancy, with this silent tale of a lovable vagrant falling for a young blind woman who sells flowers on the street (a magical Virginia Cherrill) and mistakes him for a millionaire. Though this Depression-era smash was made after the advent of sound, Chaplin remained steadfast in his love for the expressive beauty of the pre-talkie form. The result was the epitome of his art and the crowning achievement of silent comedy. Find out more at rogerebert.com. With recorded score (?) Castle Cinema, London Link
Man With a Movie Camera (Dir. Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1929) (Screening format – DCP, 68mins)“An experiment in the creative communication of visible events without the aid of inter-titles, a scenario or theatre “aiming at creating a truly international absolute language of cinema,” is how the inter-titles describe what is about to be seen. Bold claims indeed, but in its awesome sophistication The Man with a Movie Camera does live up to them, making it one of the most contemporary of silent movies. The subject, the life of a city from dawn to dusk, was not original even for 1928, but its treatment was–the cameraman as voyeur, social commentator and prankster, exploiting every trick permissible with the technology of the day (slow motion, dissolves, split screens, freeze frames, stop motion animation, etc). A young woman stirs in her bed, apparently fighting a nightmare in which a cameraman is about to be crushed by an oncoming train. She wakes up, and the sequence is revealed to be a simple trick shot. As she blinks her weary eyes, the shutters of her window mimic her viewpoint, and the iris of the camera spins open. Self-reflexive wit like this abounds here–there’s even a delicious counterpoint made between the splicing of film and the painting of a woman’s nails. Find out more at openculture.com . With recorded score performed by The Alloy Orchestra. Picture House Cinemas Bromley, Clapham, East Dulwich, Finsbury Park, greenwich, Central, Norwich & Oxford. Link
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