A wholly gratuitous, but festive, picture of Louise Brooks
Last month, I asked you beautiful people to fill in the Silent London survey – it was a little longer and more involved than usual, but with more free choice options, so thanks all for your time, care and patience.
The results are now in, and I now know a little more about you, your silent movie watching habits and what most impressed and entertained you this year. First I want you to meet the readers. Hello you, this is you:
Where you are
Most of you are in London understandably, around 39%. But the rest of you are more likely to be found in the rest of the world (36%) than the UK (25%) Global reach!
What you watch, how and where
Most of you, 40%, watch silents once or twice a month. Hats off to the seven percent of you who watch ’em more often than once or twice a week! The rest of you more or less evenly were divided between occasional viewers and the impressive group of you sitting down to a silent film once or twice a week.
Vote now – Marion is standing by to collate your responses.
Hello dear readers. Unfortunately we took a break in 2013, but this year we want to resume normal service and bring back the Silent London Poll. It’s an expanded survey this year – you can vote for your favourite screening in several categories, your favourite venue and festival, and even your silent hero of 2014.
It won’t take you long to fill in, and we’ll be publishing the results on the site at the end of the year, so please have a little think about your highlights of the year, and share your favourites with everyone else!
The poll closes on 18 December 2014. Thanks for taking part!
It’s enough to rekindle your faith in democracy. This year’s Silent London Poll was our biggest ever – with more than 1,500 votes cast and, I suspect, some hard lobbying on behalf of your favourite shows.
The Nosferatu event gathered a massive 42% of the vote (and there were votes cast for some of Minima’s other performances this year) but an honourable second place goes to the stunning screening of Faust at the Royal Festival Hall with its romantic orchestral score by Aphrodite Raickopoulou.
Thanks for your votes and for sharing the poll – it all adds evidence to the impression that it has been a great year for silent film in the country. Happy new year!
It’s cold, it’s dark, I’m increasingly tempted by a glass of port before bed: it must be December. And that means it’s time to gather your votes in the annual Silent London Poll. As before, we’re trying to find your favourite silent film and live music show. The only rule is that you must have seen it this year, in the UK.
To get the ballots rolling, I have consulted with some avid silent cinema fans and together we have drawn up a very long shortlist. All you need to do is to vote for the show you enjoyed the most this year, or suggest an alternative. Then tell all your friends to vote too.
The winner will be announced here on this very site, before the year is out.
Ach, it’s no fun being a silent cinema purist sometimes. And while I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself that way very often, I was pretty sure I was in the fun-hating minority when the UK DVD release of Moroder’s Metropolis was first announced. Just to make sure, I ran a poll here on Silent London to find out what you guys think.
If you need to refresh your memory, Giorgio Moroder’s version came out in 1984 and looks very different to the latest restoration. Working with the most complete version of the film he could find at the time, Moroder added a rock soundtrack, washed some different scenes with bright tints and made the whole thing run faster by removing the intertitles and using the text for subtitles. It’s a strange beast, and perhaps needless to say, a cult favourite.
You ruddy love it. Well, some of you do. Quite a few of you like it, and while there’s a solid 20% with me, arms crossed and tutting in the outraged camp, you have convinced me to give Moroder’s Metropolis another go. What’s the worst that can happen? I first saw it many moons ago, on a worn-out VHS borrowed from the college library. Since then, I’ve seen the beautiful new restoration of the original film, and my appreciation for Metropolis has only grown. I hope I have lightened up a little, and I have even learned to play a Pat Benatar song on Guitar Hero.
So I’ll definitely be taking a look at the DVD when it is released on 23 July this year. Apparently it’s arriving in a smart “steelbook” edition, and interestingly, you’ll be able to stream it on demand from www.metropolismovie.co.uk too.
In 1984, Oscar-winning composer Giorgio Moroder (Top Gun, Midnight Express, Flashdance) reintroduced Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction epic METROPOLIS to a new generation of moviegoers. He colourised scenes, added new subtitles, plus a throbbing rock soundtrack to Lang’s iconic imagery. Featuring songs from some of the biggest stars of the early MTV era: Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar, Adam Ant, Bonnie Tyler, Loverboy, Jon Anderson and others, it became a dramatic vehicle for Moroder’s visionary music and a beautiful retro-futurist timepiece. Through faithfully maintaining Lang’s intriguing and timeless storyline, today, it is this version of METROPOLIS that first comes to mind for millions around the world.
Yeah, that last sentence does still grate a little… watch this space.
Giorgio Moroder, at the controls of his own 'heart machine'
Last year, we reported that Kino Lorber was releasing Giorgio Moroder’s musical re-edit of Fritz lang’s Metropolis on Blu-Ray in America – followed by a limited theatrical release. Now, Eureka Entertainment has announced a UK DVD/DVD steelbook release for the movie on 23 July 2012.
If you need to refresh your memory, Giorgio Moroder’s version came out in 1984 and looks very different to the latest restoration. Working with the most complete version of the film he could find at the time, Moroder added a rock soundtrack, washed some different scenes with bright tints and made the whole thing run faster by removing the intertitles and using the text for subtitles. It’s a strange beast, and perhaps needless to say, a cult favourite.
So – after all the recent excitement over the “complete” Metropolis, are you horrified by the thought of watching Moroder’s hard-rocking version? Or do you have fond memories of this “retro-futurist” experiment? Perhaps it was the the first silent movie you saw and it holds happy memories of your first steps into early cinema? Maybe you’re just a big Freddie Mercury fan. Let us know what you think by completing our poll, or commenting below
Thanks to all who nominated their favourite silent film and live music shows of the year – and to those who voted in the final poll. We had five worthy nominees on the short list, but I can reveal that the winner is … Lola Perrin’s score for the Victor Sjostrom’s The Wind, first performed this year at the BFI Southbank as part of the Birds Eye View Sound and Silents programme. Congratulations, Lola!
If you missed it (and I did, sadly), you can see Lola Perrin perform her live piano score to The Wind again at the Duke of York’s Picturehouse in Brighton in March. Visit Lola Perrin’s website to find out more.
It’s not over yet, but 2011 has been a stonking year for silent film with live music in the UK. We’ve had orchestras, skiffle bands, sitars, string quartets and even piano accompaniment, alongside some wonderful films. As is now traditional (almost) I want to celebrate this by asking you for your highlights of the year.
What were the standout silent film and live music shows for you in 2011? The Passion of Joan of Arc with Adrian Utley and Will Gregory’s rock score, or Voices of Light? The BBC Symphony Orchestra playing Neil Brand’s wonderful score for Underground? Stephen Horne’s London Film Festival Archive Gala performance of The First Born? Perhaps you preferred the Dodge Brother’s skiffle soundtrack for Beggars of Life or The Ghost That Never Returns. Maybe you were lucky enough to catch a live performance of Simon Fisher Turner’s experimental music for The Great White Silence, or one of many shows from last year’s winners, Minima. And let’s not forget John Garden’s tour of The Lost World or the Elysian Quartet’s reconstructed score for The Old and the New. There are, of course, far too many to mention here – you may have heard an organ score in a cathedral or museum that you liked, or a piano accompaniment in the BFI that was particularly memorable.
What I’d like to do is to collect your nominations for your favourite show in the UK this year and then I’ll be running a poll on the website in a fortnight’s time. It’s kind of like The X Factor, but not much. So, please, nominate your favourite shows in the comments below, or get in touch on Facebook or Twitter. I can’t wait to find out what you’ve chosen!
Nominations close at noon on Sunday 18 December and the poll should go live on Monday morning.
The Silent London End of Year Poll was never going to rival the ones you read in Sight & Sound and the broadsheets, I suppose. But I was heartened that so many of you did respond to my call for the best silent film show of 2010 – and fascinated by your choices, too. The big surprise was that no one mentioned Metropolis. There were a few votes for freshly restored Chaplin films, one for Natalie Clein’s sensitive cello score for The Temptress at Kings Place in May, a tantalising description of Stephen Horne’s soundtrack to La Princess Mandane as “genius” from Pam Cook on Twitter, a shout-out for the witty The Golden Butterfly (both shown as part of the Fashion in Film festival) and a “riotous” village-hall screening of Seven Chances (1925). Luke McKernan picked two films, both of which he described as “wildly obscure”: an anthropological documentary called Rituals and Festivals of the Borôro that screened at Pordenone and another vote for Stephen Horne, with his reconstruction of the score for The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks (1917). Not seen those? Never mind – I’m sure you’ll sympathise with McKernan’s conclusion that the first film: “reminded me of why film is the most compelling medium, and silent film especially so”. But finally, with a whopping two votes (one on Twitter and another by email), the winner is the East End Film Festival’s screening of Hitchcock’s The Lodger, soundtracked by Minima. Congratulations – I was there as well and I thought it was a marvellous evening.
There are a heck of a lot of end-of-year lists floating around at the moment. But most of them are dominated by talkies. To rectify this, allow me to present The Silent London End of Year Poll. I’m looking for the best silent film show of the year – anywhere in the world. And I’d like your help.
If you love going to watch silent films with live music then there have been ample opportunities to indulge your passion this year. The scene is thriving in London, not that we wouldn’t like to see more screenings. And my Twitter spies tell me that from New York to Paris to California to Sussex people are enjoying silent cinema shows of all kinds. So what has been your personal highlight of 2010? The show that introduced you to silent film or reinvigorated your appreciation of it? A new film or musician that blew you away – or a classic done just right?
Silent London 