Watch your step, Pordenauts. Leaving the Verdi after the first afternoon of screenings at this sun-soaked Giornate, I almost walked into the path of the Pordenone Pnthlon relay race. A timely reminder that this festival of silent cinema is a marathon not a sprint, so get set, but don’t tear off too fast, we have eight days ahead of us.
Continue reading Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2023: Pordenone Post No 1
The White Sister (1923): Lillian Gish’s leap of faith
This is a guest post for Silent London by James Patterson.
In a 1909 Los Angeles Times review of F. Marion Crawford’s novel The White Sister, the critic noted that Crawford (1854-1909) was “a greater favourite” in Europe “than any other American”. (1) The book is about a young woman who upon learning her fiancé is killed on a foreign mission, enters a convent to become a hospital nun. According to the LA Times, the novel has a happy ending. Spoiler alert: The 1923 film version with Lillian Gish (1893-993) and Ronald Colman (1891-1958) does not end happily.
The White Sister was a popular stage play in the U.S. with actress Viola Allen (1867-1948), who starred in the first film version in 1915. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said the film “is one of the important and pretentious attractions that has been achieved since the invention of motion pictures, for it not only presents a legitimate star in the play in which she was successful but also shows a distinct advance in the art of animated photography.” Publicity for the film boasted: “It was the most beautiful story ever written about a man’s devotion and a woman’s self-sacrifice.” Sadly, the 1915 version of The White Sister, an Essanay production, is among the thousands of lost silent films.
Continue reading The White Sister (1923): Lillian Gish’s leap of faith
Happy dance
“Just a little note” is so often code for “here comes some shameless self-promotion”. So, here goes.
Just a little note to say that today is publication day for my second BFI Film Classic. As I posted earlier in the year it is on The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948), a film with several connections to silent cinema and to the Roaring Twenties – but strictly speaking, off-topic for this website. Still, I hope that if you love the film, you like the book.
The BFI has just launched its Cinema Unbound epic celebration of Powell and Pressburger and The Red Shoes will be re-released on 8 December. So I will be speaking at lots of screenings of the film across the country. To find out where I will be and when, follow me on Twitter/X or Blue Sky or check back here every so often.
The book is available from all good bookshops, and the publisher’s page is here. I am delighted to have had some press mentions already, but all reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are very, very gratefully received. Thanks so much for reading!
The Signal Tower (Clarence Brown, 1924): the romance of the rails
I originally wrote this piece for Sight and Sound in 2019, after seeing The Signal Tower at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I am sharing it here because the festival is making the film available to stream for 24 hours to celebrate Silent Movie Day.
On a remote stretch of American railroad, a hard-working signal operator and his family are terrorised by a snarling villain. While his pretty young wife defends her virtue against the intruder’s threats, our hero engages in a thrilling race to the rescue to save a runaway train. It could easily be the plot of one of D.W. Griffith’s early short melodramas, but this is Clarence Brown’s The Signal Tower, a fully fledged feature film from 1924, adapted from a short story by Wadsworth Camp.
Continue reading The Signal Tower (Clarence Brown, 1924): the romance of the rails
Pordenone season
Fall vibes. It’s giving pumpkin spice lattes, mellow fruitfulness, Luke Danes in a flannel shirt and the scent of a freshly sharpened pencil. This autumnal atmosphere can only mean one thing. Pack your bags, gang, we’re going to Pordenone.
The Pordenone Silent Film Festival hasn’t begun yet, it runs 7-14 October, but today the programme was announced, so let’s take a look and enjoy some shivers of anticipation. Shivers? Best put a cardigan on, it’s October.
Continue reading Pordenone season
A Chaplin tribute to Carl Davis
We were shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Carl Davis last month. I am very sorry to relate that his wife, Jean Boht, also passed earlier this month. I am sure you will join me in sending condolences to the family.
On a happier note, I am able to share with you an occasion to celebrate Carl’s life and work – as well as his love of Charlie Chaplin – at the Garden Cinema, central London, on 15 October.
In a celebration of Carl’s life and work, Bar Shorts will screen three silent Charlie Chaplin Mutual Films with scores composed by Carl at The Garden Cinema in Covent Garden at 2pm on Sunday 15 October. These shorts are rarely seen and chart the trajectory of the young Chaplin as he made his way from the new kid on the block to iconic film star. The films were programmed for Bar Shorts by Carl just before he died. Curated by our friend the double BAFTA-nominated television and film writer and director Chris Shepherd and Dog&Rabbit Animation, the programme will be followed by a Q&A with Carl’s daughter Jessie.
This promises to be a beautiful way to remember Carl. The films screening will be:
Behind the Screen (1916) 25 Minutes
The Cure (1917) 25 Minutes
The Immigrant (1917) 25 Minutes
Watch Theda Bara in Cleopatra (1917): lost footage rediscovered
A major discovery screened Mostly Lost this year. Researcher James Fennell has identified a clip from some footage purchased on eBay as scenes from one of the most sought-after “lost films” of all time: Cleopatra (1917), starring iconic vamp Theda Bara. While the image of Theda Bara in her risqué pearl breastplate (now on display at the V&A as part of the Diva exhibition) is well known to all silent cinema fans, the film itself has long been missing.
Continue reading Watch Theda Bara in Cleopatra (1917): lost footage rediscovered
Brigitte Helm: the perils of hedonism
There is no face more closely associated with the grandeur of Weimar Cinema than that of Brigitte Helm. Her first appearance on film was in the iconic dual-role of the teacher and the robot in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927). As the villainous clone, her frenzied dancing and her kohl-rimmed eyes in winking close-ups incarnated a particularly timely force of evil: the giddy whirl of decadent 1920s Berlin. This was a time, according to German politician Gustav Stresemann, in which the people of Germany, intoxicated by the possibilities of the post-war world, were dancing on a volcano. Danger was afoot. In Metropolis, Helm’s crooked finger lured the hapless citizens to the brink. And audiences followed.
Pirmoji Banga 2023: Come up and see Mae sometime
Life is short, people are busy, most of us have no time to waste. Pirmoji Banga, Vilnius’s hip festival of silent and early sound cinema, knows the importance of getting straight to the good stuff. How so? When the festival’s remit covers decades of film history?
In 2023, Pirmoji Banga, directed and curated by Aleksas Gilaitis, concentrated solely on the female contribution to beginning of film, which we all know by now is substantial. This year’s edition of Lithuanian festival Pirmoji Banga screened films starring Asta Nielsen, Mae West, Brigitte Helm and Louise Brooks, directed by Elvira Notari and Lotte Reiniger, and female-led stories such as The Nortull Gang, directed by Per Lindberg in 1923. Beautiful programming.
Continue reading Pirmoji Banga 2023: Come up and see Mae sometime
Buster goes to the seaside: Kent MOMI relaunches this week
I first visited Kent Museum of the Moving Image back in 2019. This museum in Deal has a fascinating, and extensive, collection of material relating to the moving image. I remember I was particularly struck by a beautifully detailed reconstruction of Googie Withers’ dressing table as well as a gorgeous set of magic lanterns, dioramas and other pre-cinema treasures. Now, the big news is that Kent MOMI is about to relaunch in grand style, this week.
Continue reading Buster goes to the seaside: Kent MOMI relaunches this week
In memoriam: Carl Davis
I wanted to write something about Carl Davis, but I didn’t really know where to begin. Other people can say far more intelligent things about his music. Other people were in the right time at the right place.
But for an accident of birth, my first introduction to the work of Carl Davis might have been his astonishing score for The World at War, or more aptly for my interests, his collaborations with Kevin Brownlow and David Gill on the Thames Silents, or on the landmark television series Hollywood. I was lucky however, to be exactly this age: I was a bookish teenager when the BBC broadcast Pride and Prejudice, adapted by Andrew Davies, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, and with a soundtrack by Carl Davis. Formative.
Continue reading In memoriam: Carl Davis
Open Pandora’s Box on Eureka Blu-ray this year
Blulu-ray? Brooks set?
No, I’ll start again.
Very welcome news from Eureka Entertainment! The good people of Eureka, who have brought us so many beautiful silent film Blu-rays, in the past are releasing Pandora’s Box (GW Pabst, 1929) on Blu-ray on 30 October this year. This is the film’s debut on Blu-ray in the UK.
Continue reading Open Pandora’s Box on Eureka Blu-ray this year
Shhh… Chichester International Film Festival celebrates the silents
This August, silent film fans in search of a summer holiday should take trip to sunny West Sussex, and the Chichester International Film Festival. The festival is now in its 31st year, and in 2023 Roger Gibson steps down as Artistic Director and Programmer of the festival, a post he has held for many years. It’s no coincidence that there are a few of his favourite films in the programme, including some of the silent classics.
In fact, there is an especially strong lineup of silent cinema with live music at the festival this year, which runs 4-27 August. The silent film programme comprises Neil Brand’s acclaimed Laurel and Hardy show, John Sweeney playing for Gibson’s choice The Italian Straw Hat, Ben Hall accompanying The Phantom of the Opera on the St John’s Chapel organ, and the Buster Plays Buster show featuring Steamboat Bill, Jr. There’s also a screening of Harold Lloyd’s jaw-dropping stunt comedy Safety Last!.
Here is the full silent lineup, and links for booking tickets, which will be on sale on Friday 21 July.
- 13 & 26 August Safety Last!, New Park Cinema, Chichester – book here.
- 15 August The Italian Straw Hat with John Sweeney, Guildhall, Priory Park, Chichester – book here.
- 16 August Buster Plays Buster, Guildhall, Priory Park, Chichester – book here.
- 22 August Neil Brand Presents Laurel and Hardy, New Park Cinema, Chichester – book here.
- 25 August The Phantom of the Opera, St John’s Chapel, Chichester – book here.
- Explore the full lineup of the 2023 Chichester International Film Festival here, and the Special Events in particular here.
- I am also giving a talk at the festival, on the career of Cate Blanchett, who is the subject of a retrospective strand, and strikes permitting, Roger and I will be leading a Q&A with the actress after a screening of the fabulous Tár. Both of these events are on 21 August.
- Silent London will always be free to all readers. If you enjoy checking in with the site, including reports from silent film festivals, features and reviews, please consider shouting me a coffee on my Ko-Fi page.
The mechanics of Mission: Impossible
Spoiler alert: this post is mostly about the very end of the new Mission: Impossible film, Dead Reckoning: Part one. Don’t read on until you have seen that, or you will be very angry with me.
I have written here before about how the stunt movie and the art of silent slapstick intersect – the inspiration that time was John Wick, with its old-school fight choreography. New in the cinemas this week is the latest film in the Mission: Impossible franchise, starring Tom Cruise, a man who has long insisted that he does all his own stunts, just like a latterday silent star.
Continue reading The mechanics of Mission: Impossible
Il Cinema Ritrovato 2023: women who worry and men who don’t
Someone just asked me if I were back from Bologna yet. Oops. I have been back home for over a week now, but I haven’t written anything about the festival. So here I am, to tell you what rocked my world at Il Cinema Ritrovato. This year I enjoyed a truly excellent programme, and some even more excellent company. Here are some of my highlights, of the silent variety.
The Story of Victorian Film by Bryony Dixon: experiments that changed the world
A quick note to tell you about a book you will want to read. The Story of Victorian Film by Bryony Dixon is published by BFI Bloomsbury on 7 September and it is available to pre-order now. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy earlier this year, and I can tell you that it this book is an absolute delight. It’s an excellent introduction to the concept of 19th-century British cinema, but there is plenty here to intrigue people who are already familiar with the topic.
Continue reading The Story of Victorian Film by Bryony Dixon: experiments that changed the world
Silent Cinema Rediscovered: Salomé, Together and more in Bristol
Buongiorno! This sultry summer weather is doing its best to convince me that I am still in Bologna when I am closer to Bognor. But there is a cure for the post-Ritrovato comedown in the offing – and this medicine will be available out west, in Bristol, at the end of the month.
This year’s Cinema Rediscovered festival (26-30 July) has released its full lineup, and it is a many-splendoured jewel indeed. Especially if you are interested in the work of women directors: Bette Gordon, Kira Muratova, Chantal Akerman, Mai Zetterling, Sofia Coppola and many more are featured in the programme.
Let us pause, however, to consider the silents.
Continue reading Silent Cinema Rediscovered: Salomé, Together and more in Bristol
BFI Film on Film Festival: Special offer for Silent London readers
Love film? Yeah I thought so. Next week, the BFI Film on FIlm Festival takes place at BFI Southbank – a very special event where everything shown will be projected on the good old analogue stuff. The full programme is here and it is amazing. The films are showing 8-11 June, and each one is bound to be a hot ticket.
Needless to say, the silent films in the programme will be shown with live music. And I have a special offer for Silent London readers, who can get two tickets for the price of one on a double-bill of beautiful, quintessentially British films scripted by Lydia Hayward and directed by Manning Haynes. These are two of the films that were adapted from the stories of British comic writer W.W. Jacobs – think Jerome K. Jerome or P.G. Wodehouse.
Continue reading BFI Film on Film Festival: Special offer for Silent London readers
The Dance of Cartesian Dualism
This is a guest post for Silent London by Daniel Riccuito, David Cairns and Tom Sutpen. If you like this, you will love The Chiseler.
It is the custom of illuminated manuscripts to transform sacred words into shimmering icons which break, easily, beyond the sensory limitations of simple text, rendering ordinary letters into evocative, animate visual forms that invite the eye to idle awhile at the brink of transcendence, rather than standing at a distance, remote and unyielding, daring to be comprehended, accepted, believed. Strange and barely recognizable wildlife appears on vellum leaves, creatures that wind and unwind in ceaseless whirlpools of bejeweled abstraction. Or they are, if you prefer, the spirited exoskeletons of snakes, dragons, waterbirds — Celtic and Germanic obsessions meeting the Apostles of Christendom. Emerging in the British Isles between 500–900 C.E., The Lindisfarne Gospels provide an arena, lapidary and starlit, where paganism devours Christianity while also birthing the religion anew into what can only be described, if you’re honest, as “motion pictures”.
Continue reading The Dance of Cartesian Dualism
Silent dispatches Spring 2023: essays, films and festivals
Film on Film Festival
Lots to enjoy at the BFI Film on Film festival this summer (8-10 June) but now the lineup is out we can confirm that there are silents to be savoured among the banquet. British silents in fact: The First Born (Miles Mander, 1928), and two Manning Haynes films: Sam’s Boy (1922) and The Boatswain’s Mate (1924). All three films with be screened on vintage prints with live piano accompaniment, naturally. And I am also intrigued by a programme of dialogue-free “visual documentaries” dating from 1947-71 with live musical accompaniment.
Stella Dallas
Register now at the Film Foundation Screening Room for access to a stream of Henry King’s sublime Stella Dallas (1925), starring Belle Bennett. This is the new, MOMA restoration of the film, and it will screen with a recording of Stephen Horne’s gorgeous score. Don’t miss out.
Weimar Cinema Spring 2023
Remember I told you about the fabulous resource that is WeimarCinema.org? This comprehensive website is also a journal, and the Spring 2023 edition has just been published. Contents include a dossier by Oksana Bulgakova on the difficult reception of Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin in Berlin in 1926, as well as essays by Tom Gunning, So Mayer, Tatjana Hramova, Leonard Quaresima, Michael Cowan and Anton Kaes. Oh, and, um, me on Pabst. I especially enjoyed reading Mayer on Queer Weimar Cinema Across Borders, ahead of tomorrow’s Gender Rebels event in Bristol.
Continue reading Silent dispatches Spring 2023: essays, films and festivals
Silent London 