Screening, Special offer

BFI Film on Film Festival: Special offer for Silent London readers

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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.

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The Dance of Cartesian Dualism

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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”.

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Silent dispatches Spring 2023: essays, films and festivals

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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 (1925)
Stella Dallas (1925)

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.

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Screening, Special offer

The Lodger and Minima: Special offer for Silent London readers

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How are things? I know, right? I can’t be much help I am afraid, but I can share a discount for an evening of great cinema and live music.

Interested? Riverside Studios is screening the first true Hitchcock film (according to the man himself) The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) on Saturday 29 April at 6pm with a live score from silent film specialists Minima – and I can offer you a special discount code for tickets.

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Ossi, Marion and Julie: Gender Rebels in Bristol

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A quick note about an event I am taking part in, in Bristol this month. The Slapstick Festival is hosting a day devoted to “Gender Rebels”, with a triple-bill of films on the theme of early-20th-century cross-dressing, starring Ossi Oswalda, Marion Davies and Julie Andrews:

I Don’t Want to be A Man (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918)

Beverly of Graustark (Sidney Franklin, 1926)

Victor/Victoria (Blake Edwards, 1982)

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Bologna and beyond… Il Cinema Ritrovato 2023

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Ciao! Excellent news for fans of sunshine, young cinema and spritzesy. The first announcements for Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato have just been released. You can now read the first details of seasons devoted to such delights as 16mm films, 1903, 1923, Anna Magnani and to directors from Teinosuke Kinugasa to Rouben Mamoulian to Albert Samama Chikli. See you in the Piazza Maggiore!

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Blog, Festival

Hippfest 2023: the early days

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I don’t want you to get the idea I am wanted by the authorities, but I tend to move around a lot. So for the second year in a row, I was only in town for the first half of Hippfest – or the early, funny stuff, as I like to think of it.

I’ve said before that the programming at Hippfest, now in its 13th year, is impressively eclectic. I’d say that with extra emphasis during the midweek portion of the event. Actualities, fantasy, action, adventure, comedy, and a sheepdog smoking a pipe. What is not to love?

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1923 all over again

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So far, the 2020s may not be roaring, but they have given us a good excuse to look back at some films that have proved the meaning of the phrase, “standing the test of time”.

For the BFI website this week, I wrote this piece on 10 great films that were released in 1923, from Salomé to The Ten Commandments, A Woman of Paris to The Covered Wagon, Coeur Fidele to Warning Shadows. Lots of treats in here I promise. And yes, I was totally spoiled for choice.

The Covered Wagon (James Cruze, 1923)
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Hippfest hooray: the 2023 programme launches today

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Good news, Silent Londoners. Today is the day that Hippodrome Silent Film Festival announces the lineup for its 2023 edition!

As previously reported, the event runs 22-26 March 2023 and this year, there are festival passes available for the dedicated Hippfest die-hards. The best of people, in other words.

As I say, the full lineup goes live today, and you will be able to browse it at your leisure. Below: a few highlights from my little brain.

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At the talkies, Blog

Three Minutes: A Lengthening – the heartbreaking archive documentary on BBC iPlayer now

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Last year, I wrote about a fascinating film that only had a short theatrical release, for my Long Take column in Sight and Sound – but now it will live for a year on iPlayer, and I think it is well worth your time. Three Minutes: A Lengthening is directed by Bianca Stigter and has a voiceover by Helena Bonham-Carter. You may recognise its subject from the book Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film by Glenn Kurtz.

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The Silent London Poll of 2022: And the winners are …

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Well done everyone! The Silent London Poll of 2022 had a record-breaking number of votes, and the winners reflect a thriving, international silent film scene. Congratulations to all the people mentioned below, some of these categories were bursting with great nominations. Thank you for all your votes. And for making me blub a little when I was typing this up.

Without further ado, let me open this giant stack of golden envelopes. Here are your winners!

The Manxman (Alfred Hitchcock, 1929)

1. Best orchestral silent film screening of 2022

Your winner: The Manxman (Alfred Hitchcock, 1929), with a score composed by Stephen Horne, orchestrated and conducted by Ben Palmer and played by Orchestra San Marco di Pordenone, with soloists Louise Hayter and Jeff Moore, at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone.

I said: “Horne’s music is as deft as Hitch’s camera: always gorgeous, but sometimes delicate and other times thick with portents of doom… Needless to say, Hitch and Horne brought the Verdi to its feet once more.

Honorable mention: The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927) with a score conducted and composed by José María Serralde Ruiz, performed by Orchestra San Marco di Pordenone, , at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone.

La Dixième symphonie (Abel Gance, 1918)

2. Best silent film screening with a solo musician or small ensemble of 2022

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Review

Echoes of the North: Four Chapters in Time review: a stirringly evocative tour of times past

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It’s time to make a full confession. The title of this blog is a terrible deflection from the truth. I am, indeed, a northerner. Please forgive the vagueness. I am from Merseyside, but my family have lived in various places upwards from the middle of England, going back generations. So our accents may wander, but our vowels are consistently flatter than a Yorkshireman’s cap.

All of which means that Echoes of the North: Four Chapters in Time, a new archival film from the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival, is sweeter to me than a barm cake stuffed with hot chips and a mug of strong tea. The film is a stirring collage of silent film footage of northern England, bolstered with a charismatic brass-band score composed by Neil Brand (a southerner, but don’t hold it against him). The score is played expertly by the legendary Brighouse and Rastrick Band, conducted by Ben Palmer. Echoes of the North is produced by YSFF’s Jonny Best and edited by Andy Burns from more than 100 pieces of film. Best of all, it is free to watch on YouTube.

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At the talkies, Blog, Book

Book news: The Red Shoes

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“My memory goes back to the very first films. My ambition goes far ahead of today.”

Michael Powell, on the ballet sequence of The Red Shoes

Let me just tap this microphone a couple of times. Cough once. Thumbs up. We’re good to go? I have a little announcement to make and it is a wee bit off-topic.

You may remember that a few years back I wrote a book about Pandora’s Box (GW Pabst, 1929), in the BFI Film Classics series. That was fun. So much so that I wrote another one last year. But this one, full disclosure, is on a talkie.

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Season’s Greetings, Silent Londoners!

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Time to hang my stocking right next to my blogging shoes, I am signing off for the holidays now. I have annual traditions to attend to: exchanging gifts, cooking a large dinner for my family and writing a couple of essays on Weimar cinema.

This year hasn’t always been easy but the Silent London community has been full of enthusiasm and the spirit of exploration. It gladdens the heart. Thanks to everyone who interacted with these posts, either here or on social media and they many wonderful people I met at festivals. And an extra thank you to those of you who supported the Asta Nielsen season at BFI Southbank earlier this year – that meant a lot to me. All of you helped to make the year, and not just the season, bright!

Speaking of which – don’t forget to vote in the Silent London poll. Every vote really counts!

This is my Christmas card from me to you in 2022. I am wishing you a fabulous festive season and all the very best for 2023, with a little help from the wonderful Gloria Swanson!

Thanks for reading, take care, and I will see you n 2023!

  • 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.
Blog, Festival

Hippfest 2023: passes, podcasts and promises

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Save the date, Silent Londoners, The Scottish silent film festival with the warmest welcome in the world is back in 2023.

The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival at Scotland’s oldest purpose-built cinema, the Hippodrome in Bo’ness, will take place Wednesday 22 to Sunday 26 March 2023. The full programme and tickets will be released on Tuesday 7 February. Not too long to wait.

But there’s more news. A development many attendees have long been asking for – a festival pass!

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Blog, Poll

The Greatest Silent Film Poll of 2022: vote for your winners now

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Season’s greetings Silent Londoners. It’s that time of year when we like to look back at the year, and especially at all the great silent movies we watched.

Who knows what normal is any more? But this year we had in-person film festivals, seasons, screenings and conferences a-plenty. We had new books and DVDs to enjoy. New websites too! And honestly, silent cinema seems to be more popular than ever.

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Blog, Silent Hitchcock

Introducing Hitch-22

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This is a guest post for Silent London by Henry K. Miller. Here, Miller introduces Hitch-22, his “alternative chronology of 1922”, the first part of which is published today.

A typical day in Kevin Jackson’s Constellation of Genius, his engrossing chronology of 1922, much in the air in 2022, a year on from his untimely death, will have more than one entry, most often for events in London and Paris. The section on 4 March, however, begins in Berlin, with the first private screening of F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, no. 1 on the IMDb’s list of the most popular films of the year, Jackson tells us, before hopping over to London for no. 6 on the same list: Alfred Hitchcock’s Number Thirteen. The latter, not the former, makes the book’s back-cover blurb: 1922 was “the year in which James Joyce’s Ulysses and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land were published, Alfred Hitchcock directed his first feature, the Ottoman Empire collapsed…” Number Thirteen has dropped down to no. 15 in IMDb’s list in the decade since Constellation of Genius was published, perhaps reflecting a generational shift akin to Jeanne Dielman’s victory over Vertigo, but still the question remains: what is it doing there? There, specifically, on 4 March, but also, in a wider sense, in a book about modernism.

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Video: behind the scenes with Charlie Chaplin on City Lights

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The Criterion Collection has shared this very special clip with Silent London to mark the release of Chaplin’s City Lights on Blu-ray in the UK. It is presented courtesy of MK2.

In this footage we see Chaplin out of costume rehearsing one of the most graceful bits of comic business in the film, as the Tramp steps back to admire a statue in a department store window – with perilous results.

It’s a fascinating insight into the working processes of this famously perfectionist filmmaker, during what was very possibly his most painstaking, and certainly most protracted, shoot. It’s just one of the glimpses backstage offered on the new Blu-ray edition of the film.

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Silent shouts: books, blogs, festivals and more

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A few of the fabulous things on my radar right now…

WeimarCinema.org

Edited by Tony Kaes and Cynthia Walk, this capacious website is a comprehensive source for anyone studying, or refreshing their interest in, Weimar Cinema. There are guides to where to watch films online, other useful websites, and more traditional publications. They also publish “scholarly web-based essays that benefit from moving images and links”, so get in touch if you have something you’d like to write for them. I really liked this, by Paul Flaig, on “Chaplin’s cinematic promise”. They also welcome submissions of archival material, dossiers and updates to their listings.

British Cinema: A Very Short Introduction, by Charles Barr (Oxford University Press)

An entertaining and very informative tour of British film history, starting from the silent days of course, but taking a more productive route than a simple chronological tour. Yet, Barr covers everything from Rescued By Rover to Hitchock, Quota Quckies, Powell and Pressburger, Ealing, the British New Wave and Chariots of Fire right up to titles as recent as Last Night in Soho. I particularly enjoyed the way he paired films to discuss them, eg comparing such near-simultaneous yet wildly different releases as Downton Abbey and Sorry We Missed You. When you finish reading this valuable book you are sure to immediately turn the TV on to Talking Pictures, and I don’t blame you.

Amazon

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At the talkies, Blog

The silences of Jeanne Dielman and the greatest films of all time

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Something utterly radical has happened to the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll. This year, around 1,600 critics voted, more than ever before, and the winner of the poll was for the first time a film directed by a woman. A feminist art film from 1975 is now the greatest film of all time, according to the only poll that “most serious movie people take seriously” (Roger Ebert). That film is Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.

Only three other films have won before. Bicycle Thieves in 1952, and then for the next five polls, which take place every decade, Citizen Kane held the top spot. In 2012, Hitchcock knocked Welles off his perch with Vertigo.

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