1 May
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 premier of new (recorded) score by Neil Brand. Hippodrome Cinema, Bo’ness. Link
Filibus (Dir. Mario Roncoroni, It, 1915) (Screening format – not known, 76mins) Filibus (the first of thirty films directed by Roncoroni) featured as a protagonist a roguish female lead character, the Baroness Troixmonde, who is a respectable member 
of society by day, but by night in the guise of “Filibus” she terrorizes Sicily from her zeppelin, which is full of technologically-advanced equipment and weaponry. The zeppelin is manned by a staff of mask-wearing, black-skin-suit-clad male assistants who obey the Baroness’ commands instantly. The airship is her headquarters and her home, and she descends to land only to rob or to hobnob with the socialites and dance with women as the tuxedo-wearing dandy Count de la Brieve ( a full 15 years before Dietrich’s famous cross-dressing scene in Morocco). But has Filibus met her match with the renowned Detective Hardy on her trail….. Find out more at silentsplease.wordpress.com . With live musical accompaniment from bass/electronic/thremin duo Sam Enthoven and Arkadiusz Potyka. Arts Cinema, Crouch End Link
Oliver Twist (Dir. Frank Lloyd, US, 1922) (Screening format – digital, 74mins) Thought lost for decades, Frank Lloyd’s adaptation of Charles 
Dicken’s classic tale of the boy who asked for more has an all-star cast. Starring the man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney, as Fagin and the wunderkind of 1920s Hollywood, Jackie Coogan (straight after his heartrending debut in Chaplin’s The Kid) in the title role, this spectacular silent film gem was rediscovered in Yugoslavia in the 1970s. Find out more at editoreric.com.Presented by South West Silents. With live piano accompaniment by Meg Morley. Arnolfini, Bristol Link
2 May
Sunrise; A Song of Two Humans (Dir. F W Murnau, US, 1927) (Screening format – digital, 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 With recorded Hugo Riesenfeld score. BFI Southbank, London Link
4 May
Lupino Lane Lupino Lane came from a family of entertainers. As well as his acting career, he was an expert acrobat, singer and film director. He is remembered today for his association with the song The Lambeth Walk and as the East London character Bill Snibson in the play and film Me And My Girl. But Lane was also a big international star in he silent era. Tonight’s SWS Club Event looks at Lane’s life and screens several of his silent films. Presented by South West Silents. With recorded score. The Lansdown Pub, Clifton, Bristol Link
Greater Than Love (Dir. Fred Niblo, US, 1921) (Screening format – film, 70mins) Grace Merrill (Louise Glaum), one of six young girls who idle their lives away staging jazz parties in a New York apartment, advises the youngest, Elsie (Patricia Palmer), who is disillusioned by boyfriend Frank Norwood, that men are worthless creatures. But when Elsie commits suicide, Grace is forced to reassess her own life. Louise Glaum appeared 
in over 110 movies between 1912 to 1925. Known for her roles as a vamp in dramas, she was credited with giving one of the best characterizations of a vamp in her early career. Before directing Greater Than Love, Fred Niblo had made The Mark of Zorro (1920) starring 
Douglas Fairbanks. The same year he teamed with Fairbanks in The Three Musketeers and then directed Rudolph Valentino in Blood and Sand. In 1925, Niblo was the principal director of the epic Ben-Hur. The copy of Greater Than Love to be shown, which is part of the Cinema Museum’s collection, is believed to be the only complete print of this film to survive. Find out more at silenthollywood.com Presented by the Kennington Bioscope. With live piano accompaniment. Cinema Museum, London Link
5 May
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 premier of new (recorded) score by Neil Brand. Hippodrome Cinema, Bo’ness. Link
Vampyr (Dir. Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1932) (Screening format – digital, 75mins) Technically, Dryer’s first sound film ( but with very little dialogue and extensive use made of inter-titles) Staying at a country inn, Allan Grey scoffs at the notion of supernatural death before being forced to believe that there may be things beyond his understanding. The skills of director and cameraman induce a similar confusion on the part of those watching, as we encounter one of cinema’s great 
nightmares. Dreyer offers few explanations for the phenomena on screen: strange and frightening things may just happen. Vampyr opened to a generally negative reception from audiences and critics. Dreyer edited the film after its German premiere and it opened to more mixed opinions at its French debut. The film was long considered a low point in Dreyer’s career, but modern critical reception to the film has become much more favourable with critics praising the film’s disorienting visual effects and atmosphere. Find out more at wikipedia.org With recorded soundtrack. BFI Southbank Link
6 May
Diary Of A Lost Girl (Dir. G W Pabst, Ger, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 106mins) A masterpiece of the German silent era, Diary of 
a Lost Girl was the second and final collaboration of actress Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst, just months after their first collaboration in the now-legendary Pandora’s Box (1929). Brooks plays Thymian Henning, a beautiful young woman raped by an unscrupulous character employed at her father’s pharmacy (played with gusto by Fritz Rasp, the villain of such Fritz Lang classics as Metropolis, Spione, and Frau im Mond). After Thymian gives birth to his child and rejects her family’s expectations of marriage, the baby is torn from her care, and Thymian enters a purgatorial reform school that seems less an institute of learning than a conduit for fulfilling the headmistress’s sadistic sexual fantasies. Find out more at rogerebert.com With live musical accompaniment by Wurlitza. Burrell Theatre, Truro 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 as part of the Mayfield Festival. With live organ accompaniment by Darius Battiwalla. Mayfield, East Sussex Link
8 May
Man With a Movie Camera (Dir. Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1929) + 30-minute excerpt of Paul Wright’s Arcadia (2017) (Screening format – not known, 68/30mins) “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. Part documentary and part cinematic art, this film follows a city throughout the day, from morning to night. Directed by Vertov, and filmed by his equally talented and innovative brother Mikhail Kaufman, the film depicts scenes of ordinary daily life in Russia. Vertov celebrates the modernity of the city, with its vast buildings, dense population and bustling industries. Despite the absence of titles or narration, director and cameraman still naturally convey the marvels of the modern city. Find out more at openculture.com . With live musical accompaniment by The Cabinet of Living Cinema ( jazz pianist, harp and concertina player Gareth Wilkins, and flamenco/electric guitarist, viola player and vocalist, Kieron Chissik). Catford Mews Cinema, London SE6 Link
10 May
A Throw Of Dice (Dir. Franz Osten, In/Ger, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 74mins) After the beautiful Sunita nurses Ranjit back to health following dramatic events during a royal tiger hunt, his wicked rival Sohat persuades him to risk his kingdom and his love in a fateful game of dice. A Throw of Dice (Prapancha Pash) is the third film in a pioneering trilogy of silent films made through a unique partnership between German director Franz Osten and Indian 
actor-producer Himansu Rai, whose films combined documentary techniques with narratives derived from Indian myths and legends. Shot on location in Rajasthan, the film features over 10,000 extras and an impressive array of horses, elephants and tigers. Its star actors all had major careers in Indian cinema and remain legendary and much-loved figures. Find out more at memsaabstory.com Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by pianist Utsav Lal . , Link
13 May
The General (Dir. Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman, 1926) (Screening format – not known, 75mins) Widely considered one of the greatest films ever made and one of the most revered comedies of the silent era, Buster Keaton’s effortless masterpiece sees hapless Southern railroad engineer Johnny Gray (Keaton) facing off against Union 
soldiers during the American Civil War. When Johnny’s fiancée, Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack), is accidentally taken away while on a train stolen by Northern forces, Gray pursues the soldiers, using various modes of transportation in comic action scenes that highlight Keaton’s boundless, innovative wit and joyful, lighthearted dexterity, to reclaim the train and thereby save the South. Find out more at busterkeaton.com . Presenter as part of the Hinterlands Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Haiku Salut. Town Hall, Skipton Link
Diary Of A Lost Girl (Dir. G W Pabst, Ger, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 106mins) A masterpiece of the German silent era, Diary of a Lost Girl was the second and final collaboration of actress Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst, just months after their first collaboration in the now-legendary Pandora’s Box 
(1929). Brooks plays Thymian Henning, a beautiful young woman raped by an unscrupulous character employed at her father’s pharmacy (played with gusto by Fritz Rasp, the villain of such Fritz Lang classics as Metropolis, Spione, and Frau im Mond). After Thymian gives birth to his child and rejects her family’s expectations of marriage, the baby is torn from her care, and Thymian enters a purgatorial reform school that seems less an institute of learning than a conduit for fulfilling the headmistress’s sadistic sexual fantasies. Find out more at rogerebert.com With live musical accompaniment by Wurlitza, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth Link
14 May
Diary Of A Lost Girl (Dir. G W Pabst, Ger, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 106mins) A masterpiece of the German silent era, Diary of a Lost Girl was the second and final collaboration of actress Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst, just months after their first collaboration in the now-legendary Pandora’s Box (1929). Brooks plays Thymian Henning, a beautiful young woman raped by an unscrupulous character employed at her father’s pharmacy (played with gusto by Fritz Rasp, the villain of such Fritz Lang classics as Metropolis, Spione, and Frau im Mond). After Thymian gives birth to his child and rejects her family’s expectations of marriage, the baby is torn from her care, and Thymian enters a purgatorial reform school that seems less an institute of learning than a conduit for fulfilling the headmistress’s sadistic sexual fantasies. Find out more at rogerebert.com With live musical accompaniment by Wurlitza. Noss Mayo Village Hall, Link
Shiraz (Dir. Franz Osten, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 97mins) Based on a play by Indian author Niranjan Pal, Shiraz tells the fictionalised love story of the 17th-century princess who inspired the construction of the Taj Mahal. It was directed by Germany’s Franz Osten, 
one of at least 17 films he made in India between 1925 and 1939, best known of which are The Light of Asia (1925) and A Throw of Dice (1929). Shot entirely on location in India with an all-Indian cast, it features lavish costumes and gorgeous settings. The film was the brainchild of producer Himansu Rai, who also stars as humble potter Shiraz, 
who follows his childhood sweetheart (Enakshi Rama Rau) when she’s sold by slave traders to the future emperor (Charu Roy). Upon its release Shiraz was a considerable critical and popular success and received rave reviews when the restored version was screened at the 2017 London Film Festival. Find out more at silentfilm.org Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by pianist Utsav Lal . Link
15 May
Modern Times (Dir, Charlie Chaplin, US, 1936) (Screening format – digital, 87mins) Regarded as the last great silent film and made almost a decade into the sound era, Modern Times is Charlie Chaplin’s last outing as the Little Tramp. Here, he puts the iconic character to work as a giddily inept factory employee who fails to cope with the modern equipment he must operate and suffers a 
breakdown. After being institutionalized, he is freed, only to be mistaken for a communist agitator. He is arrested but eventually released after which he falls in love with a gorgeous gamine (Paulette Goddard). Chaplin had not been seen on a theatre screen for five years when Modern Times premiered to great acclaim in 1936. Still stubbornly resisting work in “talkies,” he stood alone in his insistence upon preserving the silent film although his voice is heard on the soundtrack he himself composed. Find out more at www.charliechaplin.com With Chaplin’s own recorded soundtrack. BFI Southbank, London Link
Crazy Men – A Comedy Trio In this triple-bill of slapstick comedy, three obsessive men test the patience of everyone around them with their hare-brained schemes. In The Boat (Dir. Buster Keaton, US, 1921) (Screening format – not known, 18mins) , Buster Keaton is determined to take his family on a trip in his self-built yacht, no matter what the cost. Find out more at classicsailor.com . In Many a Slip, (Dir. Charley Bowers, US, 1927) (Screening format – not known, 25mins) Charley Bowers is an inventor 
devoted to the creation of a non-slip banana skin. Find out more at imdb.com. And in Soviet director Pudovkin’s Chess Fever (aka Shakhmatnaya Goryachka) (Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin and Nikolai Shpikovsky, USSR,1925) (Screening format – not known, 30mins) Ninety-five years before the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit gripped imaginations Soviet citizens were transfixed by the International Chess Tournament being held at 
Moscow’s Hotel Metropol in November 1925. Hundreds of spectators followed the games in the Metropol, whilst tens of thousands watched demonstration boards across the city, and the then up-and-coming director Pudovkin was asked to make a topical comedy about the ‘chess fever’ sweeping the nation. Chess competitor at the tournament Capablanca plays himself in this fast-paced comedy about a young couple whose love affair reaches stalemate because of the hero’s obsession with the game. Find out more at moviessilently.com Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment (musicians to be confirmed). Link
The Freshman (Dir. Fred C Newmeyer, US, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 76mins) One of Harold Lloyd’s best feature-length comedies and his biggest hit, The Freshman features the bespectacled regular guy as Harold Lamb, a naïve young man who heads off to college believing campus life will be just as it is in the movies; he even learns a little dance he saw one of his favorite actors do in a film. However, Harold soon discovers that real life isn’t all that much like the pictures, and he quickly becomes the laughing stock of the university. Determined to prove himself, Harold tries out for the football team, but he serves as water boy and rides the pine until he finally gets a chance to redeem himself at the big game. Along the way, Harold also tries to woo a lovely co-ed, Peggy (Jobyna Ralston). Find out more at threemoviebuffs.com. Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by pianist Jonny Best. Link
Lonesome (Dir. Paul Fejos, US, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 69mins) Lonesome is the story of two working-class singles: Jim (Glenn Tryon), who works a punch press at a factory, and Mary (Barbara Kent), a telephone operator. Both Jim and Mary decide independently to head to Coney Island in celebration of the 4th July, where they meet, become better acquainted and spend the day and most of the 
night together enjoying the amusements. But a mishap on a roller coaster causes the couple to be separated from one another. Is the relationship between these two lonely people doomed to end before it has really begun? Although based upon the slightest premis, this rarely screened silent-era gem is a classic “boy meets girl” tale, and the director, Paul Fejos, crams each frame with energy and movement, employing all kinds of expressive camera work and visual effects. In a montage depicting the hectic drudgery of Mary’s working day, he superimposes a clock and several tiny faces chattering away as she frantically works the switchboard. The original release of the film glowed with hand-tinted color, and several sound scenes were added later to cash in on the new craze. Find out more at ithankyouarthur.blogspot.com Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Jonny Best. , Link
Passion of Joan of Arc (Dir. Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 82 mins) In 1926 Danish film director Dreyer was invited to make a film in France by the Societe Generale des Films and chose to direct a film about Joan of Arc, due to her renewed popularity in France (having been canonised as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1920 and subsequently adopted as one of the patron saints of France). Apparently discarding a script provided by the Societe, Dreyer spent over a year researching Joan of Arc including study of the actual transcripts of her trial before producing a script of his own. In the title role Dreyer cast the little-known stage actress Renee Jeanne Falconnetti who had previously acted in just two previous, inconsequential films, both back in 1917. The film focuses upon the trial and eventual 
execution of Joan of Arc after she is captured by the English. Although not a popular success at the time, the film attracted immediate critical praise. The New York Times critic wrote “…as a film work of art, this takes precedence over anything so far produced. It makes worthy pictures of the past look like tinsel shams. It fills one with such intense admiration that other pictures appear but trivial in comparison.” Falconnetti’s performance has been widely lauded with critic Pauline Kael writing in 1982 that her portrayal “…may be the finest performance ever recorded on film.” The film was subsequently re-edited against Dreyer’s wishes and his original version was long thought lost. But in 1981 a near perfect copy was found in the attic of a psychiatric hospital in Oslo. The Passion of Joan of Arc now regularly appears in ‘Top Ten’ lists not just of silent films but best films of all time. Find out more at rogerebert.com . Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by pianist Utsav Lal. , Link
20 May – 31 May
Vampyr (Dir. Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1932) (Screening format – digital, 75mins) Technically, Dryer’s first sound film ( but with very little dialogue and extensive use made of inter-titles) Staying at a country inn, Allan Grey scoffs at the notion of supernatural death before being forced to believe that there may be things beyond his understanding. The skills of director and cameraman induce a similar confusion on the part of those watching, as we encounter one of cinema’s great nightmares. Dreyer offers few explanations for the phenomena on screen: strange and frightening things may just happen. Vampyr opened to a generally negative reception from audiences and critics. Dreyer edited the film after its German premiere and it opened to more mixed opinions at its French debut. The film was long considered a low point in Dreyer’s career, but modern critical reception to the film has become much more favourable with critics praising the film’s disorienting visual effects and atmosphere. Find out more at wikipedia.org Nationwide screenings to mark the 90th anniversary of the film’s original release. With recorded soundtrack. BFI Southbank – 20 screenings, Rio, Dalston – multiple screenings, Prince Charles, London – 3 screenings, IFI, Dublin – multiple screenings, Edinburgh Film House – multiple screenings, Glasgow Film Theatre – 4 screenings, Home, Manchester – multiple screenings, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle – multiple screenings, King Street Cinema, Ipswich – one screening Link
21 May
A 1911 Night At The Movies, An evening to celebrate the re-opening of the Electric Palace cinema in Harwich, featuring a programme of early comedies, trick films, dramas, news footage of the Titanic, and even a film about the battle of 
Trafalgar that was shown at the Palace’s original opening night way back in 1911. And all projected using a restored 1913 hand-cranked Gaumont projector, on the cinema’s original screen, exactly as it was 111 years ago. Curated by award-winning film editor and director Christopher Bird and who has had a lifelong interest in early cinema, and by David Cleveland, the founder of the East Anglian Film Archive. With live improvised musical accompaniment by John Sweeney. Electric Palace Cinema, Harwich Link
22 May
Vampyr (Dir. Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1932) (Screening format – digital, 75mins) Technically, Dryer’s first sound film ( but with very little dialogue and extensive use made of inter-titles) Staying at a country inn, Allan Grey scoffs at the notion of supernatural death before being forced to believe that there may be things beyond his understanding. The skills of director and cameraman induce a similar confusion on the part of those watching, as we encounter one of cinema’s great nightmares. Dreyer offers few explanations for the phenomena on screen: strange and frightening things may just happen. Vampyr opened to a generally negative reception from audiences and critics. Dreyer edited the film after its German premiere and it opened to more mixed opinions at its French debut. The film was long considered a low point in Dreyer’s career, but modern critical reception to the film has become much more favourable with critics praising the film’s disorienting visual effects and atmosphere. Find out more at wikipedia.org Nationwide screenings to mark the 90th anniversary of the film’s original release. With recorded soundtrack. Picturehouses Bromley, Central, Clapham, Crouch End, East Dulwich, Finsbury Park, Fulham Road, Gate Notting Hill, Greenwich, Hackney, Ritzy, Stratford, West Norwood, Ashford, Little Theatre Bath, Duke Of York’s Brighton, Art’s Cambridge, Cameo Edinburgh, Exeter, Regal Henley, FACT Liverpool, Cinema City Norwich, Phoenix Oxford, Showroom Sheffield, Harbour Lights Southampto, and City Screen York Link
People on Sunday (Dir. Robert Siodmak/Edgar G Ulmer, Ger, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 74mins) Famously, Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann worked with Siodmak on this landmark of realist film making, a magical blend of documentary and fiction which takes us back to a glorious summer Sunday in late-1920s Berlin where five 
young workers take a day off to spend a flirtatious afternoon together at a lake on the edge of the city.. While they enjoy freedoms undreamt of by their parents, sexual rivalry soon lends an edge to their flirtations. The people portraying the characters were all amateurs belonging to a Berlin collective who, the opening credits inform us, had returned to their normal jobs by the time of the film’s release. They included a taxi driver, a record seller and a wine merchant. But together, the cast and crew produced a classic of silent film and one which still feels remarkably modern. Find out more at archive.org Presented as part of the Flatpack Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Haiku Salut and Meg Morley. The Crossing, Birmingham Link
23 – 30 May
Vampyr (Dir. Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1932) (Screening format – digital, 75mins) Technically, Dryer’s first sound film ( but with very little dialogue and extensive use made of inter-titles) Staying at a country inn, Allan Grey scoffs at the notion of supernatural death before being forced to believe that there may be things beyond his understanding. The skills of director and cameraman induce a similar confusion on the part of those watching, as we encounter one of cinema’s great nightmares. Dreyer offers few explanations for the phenomena on screen: strange and frightening things may just happen. Vampyr opened to a generally negative reception from audiences and critics. Dreyer edited the film after its German premiere and it opened to more mixed opinions at its French debut. The film was long considered a low point in Dreyer’s career, but modern critical reception to the film has become much more favourable with critics praising the film’s disorienting visual effects and atmosphere. Find out more at wikipedia.org Nationwide screenings to mark the 90th anniversary of the film’s original release. With recorded soundtrack. Triskel Arts Centre, Cork (23-26 May, 4 screenings); Watershed, Bristol (27-29 may, 3 screenings); King Street Cinema, Ipswich (28 May,1 screening); The Playhouse, Cheltenham (28 May, 1 screening); Filmhouse, Northampton (28 May, 1 screening); Square Chapel Arts Centre, Halifax (29 May, 1 screening); Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA), Dundee (29-30 May, 2 screenings) Link
24 May
Grass: A Nation’s Battle For Life (Dir. Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack, US, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 71 mins) Before they went on to make King Kong, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack told the jaw-dropping true story of a tribe of nomads in Iran known as the Bakhtiari and their epic annual 48 day trek across inhospitable terrain from Turkey to Iran to their flock’s summer pastures. Venturing through deserts, mountains, rivers and snowy wastelands 
in search of the life-sustaining grasslands, the Bakhtiari’s 50,000 strong caravan – complete with 500,000 cattle and goats – becomes the sole focus of the camera’s gaze. A spectacular ethnographic record, this film was intended for the lecture circuit but was snapped up by Paramount for theatrical distribution on the strength of its powerful dramatic punch. It’s easy to see how the character of Denham in King Kong was modeled after the adventurer Cooper, whose daredevil real-life exploits were the stuff of Hollywood adventure films. Find out more at wikipedia.org . Presented by the Sands Films Cinema Club With recorded score. Sands Films, Rotherhithe. Link
25 May
Neil Brand Presents Laurel & Hardy Composer/writer/broadcaster/musician Neil Brand returns with an all-new show about the immortal comedy duo so recently portrayed in the hit film Stan and Ollie. From their earliest days on 
opposite sides of the Atlantic in music hall and on the stage, to their individual comedy films before they were paired up by Hal Roach, and on to their silent masterpieces before the arrival of sound, Neil will tell the touching story of the world’s greatest comedy team, who could not have been two more different men! Fully illustrated with stills, clips (both silent and sound) and accompanied live on the piano by Neil the show ends with two of the boys’ best silent short films, Big Business and Liberty, this is a show that promises gales of laughter throughout, as well as getting under the skin of two warm, funny men who continue to make the world laugh when it needs it most. The Theatre, Chipping Norton Link
The Parson’s Widow (Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, Swe, 1920) (Screening format – not known, 94mins) A small but perfectly formed masterpiece that confounds all expectations: a comedy from the famously dour director Dreyer (Passion of Joan of Arc)… a light-hearted romantic froth about young love that will take you by surprise and break your heart. In 17th century 
Norway a young theology student determines to secure the position of minister so that he can have the means to marry his sweetheart. But his jubilation at triumphing over his rivals for the role is short-lived when he learns that the position is conditional upon marrying his predecessor’s widow. An affecting and beautiful drama from one of the acknowledged great artists of cinema. Find out more at silentfilm.org. Presented by the Kennington Bioscope. With live musical accompaniment. Cinema Museum, London Link
28 May
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 recorded original Hans Erdmann score. Playhouse, Cheltenham Link
29 May
Another Fine Mess A trio of great Laurel and Hardy comedies. In Angora Love (Dir. Lewis R Foster, US, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 21 mins) Laurel and Hardy are adopted by a runaway goat, whose noise and aroma in turn get the goat of their suspicious landlord. 
Attempts to bathe the smelly animal result in a waterlogged free-for-all. Find out more at laurelandhardycentral.com . In From Soup To Nuts (Dir. Edgar Kennedy, US, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 18mins) they are inept waiters catering a posh dinner party, having only previously worked in a railroad canteen. Needless to say, all does not go well. Find out more at laurel-and-hardy-blog.com. Lastly, in Liberty (Dir. Leo McCarey, US, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 20 mins) the boys are making a successful prison break but mixed up trousers and an escaped crab somehow leads them to the top a partially completed skyscraper! Find out more at laurel-and-hardy.com. Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by YSFF musicians. Link
The General (Dir. Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman, 1926) (Screening format – not known, 75mins) Widely considered one of the greatest films ever made and one of the most revered comedies of the silent era, Buster Keaton’s effortless masterpiece sees hapless Southern railroad engineer 
Johnny Gray (Keaton) facing off against Union soldiers during the American Civil War. When Johnny’s fiancée, Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack), is accidentally taken away while on a train stolen by Northern forces, Gray pursues the soldiers, using various modes of transportation in comic action scenes that highlight Keaton’s boundless, innovative wit and joyful, lighthearted dexterity, to reclaim the train and thereby save the South. Find out more at busterkeaton.com . Presented by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by pianist Jonny Best and percussionist Trevor Bartlett. Link
30 May
Sunrise; A Song of Two Humans (Dir. F W Murnau, US, 1927) (Screening format – digital, 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 With recorded Hugo Riesenfeld score. BFI Southbank, London Link
Silentfilmcalendar.org 