1 – 10 February (14 Screenings)
South (Dir. Frank Hurley, UK/Aus, 1919) (Screening format – digital, 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 With recorded score. BFI Southbank, London Link
2 February
(NB Rescheduled from 12 January) A Soul in Torment (1921) (aka Frau Dorothys Bekenntnis / Mrs. Dane’s Confession) (Dir, Michael Curtiz, Au, 1921) (Screening format – 
35mm, 62mins) Dorothy (Lucy Doraine) awakens next to a body and is immediately arrested. Grilled by the police who accuse her of the murder, she protests that she’s innocent. Bit by bit Dorothy’s memories are pieced together, starting with the death of her parents and how she came under the tutelage of her uncle. But her seemingly safe life is derailed when she is saved from an attempted kidnapping by a dashing man. Unfortunately he is not really after her but her money. In 1919, director Mihály Kertész (his stage name at the 
time – he was born Mano Kaminer) moved to Austria from Hungary, where he made nearly 20 films, often with his wife Lucy Doraine (until their 
divorce in 1923). While in Austria he would make another 21 films before going on to answer the call from Warner Brothers, changing his name yet again, to Michael Curtiz and enjoying a long and glittering career directing such classics as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Casablanca (1942), Mildred Pierce(1945) and White Christmas (1954). Find out more at imdb.com. Presented by the Kennington Bioscope. With live musical accompaniment. Cinema Museum, Lambeth Link
3 February
The ABC Of Asta Nielsen Find out more about Asta Nielsen in this evening devoted to the indelible Danish star of silent cinema. First, season curator Pamela Hutchinson will present an illustrated lecture on Nielsen’s life and incredible career. She will then be joined by a panel of experts, Erica Carter, Professor of German and Film at King’s College London, So Mayer, writer, organiser and co-founder of Raising Films and Bryony Dixon, BFI curator of silent film, to examine Nielsen’s performance, stardom and significance in depth. BFI Southbank, London Link
The Abyss ( aka The Woman Always Pays, aka Afgrunden) (Dir. Urban Gad, Den, 1910) (Screening format – digital, 37mins) + The ABC Of Love (aka Das Liebes-ABC )(Dir. Magnus Stifter, Ger, 1916) (Screening format – digital, 42mins) In The Abyss Asta Nielsen plays a woman in an erotic dilemma in her screen debut The Abyss, the tale of a young woman who leaves her fiancée for a circus star. In comic and tragic mode – sowing the seeds for her provocative persona – Nielsen gives an arresting performance that culminates in a sensual rope dance displaying what Béla Balázs 
called her ‘spiritualised eroticism [which] is demonically dangerous, since it works at a distance through all of her clothes’. Find out more at imdb.comThe ABC Of Love is a romantic comedy and a showcase for Nielsen’s skills in male impersonation and genderplay. Here, thirtysomething Nielsen plays a teenage girl who teaches her young suitor how to be the man of her dreams, by dressing up in trousers herself. Find out more atsilentsplease.wordpress.com Introduced by Silent London’s Pamela Hutchinson. With live musical accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
4 February
The Black Dream (aka Den sorte Drøm) (Dir. Urban Gad, Den, 1911) (Screening format – digital, 53 mins) + The Film Primadonna (Urban Gad, Ger, 1913) (Screening format – 35mm, 17mins) The Black Dreamis a tragic love-triangle melodrama fit for the supreme Danish diva. In this early role for Nielsen, suited to her mastery of melodrama, she 
plays Stella, a circus star pursued by two suitors – a handsome count and a creepy jeweller. The Black Dream becomes a high-stakes love triangle as the jeweller’s jealousy threatens to destroy Stella’s chance of happiness. Just like many of Nielsen’s characters, Stella won’t go down without a fight. Find out more at www.imdb.com. The Film Primadonna is sadly just a 17 minute surviving fragment in which Nielsen plays a movie star with a tempestuous love life. Find out more atletterboxd.com With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
Zapata’s Gang (aka Zapatas Bande) (Dir. Urban Gad, Ger, 1913/14) (Screening format – digital, 42mins) + Eskimo Baby (aka Das Eskimobaby) (Dir. Walter Schmidthässler, Ger, 1916/18) (Screening 
format – digital, 66mins) Zapata’s Gang shows thatNielsen was perhaps surprisingly adept at broad comedy, though there’s always a transgressive twist. Here she plays an actor, as she often would, in self-reflexive reference to her own celebrity. On location to shoot a film about bandits, Nielsen and her crew run into a real band of robbers who steal their clothes, forcing them to change into their outlaw costumes. While cross-dressed as a brigand, Nielsen gets involved with admirers of both sexes. Find out more at letterboxd.com The Eskimo Baby features one of Nielsen’s most full-throttle comic performances in the fish-out-of-water mode. In this romp that bears no relation to geographical authenticity, Nielsen plays a young Inuit woman brought to Berlin by an Arctic explorer, marveling at the madness of big-city life. Find out more at imdb.com With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
5 February
Queen Of The Stock Exchange (aka Die Börsenkönigin) (Dir. Edmund Edel, Ger, 1916) (Screening format – 35mm, 32mins) + The Guinea Pig (aka Das Versuchskaninchen) (Dir, Edmund Edel, Ger, 1916) (Screening format – digital, 36mins) In Queen Of The Stock Exchange, Asta Nielsen plays a woman at home in a man’s world . She’s the co-owner of a copper mine (an excellent opportunity for some location shooting), who makes the mistake of mixing business and romance – with 
potentially terrible consequences. This is a no-holds-barred melodrama, with Nielsen supremely embodying both the contemporary ideal of a modern woman and a tragic lover. Find out more atimdb.com. The Guinea Pig is a raucous comedy with a touch of the grotesque that finds Nielsen playing a manic, rebellious tomboy who exasperates her father so much that he sends her away. As fate would have it, however, she is mistakenly sent to a psychiatric clinic instead. Find out more at letterboxd.com With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
Dora Brandes (Dir. Magnus Stifter, Ger, 1916) (Screening format – digital, 59mins) +Poor Jenny (aka Die arme Jenny) (Dir. Urban Gad, Den, 1911/12) (Screening format – 35mm, 30mins) Asta Nielsen’s skill as a tragedian prompted comparisons to the great stage actor Sarah Bernhardt and the opera singer Eleonora Duse. In this double-bill, as she plays tragic heroines from opposite sides 
of the tracks, you can see why. In the German silent drama Dora Brandes she plays a feted actor slowly driven to despair and alcoholism after her politician lover betrays her and the sacrifices she made for his career. Luxurious interior and costume design sets off Nielsen’s intensely emotional performance to superlative effect. Find out more at moviefit.me In the earlier Danish film Poor Jenny, Nielsen plays a cleaner seduced by a callous young man, and then abandoned by her family. The setting may be downbeat but Nielsen’s charisma radiates. Find out more at imdb.com With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
6 February
The Hill Park Mystery (aka Nedbrudte nerver) (Dir, A W Sandberg, Den, 1923) (Screening format – digital, 75mins) The reporter Jimmie Brand at the “Daily Wire” solves the case of the Vibeleje murder. 
However, the case leaves Brand in a terribly stressed condition and for this reason his boss decides to give him two weeks vacation.. Sent away to recuperate, what should he see but a beautiful girl murder a man in broad daylight? It’s love and a busman’s holiday from then on in. Witty, bright and modern, The Hill Park Mystery is a great example of the best of Danish silent cinema – a real charmer. Find out more at letterboxd.com . With live musical accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
11 February
The Abyss ( aka The Woman Always Pays, aka Afgrunden) (Dir. Urban Gad, Den, 1910) (Screening format – digital, 37mins) + The ABC Of Love (aka Das Liebes-ABC )(Dir. Magnus Stifter, Ger, 1916) (Screening format – digital, 42mins) In The Abyss Asta Nielsen plays a woman in an erotic dilemma in her screen debut The Abyss, the tale of a young woman who leaves her fiancée for a circus star. In comic and tragic mode – sowing the seeds for her provocative persona – Nielsen gives an arresting performance that culminates in a sensual rope dance displaying what Béla Balázs called her ‘spiritualised eroticism [which] is demonically dangerous, since it works at a distance through all of her clothes’. Find out more at imdb.com The ABC Of Love is a romantic comedy and a showcase for Nielsen’s skills in male impersonation and genderplay. Here, thirtysomething Nielsen plays a teenage girl who teaches her young suitor how to be the man of her dreams, by dressing up in trousers herself. Find out more atsilentsplease.wordpress.com With live musical accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
12 February
The Kid (Dir. Charles Chaplin, US, 1921) (Screening format – not known, 68mins) Chaplin’s first full-length feature 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 . With recorded score. Irish Film Institute, Dublin Link
The Black Dream (aka Den sorte Drøm) (Dir. Urban Gad, Den, 1911) (Screening format – digital, 53 mins) + The Film Primadonna (Urban Gad, Ger, 1913) (Screening format – 35mm, 17mins) The Black Dream is a tragic love-triangle melodrama fit for the supreme Danish diva. In this early role for Nielsen, suited to her mastery of melodrama, she plays Stella, a circus star pursued by two suitors – a handsome count and a creepy jeweller. The Black Dream becomes a high-stakes love triangle as the jeweller’s jealousy threatens to destroy Stella’s chance of happiness. Just like many of Nielsen’s characters, Stella won’t go down without a fight. Find out more at www.imdb.com. The Film Primadonna is sadly just a 17 minute surviving fragment in which Nielsen plays a movie star with a tempestuous love life. Find out more at letterboxd.com With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
Zapata’s Gang (aka Zapatas Bande) (Dir. Urban Gad, Ger, 1913/14) (Screening format – digital, 42mins) + Eskimo Baby (aka Das Eskimobaby) (Dir. Walter Schmidthässler, Ger, 1916/18) (Screening format – digital, 66mins) Zapata’s Gang shows thatNielsen was perhaps surprisingly adept at broad comedy, though there’s always a transgressive twist. Here she plays an actor, as she often would, in self-reflexive reference to her own celebrity. On location to shoot a film about bandits, Nielsen and her crew run into a real band of robbers who steal their clothes, forcing them to change into their outlaw costumes. While cross-dressed as a brigand, Nielsen gets involved with admirers of both sexes. Find out more atletterboxd.com The Eskimo Baby features one of Nielsen’s most full-throttle comic performances in the fish-out-of-water mode. In this romp that bears no relation to geographical authenticity, Nielsen plays a young Inuit woman brought to Berlin by an Arctic explorer, marveling at the madness of big-city life. Find out more at imdb.com With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
13 Februay
Goldrush (Dir. Charles Chaplin, US, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 95mins) In this classic silent comedy, the Little Tramp (Charles Chaplin) heads north to join in the Klondike gold rush. Trapped in a small cabin by a blizzard, the Tramp is forced to share close quarters with a successful prospector (Mack Swain) and a fugitive (Tom Murray). Eventually able to leave the cabin, he falls for a lovely barmaid (Georgia Hale), trying valiantly to win her affections. When the prospector needs help locating his claim, it appears the Tramp’s fortunes may change. It is today one of Chaplin’s most celebrated works, and he himself declared several times that it was the film for which he most wanted to be remembered. The film contains some of Chaplin’s most iconic sequences, such as the eating of a boot and the dance of the bread rolls. Find out more at moviessilently.com . With recorded score. Irish Film Institute, Dublin Link
16 February
The Real Charlie Chaplin (Dir. Peter Middleton & James Spinney, US, 2021) (104mins) This brand new documentary takes a look at the life and work of the one and only Charlie Chaplin in his own words. With unprecedented access to archive footage, as well as talking heads from surviving 
family members, this documentary reveals never-before-seen insights into the Hollywood star. The Real Charlie Chaplin traces Chaplin’s meteoric rise from the slums of Victorian London to the heights of Hollywood superstardom – and fall from 
grace following The Great Dictator. Co-directors Peter Middleton and James Spinney have created an innovative and compelling account based on revelatory, newly-unearthed audio recordings, dramatic reconstructions and a wealth of archive material, bringing us close enough to uncover the real Charles Chaplin. Followed by a live Q&A session with the directors Peter Middleton and James Spinney hosted by Silent London’s Pamela Hutchinson. Bertha DocHouse, London WC1 Link
17 February
Queen Of The Stock Exchange (aka Die Börsenkönigin) (Dir. Edmund Edel, Ger, 1916) (Screening format – 35mm, 32mins) + The Guinea Pig (aka Das Versuchskaninchen) (Dir, Edmund Edel, Ger, 1916) (Screening format – digital, 36mins)In Queen Of The Stock Exchange, Asta Nielsen plays a woman at home in a man’s world . She’s the co-owner of a copper mine (an excellent opportunity for some location shooting), who makes the mistake of mixing business and romance – with potentially terrible consequences. This is a no-holds-barred melodrama, with Nielsen supremely embodying both the contemporary ideal of a modern woman and a tragic lover. Find out more atimdb.com. The Guinea Pig is a raucous comedy with a touch of the grotesque that finds Nielsen playing a manic, rebellious tomboy who exasperates her father so much that he sends her away. As fate would have it, however, she is mistakenly sent to a psychiatric clinic instead. Find out more at letterboxd.com With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
Dora Brandes (Dir. Magnus Stifter, Ger, 1916) (Screening format – digital, 59mins) + Poor Jenny (aka Die arme Jenny) (Dir. Urban Gad, Den, 1911/12) (Screening format – 35mm, 30mins) Asta Nielsen’s skill as a tragedian prompted comparisons to the great stage actor Sarah Bernhardt and the opera singer Eleonora Duse. In this double-bill, as she plays tragic heroines from opposite sides of the tracks, you can see why. In the German silent drama Dora Brandes she plays a feted actor slowly driven to despair and alcoholism after her politician lover betrays her and the sacrifices she made for his career. Luxurious interior and costume design sets off Nielsen’s intensely emotional performance to superlative effect. Find out more at moviefit.me In the earlier Danish film Poor Jenny, Nielsen plays a cleaner seduced by a callous young man, and then abandoned by her family. The setting may be downbeat but Nielsen’s charisma radiates. Find out more at imdb.com With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link
18 February
Aelita – Queen Of Mars (Dir. Yakov Protazanov, 1924) (Screening format – not known, 113mins ) Reality and fantasy, revolutionary zeal, and bitter jealousy mix in Yakov Protazanov’s 
hugely influential yet rarely screened drama, whose impressive constructivist production design by Aleksandra Ekster has been a reference point for countless sci-fi films since. Tormented by a cryptic wireless message from Mars, engineer Los embarks on a journey into the unknown that sees him woo the Martian queen Aelita – fiercely portrayed by iconic actress and director 
Yuliya Solntseva – and lead an uprising against the planet’s corrupt rulers. Aelita remains one of the most ambitious endeavours of Soviet Russia’s silent cinema, and a bold showcase of its avant-garde design. Find out more at silentfilm.org . Presented by South West Silents and the Kino Klassika Foundation . With live musical accompaniment by Juliet Merchant performing a score newly commissioned for the film. Arnolfini, Bristol Link
19 February
City Lights (Dir. Charlie Chaplin, US, 1931) (Screening format – not known, 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. Irish Film Institute, Dublin. Link
20 February
Modern Times (Dir. Charles Chaplin, US, 1936) (Screening format – not known, 87mins) Five years would pass after City Lights before Chaplin would return to the screen with the film that would see him bid farewell to silent cinema and to the persona of the Tramp. Throughout his career, Chaplin was unafraid to tackle social and political issues, but these had 
not previously been as to the fore as in Modern Times, a film he claimed was inspired by conditions during the Great Depression, and a conversation with Gandhi. After suffering a breakdown while working on an industrial assembly line, the Tramp ends up in prison. He is released after accidentally foiling an escape, but is determined to return, in the process meeting Ellen (Paulette Goddard). Although dealing with more substantial themes, the film also contains some of Chaplin’s funniest and most imitated sequences. Find out more at charliechaplin.com. With recorded score. Irish Film Institute, Dublin. Link
23 February
Chicago (Dir. Frank Urson & Cecil B.DeMille (uncredited), 1927) (Screening format – not known, 118mins ) Seventy-five years before Bob Fosse’s Oscar-winning musical version of Maurine Watkins’ successful stage play, Cecil B. DeMille’s production company made this saucy silent film version. Phyllis Haver is hugely entertaining as the brazen Roxie Hart “Chicago’s most beautiful murderess” – a woman so pathologically shallow she sees notoriety for a murder rap as 
an opportunity to secure her fortune. Egged on by her crooked lawyer (“they’ll be naming babies after you”) Roxie neglects her long-suffering loyal husband and sets about milking her celebrity status for all she’s worth. The sequence in the prison is an absolute delight – particularly the rivalry between Roxie and fellow-murderess Velma (played by DeMille’s mistress), as are the climactic courtroom scenes. A cracking, satire on fame and the media, this fun-filled tale of adultery, murder and sin (so sinful that DeMille – known for his Biblical epics – was at pains to keep his name off the credits) is as fresh and relevant as ever. Find out more at wikipedia.org . Presented by the Kennington Bioscope. With live musical accompaniment. Cinema Museum, Lambeth, London. Link
Towards The Light (aka Mod Lyset) (Dir. Holger-Madsen, Den, 1919) (Screening format – 35mm, 62mins) + Asta Nielsen (Dir. Asta Nielsen, Den, 1968) (Screening format – Digital, 28mins) The last film that Nielsen ever made in Denmark, Towards The Light is 
a captivating religious melodrama in which she plays a wealthy countess who strings along a series of suitors even though she’s fallen in love with a baron. When her thoughtless flirtations turn out to have dreadful consequences and she learns her lover’s terrible secret, can the countess redeem her wasteful life by turning to God? Find out more at ithankyouarthur.blogspot.com. The only film Nielsen ever directed, Asta Nielsen is a documentary self-portrait from 1968 in which the actress reflects on her life and magnificent career in conversation with the Danish actor Axel Strøbye. Watch as the celebrated tragedian poignantly sheds her final tear for the camera. With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbnk, London Link
25 February
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. Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek Link
27 February
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. With live piano accompaniment by Lillian Henley. Palace Cinema, Broadstairs Link
Towards The Light (aka Mod Lyset) (Dir. Holger-Madsen, Den, 1919) (Screening format – 35mm, 62mins) + Asta Nielsen (Dir. Asta Nielsen, Den, 1968) (Screening format – Digital, 28mins) The last film that Nielsen ever made in Denmark, Towards The Light is a captivating religious melodrama in which she plays a wealthy countess who strings along a series of suitors even though she’s fallen in love with a baron. When her thoughtless flirtations turn out to have dreadful consequences and she learns her lover’s terrible secret, can the countess redeem her wasteful life by turning to God? Find out more at ithankyouarthur.blogspot.com. The only film Nielsen ever directed, Asta Nielsen is a documentary self-portrait from 1968 in which the actress reflects on her life and magnificent career in conversation with the Danish actor Axel Strøbye. Watch as the celebrated tragedian poignantly sheds her final tear for the camera. With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbnk, London Link
28 February
City Lights (Dir. Charlie Chaplin, US, 1931) (Screening format – not known, 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. Institut Francais, London Link
Silentfilmcalendar.org 