October 2019

2 October

Paris Qui Dort (Dir. Rene Clair, Fr, 1924) (Screening format – DCP, 59mins) A young man, the night watchman on the iconic Eiffel Tower, wakes to find he is alone in the world. Descending from his iron eyrie, all is eerily frozen, apart from a few souls who have escaped a mad scientist’s immobilising ray. The streets of Paris briefly become a Garden of Eden to play in, as the friends indulge in their new-found liberty. Like Powell and Pressburger’s A Canterbury Tale, this is a film to be carried in the heart. This English language version, taken from the ‘A’ negative, was released in England in January 1925, shortly before it came out in France. Find out more at festival.ilcinemaritrovato.itPresented as part of the London Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Costas Fotopoulos BFI Southbank, London Link

Finis Terrae (Dir. Jean Epstein, Fr, 1929) (Screening format – DCP, 80 Mins) On a tiny island off Brittany two young men eke out a living by harvesting seaweed to burn for prized soda. When one of them cuts his thumb and an infection sets in, it challenges the boundaries of their relationship and galvanises the neighbouring community. Jean Epstein’s timeless narrative about survival in extremis is underpinned by avant-garde techniques and deeply resonant images, such as the recurrent lighthouse or the sight of women sheltering by rocks like giant black birds. Even without sound you can almost hear the ocean. This is a film about the possibilities of cinema and anyone thinking of picking up a camera should watch and be inspired. Find out more at worldscinema.org. Presented as part of the London Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne. BFI Southbank, London Link

3 October

Love, Life And Laughter (Dir. George Pearson, Br, 1923) (Screening format – DCP, 90mins) The film tells the story of a pair of working class youngsters with big dreams –a cheery chorus girl and a serious writer –the film toys with our expectations, blurring the boundaries of reverie and reality, tragedy and comedy. The films aesthetic is extremely evocative of the period, full of Art Deco styling from the overall design to Balfour’s costumes and the film’s set pieces. This restoration is a major event enabling today’s audiences to enjoy a truly vivacious performance from Balfour in one of her key films and adds to our knowledge of director Pearson, often likened to Dickens (whom he admired) for his ability to wring the maximum amount of emotion out of a story and a key figure in British cinema with now only a bare handful of his films survive. This restoration is from a Dutch-language version of the film, which was identified by archivists at Eye Film museum inthe Netherlands, while being catalogued following its arrival at the archive in November 2012, the archive responded to BFI’s 75 Most Wanted list, a list compiled in 2010 outlining the film titles the BFI National Archive would like to preserve and make available. The print is part of a collection of film cans that belonged to a local cinema in the small town of Hattem (near Zwolle). Find out more at silentlondon.co.uk Presented as part of the London Film Festival. With live piano accompaniment by meg Morley. Introduced by by the BFI National Archive’s Silent Curator Bryony Dixon and the BFI’s Film Conservation Manager Kieron Webb. BFI Southbank, London 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 masterwork 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. Canolfan S4C Yr Egin, Carmarthen Link

5 October

The Great White Silence (Dir. Herbert G. Ponting, UK, 1924) (Screening format – not known, 107 mins) This documentary captured the story of the British Antarctic Expedition, led by Captain Scott, to reach the South Pole. With extraordinary footage of many stages of the exploration: on board the Terra Nova ship; life in the base camp; crew preparations and scientific research; and the local penguins, whales and seals. Still images, maps, miniature model shots, diary entries and recreations illustrate the rest of the journey across the ice. “The alien beauty of the landscape is brought dramatically to life and the world of the expedition revealed in brilliant detail.” – BFI. Find out more at bfi.org.uk. With live musical accompaniment by Jonny Best and the Frame Ensemble. Truck Theatre, Hull Link

6 October

People on Sunday (Dir. Robert Siodmak/Edgar G Ulmer, Ger, 1929) (Screening format – DCP, 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 by South West Silents. With live piano accompaniment by Meg Morley. Watershed, Bristol Link

Beggars of Life (Dir. William Wellman, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 100 mins) Nancy (Louise Brooks), is a young woman on a farm who kills her foster father when he attempts to rape her. She is assisted in escaping from the farm by Jim (Richard Arlen), a young hobo who has stopped to ask for food. By dressing in rough men’s clothing, Nancy, with the assistance of Jim, eludes the police. They hop a freight train and, when thrown off by the brakeman, they wander into a hobo camp. The hobo camp is run by Oklahoma Red (Wallace Beery), a villain….or maybe not! Beggars of Life is based on the 1924 novelistic memoir of the same name by Jim Tully, a celebrated “hobo author”. Directed by William Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win an Academy Award), the location shooting for Beggars of Life was awash with hair-raising stunts, hard-drinking nights and countless fights, apparently the norm for a William Wellman picture, and nicely detailed in Louise Brooks’ own words in her book ‘Lulu In Hollywood’. Find out more at silentfilm.org . With live musical accompaniment by the Dodge Brothers. Regent Centre, Christchurch, Dorset Link

10 October

Manhatta (Dir. Charles Sheeler/Paul Strand, US, 1921) + Anemic Cinema (Dir. Marcel Duchamp, Fr, 1926) (Screening format – not known, 11/6 mins) Manhatta is a groundbreaking silent documentary capturing the beauty and majesty of the New York City in its streets, skyscrapers, bridges, rail yards and harbors. A collaboration between painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand, the intertitles include excerpts from the writings of Walt Whitman. Considered by some to be the first American avant-garde film, the primary objective of the film was to explore the relationship between photography and film; camera movement is kept to a minimum, as is incidental motion within each shot. Each frame provides a view of the city that has been carefully arranged into abstract compositions. Find out more at nytimes.com. Considered one of the most important experimental films of the prewar European avant-garde, Anemic Cinema is a short experimental film by Marcel Duchamp (assisted by Man ray), who authored it under his pseudonym Rrose Sélavy. The viewer is presented with alternating shots of Duchamp’s Disk Bearing Spirals, spiral patterns intended to produce a three-dimensional quality, and texts pasted letter by letter. The phrases are nonsensical, arranged in spiral patterns, and read from outside inwards. Duchamp employed a series of optical experiments to create an engaging, near hypnotic effect. Find out more at wikipedia.org. Part of a wider screening of films and film clips on the influences behind and work of Busby Berkeley. With live musical accompaniment by Olivia Murphy (saxophone), Barry Edwards (guitar) and Sarah Farmer (violin). Artefact, Stirchley, Birmingham Link

Oliver Twist (Dir. Frank Lloyd, US, 1922) (Screening format -not known, 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 as part of the Ellesmere College Silent Film Festival. With live piano accompaniment from Neil Brand. Ellesmere College, Shropshire Link

11 October

Speedy (Dir. Ted Wilde, US, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 86mins) Harold Lloyd’s final silent film sees him reprise his ‘glasses character’ as a baseball-obsessed New Yorker (the film features a cameo from the legendary Babe Ruth) who becomes determined to save the city’s last horse-drawn streetcar, motivated in no small part by its owner being the grandfather of his love interest. Filled with Lloyd’s trademark rapid-fire visual humour and elaborate set-ups, it’s a fine example of his innovative approach to comedy. Find out more at allmovie.com. Presented as part of the Ellesmere College Silent Film Festival. With live piano accompaniment from Jonny Best. Ellesmere College, Shropshire Link

12 October

The Blinking Buzzards The UK Buster Keaton Society. Quarterly meeting of the society dedicated to the appreciation of the silent comedian. The last meeting of the year is a request session, so expect to see beloved gems chosen by Society members. The Cinema Museum, Lambeth. London Link

Silent Film Night Films to be confirmed. With live organ accompaniment by Donald Mackenzie St Aidan with St George Church, Bristol Link

Nosferatu (Dir. F W Murnau, 1922) (Screening format – not known, 96mins) A German Expressionis 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 masterwork 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 piano accompaniment by Dmytro Morykit. Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall, London Link

Der Müde Tod (aka Destiny, aka Behind the Wall) (Dir. Fritz Lang, 1921) (Screening format – not known, 98mins) Der Müde Tod (literally The Weary Death) has often been overlooked even amongst Lang’s earlier work but it is a film rich in expressionist imagery and featuring innovative special effects work. It has been hugely influential, with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman and Luis Buñuel citing it as a direct influence on their own work. In the film, a young woman (Lil Dagover) confronts the personification of Death (Bernhard Goetzke), in an effort to save the life of her fiancé (Walter Janssen). Death weaves three romantic tragedies and offers to unite the girl with her lover, if she can prevent the death of the lovers in at least one of the episodes. Thus begin three exotic scenarios of ill-fated love, in which the woman must somehow reverse the course of destiny: Persia, Renaissance Venice, and a fancifully rendered ancient China. Find out more at silentfilm.org With live piano accompaniment by Dmytro Morykit. Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall, London Link

13 October

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. Presented as part of the Herne Hill Music Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Ashley Valentine. St Faith’s Church, London SE24 Link

Opium (Dir. Robert Reinert, Ger, 1919) (Screening format – DCP, 112mins) This sensationalist silent drama, made during the early censorship-free period, warns against the perils of drug addiction and sexual debauchery. Now newly restored in gorgeous colour, it stars Werner Krauss (pre-Caligari) as a Chinese opium dealer and Conrad Veidt as a love-crazed English doctor. Its exotic scenery and brazenly erotic opium dream sequences were hailed as a triumph of the cinematic medium. Find out more at berlinale.des. Presented by South West Silents. With live piano accompaniment by Meg Morley. Watershed, Bristol Link

One Week (Dir. Buster Keaton/Eddie Cline, 1920) + selected shorts (Screening format – not known, 19 mins) 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. Landulph Festival, Landulph, Cornwall Link

15 October

Steamboat Bill Jr (Dir. Buster Keaton/Charles Reisner, US, 1928) + The Balloonatic (Dir. Buster Keaton/ Edward F Cline, US, 1923) (Screening format – not known, 71/22 mins) In Steamboat Bill Jr a crusty river boat captain hopes that his long departed son’s return will help him compete with a business rival. Unfortunately, William Canfield Jnr (Buster Keaton) is an effete college boy. Worse still, he has fallen for the business rival’s daughter (Marion Byron). Featuring some of Buster’s finest and most dangerous stunts, it’s a health and safety nightmare maybe but it’s entertainment that will live forever. The final storm sequence is still as breathtaking today as it was on first release. Not a commercial success at the time, this is now rightly regarded as a Keaton classic. Find out more at Wikipedia. In The Balloonatic, Buster plays an amusement park attendent who finds himself on a runaway balloon that floats into the wilderness. When the balloon eventually lands he encounters a young outdoorswoman (Phylis Haver) who seems to be far more cut out for life in the wild than our hero. But while romance blossoms, there are still a lot of misadventures to endure. Find out more at busterkeaton.org. With live musical accompaniment by Andy Quin. Royal Holloway University, Egham, Surrey Link

16 October

Nosferatu (Dir. F W Murnau, 1922) (Screening format – not known, 96mins) A German Expressionis 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 masterwork 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 piano accompaniment by Neil Brand. T S Elliot Theater, Merton College, Oxford. Link

17 October

Blackmail (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 84mins) Alice White is the daughter of a shopkeeper in 1920’s London. Her boyfriend, Frank Webber is a Scotland Yard detective who seems more interested in police work than in her. Frank takes Alice out one night, but she has secretly arranged to meet another man. Later that night Alice agrees to go back to his flat to see his studio. The man has other ideas and as he tries to rape Alice, she defends herself and kills him with a bread knife. When the body is discovered, Frank is assigned to the case, he quickly determines that Alice is the killer, but so has someone else and blackmail is threatened. Alfred Hitchcock’s sinister, suspenseful tale of crime and romance is one of the last British silent films to be made (it was also released in a better known sound version). With his traditional cameo appearance in the first reel, to a spectacular moonlit chase through the British Museum in the final reel, Blackmail is a classic thriller from the Master of Suspense. Find out more at screenonline.org.uk With live piano accompaniment from Darius Battiwalla. RNCM, Manchester Link

18 October

7th Heaven (Dir. Frank Borzage, 1927) (Screening format – not known, 110mins) Chico (Charles Farrell) is a poor Parisian sewer cleaner who aspires to work his way out of his dead-end job and into the middle class. When he meets Diane (Janet Gaynor), an abused prostitute, he sympathizes with her plight and tells the police she’s his wife to prevent them from arresting her. To keep up the appearances of marriage, he invites Diane to live with him, and a real romance blossoms until Chico is drafted in the army at the start of World War I. Janet Gaynor won the Best Actress award at the very first Academy Awards for her role in this gorgeously romantic drama of star-crossed Parisian lovers. And with beautiful sets plus stunning camerawork, 7th Heaven is silent-era Hollywood at its most powerful. Find out more at silentfilm.org . Presented as part of the Cambridge Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Neil Brand. Queen’s Building, Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Link

My Boy (Dir. Victor Heerman, US, 1922) + Manhatta (Dir. Charles Sheeler/Paul Strand, US, 1921) (Screening format – not known, 55/11 mins) My Boy sees Jackie Coogan in his second starring role after Chaplin’sThe Kid. Here he plays a forlorn immigrant child, orphaned on his journey to America. When an old sea captain takes pity on him, giving him a home, things begin to look up. But when the captain himself is taken ill the boy’s future again looks perilous. Find out more at catalog.afi.com. Manhatta is a groundbreaking silent documentary capturing the beauty and majesty of the New York City in its streets, skyscrapers, bridges, rail yards and harbors. A collaboration between painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand, the intertitles include excerpts from the writings of Walt Whitman. Considered by some to be the first American avant-garde film, the primary objective of the film was to explore the relationship between photography and film; camera movement is kept to a minimum, as is incidental motion within each shot. Each frame provides a view of the city that has been carefully arranged into abstract compositions. Find out more at nytimes.com. Presented by South West Silents. With live piano accompaniment by Meg Morley. Cube Cinema, Bristol 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 Minima. The Old School, Cropwell Bishop, Notts. Link

19 October

Seven Footprints to Satan (Dir. Benjamin Christensen, US, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 70mins) In this long-lost scare flick, debonair man of leisure James Kirkham (Creighton Hale) is keen to travel the world before settling down with his fiancée Eve (Thelma Todd). On the eve of his departure the couple are kidnapped from a society ball and taken to a mansion populated by strange freaks and monsters, held prisoner by the mysterious master of the house… none other than Satan himself! This riotous – and on occasion salacious – movie is bags of fun. Think Carry–On Devil Worship crossed with The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and you get the general idea. The film’s subject matter was clearly a favourite of the director Benjamin Christensen who was already a veteran of the genre having achieved great success and notoriety with Haxan (1922), an unsettling and unique history of witchcraft and demonology. Find out more at aycyas.com . With live musical accompaniment from Jane Gardner (piano) and Roddy Long (violin). Hippodrome Cinema, Bo’ness Link

Light of Asia (Dir. Franz Osten, Ger/Ind, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 98mins) This visually ravishing account of the life story of the Buddha was the first collaboration of Munich born director Franz Osten and Bengali actor producer Himansu Rai. Alarmed by a prophecy that his son and heir will one day renounce the throne, King Suddhodana surrounds the young prince with riches and beautiful women and shields him from all knowledge of human suffering. Shot entirely on location at historical sites in India, this spectacular co-production blends documentary-style realism with fairy tale enchantment. Find out more at academia.edu Presented as part of the Cambridge Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by John Sweeney. Queen’s Building, Emmanuel College, Cambridge 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 un-authorised 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 masterwork 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. Presented by Talkies Community Cinema. With live organ accompaniment. Christ Church, Southgate, London N14 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 . With live music accompaniment by Haiku Salut. Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall, London Link

20 October

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 masterwork 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 soundtrack. Electric Cinema, Birmingham Link

Fragment of Empire (Dir. Fridrikh Ermler, USSR, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 109mins) Arriving home after 10 years, an amnesiac soldier gives out an agonized cry, “Where is Petersburg?”, as he stands lost in the new cityscape of Soviet Leningrad. Fridrikh Ermler’s Fragment of Empire has been referred to as the most important film in Soviet Cinema. It’s a bold claim, but justified by the synthesis of a powerful personal story and the critique it allows of the revolution as seen by a soldier stuck in a Tsarist past. The film opens in the chaos of a bloody battle in 1914 and follows with an extraordinary evocation of the main protagonist’s returning memory. As played by regular Ermler lead Fiodor Nikitin, his response to the social changes he sees is both moving and politically astute. Find out more at silentfilm.org Presented as part of the Cambridge Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne and Martin Pyne. Queen’s Building, Emmanuel College, Cambridge Link

Docks Of Hamburg (Dir. Erich Waschneck, Ger, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 96mins) This rare silent gem – a witty updating of the story of Carmen, is set in 1920s Hamburg. When Klaus, a ship’s mate, catches a young man thieving on board his ship, he’s duty-bound to report him. But on discovering that the culprit is a cross-dressing woman, Klaus falls madly – and dangerously – in love with her. The Hamburg docks are portrayed with striking realism (superb photography by Friedl Behn-Grund), while Alfred Junge’s atmospheric art direction conjures the city’s crazy nightlife. Find out more at imdb.comPresented as part of the Cambridge Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne. Queen’s Building, Emmanuel College, Cambridge Link

The Devious Path (aka Abwege) (Dir. GW Pabst, Ger, 1928) (Screening format – DCP, 98mins) An affluent lawyer (Gustav Diessl) neglects his wife (Brigitte Helm) and disapproves of her fashionable friends. Bored and sexually frustrated, she retaliates by abandoning herself to the pleasures of jazz-age Berlin. Featuring one of the most extraordinary, decadent nightclub scenes in all of Weimar cinema, this lesser-known film, now newly restored and ripe for rediscovery, sees director G W Pabst on top form. A great realist of Weimar-era cinema, Pabst uses a marital crisis to paint a shimmering portrait of society. Camerawork that is as unchained as Irene herself delves into a whirling world of luxury and vice, it lays out drug use and prostitution both in the bohemian milieu and among the putative better set. And like the painter in the film, the camera is beguiled by Irene’s gaze as it caresses actress Brigitte Helm. Wrapped in recherché robes and furs, Helm embodies a woman trapped in the gilded cage of marriage. And Irene’s attempt to flee is less of a threat to the continued existence of that institution than the ‘new woman’, with her bobbed hair and cigarette holder, which make a fascinating appearance in the film. Find out more at cinetext.wordpress.com. Presented by South West Silents. With live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney. Watershed, Bristol 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 filmmaking, in which non-professionals act out an ‘everyday’, uneventful story of several young Berliners using their Sunday to spend a flirtatious day together at a lake on the edge of the city. With its massive cast of unpaid extras enjoying the summer sun, this classic silent film feels remarkably modern. Find out more at archive.org. With live musical accompaniment by Jonny Best and the Frame Ensemble. Abbeydale Picture House, Sheffield Link

22 October

Neil Brand: The Silent Pianist Speaks This is a unique and memorable live show It pays tribute to the great filmmakers of the Silent Era and the magic of the accompanists who breathed life and sound into their work. Neil uses clips from some of the greatest moments in silent cinema to illustrate his 25-year career and the special place of music with silent film. Neil provides improvised accompaniment and laconic commentary on everything from deep focus to his own live cinema disasters. As well as taking a sidelong glance at his own globe-trotting 25-year career he investigates how music works with film by inviting the audience to score a love scene and culminates by accompanying a clip ‘sight unseen’ whilst simultaneously describing his reactions to it. Perth Theatre, Perth Link

23 October

The Wheels Of Chance (Dir. Harold M. Shaw , UK, 1922) (Screening format – 35mm, ? mins) + supporting programme of cycling shorts. The Wheels of Chance is a British Stoll Picture Production, adapted from H.G. Wells’s early comic novel of 1895, The Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll, which was written at the peak of what is known as the ‘Golden Age of the bicycle,’ when practical, comfortable bicycles first became widely and cheaply available, and before the rise of the automobile. The film was the second H.G. Wells’ story produced for the screen by Stoll, the first being Kipps (1921), shown at the Bioscope last year. Both productions were directed by Harold M. Shaw and starred comic acting phenomenon George K. Arthur. The hero of The Wheels of Chance, Hoopdriver, is a frustrated “draper’s assistant”, a badly paid, grinding position (and one which Wells briefly held); and yet he owns a bicycle and sets out on a bicycling tour on his annual ten days’ holiday and saves a girl from eloping with a bully. Hoopdriver is a typically Wellsian character, expertly brought to life by George K. Arthur. Find out more at ithankyouarthur.blogspot.com. Presented by the Kennington Bioscope. With live piano accompaniment. Cinema Museum, Lambeth, London Link

The Golem: How He Came Into The World (Dir. Carl Boese/Paul Wegener, Ger, 1920) (Screening Format – not known, 94mins) The only one of three films directed by and starring Paul Wegener concerning the Golem, a figure from Jewish folklore, to have survived, this is, along with The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), one of the key works of Expressionism, as well as being one of the earliest and most influential horror films. In medieval Prague, Rabbi Loew fears disaster for the Jewish community at the hands of the Christian Emperor. To defend his people, he creates from clay the Golem, whose awakening leads to a series of disasters in this visual feast. Find out more at filmmonthly.com . With live musical accompaniment from Paul Robinson’s HarmonieBand. Curzon, Clevedon Link

24 October

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 masterwork 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 soundtrack. Electric Cinema, Birmingham 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 masterwork 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 Presented by the Lucky Dog Picturehouse. With live musical accompaniment by Sam Watts. Brunel Museum, Rotherhithe Link

25 October

Dawn (Dir. Herbert Wilcox, GB, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 80 mins) One of the greatest British martyrs of World War I, Edith Cavell (1865-1915) was a distinguished nurse who moved to Brussels in 1907 to help establish an independent medical institution outside the control of the established churches. After war was declared in 1914 she became actively involved in helping to smuggle British fugitives out of Belgium, for which she was eventually caught, tried and sentenced to death. In the first of two adaptations of the Cavell story director Herbert Wilcox opted to stage the events primarily in the form of an atmospherically-shot suspense thriller, with Sybil Thorndike in the title role, one of her most memorable film appearances. Find out more at wikipedia.org. With live piano accompaniment from Darius Battiwalla. Square Chapel Arts, Halifax Link

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Dir. Lotte Reiniger , Ger, 1926) (Screening format – not known, 65mins) The first feature-length animation in film history, masterminded by Lotte Reiniger and hand-tinted frame by frame. Based on ‘The Arabian Nights’, the film tells the epic tale of Prince Achmed, who is tricked into mounting a magical flying horse by a wicked sorcerer. The horse carries Achmed off on a series of adventures, over the course of which he joins forces with young Aladdin, battles ogres and monsters and romances the beautiful Princess Peri Banu. Find out more at wikipedia.org . With recorded soundtrack. Cinema Museum, Lambeth Link

26 October

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 . Introduced by film programmer Geoff Andrew. With live piano accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link

Au Bonheur des Dames (aka Ladie’s Paradise) (Dir. Julien Duvivier, Fr, 1930) (Screening format – DCP, 90mins) Set within the glamourous world of a Parisian department store, Julien Duvivier’s long-forgotten masterpiece was one of the last silent films to be made in France and is ripe for rediscovery. Dita Parlo, a German actress who later appeared in Jean Vigo’s L’Atalante (1934) and Jean Renoir’s The Grand Illusion (1937), plays a wide-eyed innocent from the country who is relocated to the city of lights and is lured away from her uncle’s small shop by the richness of the department store. While Duvivier’s film celebrates the richness of Parisian life, it is, at the same time, a damning portrait of rampant consumerism and the demise of small, local shops. Directed by the iconic director of future celebrated French classics such as La belle équipe (1936), Pépé le Moko (1936) and Un carnet de bal (1937), Julien Duvivier’s breathtaking Au Bonheur des Dames will leave you laughing, crying and asking for more. Find out more at silentfilm.org. Presented by South West Silents. With live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne. Watershed, Bristol Link

Wonder of Creation (Dir. Hanns Walter Kornblum, Ger, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 92mins) The extraordinary silent documentary, Wunder der Schöpfung (‘Wonder of Creation’), is a unique document of human knowledge about the world and the universe in the 1920s. Fifteen special effects experts and nine cameramen were involved in the production of this beautifully tinted and toned film that combines documentary scenes, historical documents, fiction elements, animation scenes and educational impact. Wunder der Schöpfung is a classic example of German Kulturfilm, which predate documentaries as we know them today. They were often high-quality productions involving collaboration between mainstream film-makers and academics. Wunder der Schöpfung gives us a glimpse of astronomical knowledge circa 1925, it cleverly uses trick photography and animation to visualise scientific theories. Find out more at wikipedia.org With live musical accompaniment by Herschel 36 (Stuart Brown (drums/electronics) and Paul Harrison (keyboards/electronics) ) The Byre Theatre, St Andrews Link

27 October

Faust (Dir. F W Murnau, Ger, 1926) (Screening format – not known, 107mins) Like Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau is a towering figure of Weimar cinema, thanks to films such as Nosferatu (1922), The Last Laugh (1924), and, after moving to America, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927). Murnau’s approach to framing and his use of liberating camera movements suggested to subsequent filmmakers a new way of using the pictorial space. Faust, the director’s final German film, draws on sources including Marlowe and Goethe in service of the story of a man who makes a deal with the devil. At that time the most expensive film made in Germany, it remains a visual triumph. Find out more at rogerebert.com. With recorded score. Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford Link

Happy Birthday Mr Paul British film pioneer Robert William Paul was born in London 150 years ago this month. After an accidental start in ‘animated photography’, he established the first real film studio in North London in 1898, and with his wife Ellen made over 700 films, creating the foundations for what we take for granted as cinema today. In this unique anniversary celebration, Ian Christie will reveal the hidden history behind this genius pioneer, highlighting recent discoveries and restorations from around the world. Find out more at screenonline.org.uk Introduced by Bryony Dixon. With live musical accompaniment. BFI Southbank, London Link

The Fight for the Matterhorn (aka Der Kampf ums Matterhorn) (Dir. Mario Bonnard/Nunzio Malsomma, Ger, 1928) (Screening format – DCP, 117mins) Out of the studio and into the wild: this Alpine thriller (a peculiarly German genre) combining depictions of historical events with a jealousy sub–plot is based on the true story of English climber Edward Whymper who vies with Jean-Antoine Carrel, an Italian mountain guide, to conquer the Matterhorn, the last peak in the Alps still left unclimbed. Tyrolean athlete Luis Trenker, later a leading director, cuts a dash as the mean and moody Italian. The breathtaking camerawork showcases extensive sequences of great realism and naturalism, with striking compositions of the Alps that create nail-biting suspense. Find out more at giornatedelcinemamuto.it. Presented by South West Silents. With live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne. Watershed, Bristol Link

Buster Keaton Short Film Fun and Kids Workshop A screening of three classic Keaton shorts, The Scarecrow (1920), The Boat (1921) and, just in time for Halloween, The Haunted House (1921). Plus a hands-on workshop, Making Music and Sound for Silent Film for kids and parents exploring how sound and music ‘tell the story’ in film. With live piano accompaniment by Lillian Henley. Palace Cinema, Broadstairs 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 masterwork 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 Tony Judge. Jacaranda Records, Liverpool Link

28 October

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 accordionist Francis Strange. The Clockwork Rose, Bristol Link

Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Dir. Benjamin Christensen, Swe., 1922) ( Screening format – not known, 105mins) A fictionalized documentary with dramatic reconstructions showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in modern (1922) Europe. Based partly on Christensen’s study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century German guide for inquisitors, Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch hunts. Although it won acclaim in Denmark and Sweden when first released, Haxan was heavily censored or banned outright in many countries. But it is now considered to be Christensen’s finest work, a witches’ brew of the scary, the grotesque, and the darkly humorous. Find out more at thedevilsmanor.blogspot.co.uk . With live musical accompaniment by The Begotten. Prince Charles Cinema, London Link

29 October

Within Our Gates (Dir. Oscar Micheaux, US, 1920) (Screening format – not known, 79mins) The oldest known surviving film made by an African-American director, Within Our Gates is a searing account of the US racial situation during the early twentieth century, including the years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Migration of Southern blacks to cities in the North, and the emergence of the “New Negro”. Directed by Oscar Micheaux, the film is one of the earliest and finest examples in the genre of “race films”. Produced outside the main Hollywood machine, these films were purposefully made for an all-black audience, featured black actors, and became important arenas through which representations of African-Americans in mass culture were contested. In the film, an educated African American woman, abandoned by her fiancé, with a shocking past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished youths. Within Our Gates was created in response D.W. Griffiith’s notorious The Birth of a Nation (1915) which depicted southern Whites in need of the Ku Klux Klan to protect them from bloodthirsty Blacks. This is the second (and earliest surviving) of 44 films Micheaux produced and directed over the course of three decades. It has been restored with its title cards translated back into English. Although there are missing scenes, the film still holds intact for a memorable experience. Find out more at silentfilm.org. Presented as part of the Africa in Motion Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by an ensemble of young musicians. Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow Link

The Hands of Orlac (Dir. Robert Weine, 1924) (Screening format – not known, 92mins ) A gruesome psychological horror about a talented concert pianist (Conrad Veidt, ‘Casablanca’), whose precious hands are amputated after a calamitous accident. Replacements are grafted on but soon after his operation Orlac learns the horrible truth – his new hands were from the cadaver of a recently executed killer. Plagued by nightmarish visions, Orlac fears his hands are possessed by evil and that he has become a murderer himself. Made five years after his landmark ‘Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ director Robert Weine strikes a more sombre and restrained look for this creepy drama but wrings every terrible shudder out of the theme of an alien body with a mind of its own. Find out more at slantmagazine.com . Presented in association with Southbank Silents. With live piano accompaniment by meg Morley. 1901 Arts Club, Waterloo, London Link

30 October

South West Silents Club Night – featuring Clara Bow For their first club night of the season SWS make a departure from their normal brief of the more left-field offerings; this rarely screened surprise film was a blockbuster hit, helped define an era and a generation, created a star of its leading lady, Clara Bow and even entered the language. Silent screen goddess Bow was the embodiment of the Roaring Twenties, Hollywood’s first sex symbol and a natural talent with an independent heart. Presented by South West Silents. With recorded score. The Landsdown Public House, Clifton, Bristol Link

31 October

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 masterwork 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 piano accompaniment by Jonny Best. Firth Hall, University of Sheffield Link

The Man Who Laughs (Dir. Paul Leni, USA, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 110mins) In an effort to top the critical and financial success of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera, studio head Carl Laemmle recruited two influential artists of the German Expressionist school: actor Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) and director Paul Leni (Waxworks). The shadowy exteriors, the carnival setting, the demonically misshapen “hero” made The Man Who Laughs something entirely new to American cinema-the foundation upon which the classic Universal horror films would be built. Veidt stars as Gwynplaine, a nobleman’s son who is kidnapped by a political enemy, and then is mutilated by a gypsy “surgeon” who carves a monstrous smile upon his face. Finding shelter in a traveling freak-show, he falls in love with a blind girl (The Phantom Of the Opera‘s Mary Philbin), the one person who cannot be repulsed by his appearance. As years pass, the hand of fate draws Gwynplaine back into the world of political intrigue. He becomes the plaything of a jaded duchess (Freaks‘ Olga Baclanova), and his enemies renew their efforts to control him. Find out more at rogerebert.com. Presented by South West Silents. With live piano accompaniment by Meg Morley. Bristol Cathedral, Bristol Link

Silentfilmcalendar.org

The silent film listing site

October 2019

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