It may seem that the Giornate is in its own bubble, a hundred years or more removed from the real world, wrapped up in the fashions and the fads of the past. But we’re still looking out at the world every day, and no matter how the text on screen tries to guide us, we bring our 21st-century interpretation to everything that passes in front of our eyes. Sometimes the challenge is to wind back the clock, to see the past as our ancestors did when they were living through it. Sometimes we have no choice but to view images of the world as it was while burdened with the knowledge of our shared history, and of our violent present.
Continue reading Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 5Tag Archives: Charlie Chaplin
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 4
Last night I dreamt I went to East Lynne again… Ellen Wood is directing my subconscious now. I love this mini melodrama strand and I really enjoyed today’s instalment, which was the lavish 1925 Fox adaptation, East Lynne (Emmett Flynn), scripted by Lenore Coffee and starring Edmund Lowe as Carlyle and Alma Rubens as Lady Isabel – a very handsome pair and just right for this ill-starred pair.
Continue reading Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 4
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 2
Is it still a pathetic fallacy even if the weather is true but the drama is not? As I set out to begin my day with some major melodrama, there was heavy weather in the skies above Pordenone also. We shook off the rain in the Verdi foyer, while we prepared to dampen our faces with tears during the first of this year’s adaptations of East Lynne.
Continue reading Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 2
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 1
The Giornate dawned with grey skies but good times, a respite from Storm Amy and all the rest of the week’s turbulence, a day of pretty views and outbreaks of mild escapism. Many of us were just grateful to be get here, let alone arrive on time, after the transport situation was especially complex this year. It was an especially mellow start to the festival for me. Blame it on the 3am alarm call, the cold medication or just the pleasurable daze of seeing so many familiar faces all at once. Will I sneeze or snooze my way through the first day of films? Who knows? And will my ears ever “unpop” from the plane? Join me now to find out.
Continue reading Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 1
A Woman of Paris (1923): Criterion releases Charlie Chaplin’s ‘drama of fate’
Bonjour mes amis. Aimez-vous les films de Charlie Chaplin ? Are you wearing your pearls? Supping on truffle soup? Tooting your toy saxophone? Bien, alors nous pouvons commencer.
I bring some excellent news from the Criterion Collection and from the realm of Chaplinland. Charlie Chaplin’s game-changing melodrama A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923), starring his muse Edna Purviance, will be released on Blu-ray and DVD from the Criterion Collection on 18 March in the US and 7 April in the UK. Some of you will have been waiting for this news for a long time.
And here she is, my copies arrived yesterday!
Continue reading A Woman of Paris (1923): Criterion releases Charlie Chaplin’s ‘drama of fate’
How Mabel Normand Made Her Mark in Comedy: “I had to cleave a new path to laughter”
This is a guest post for Silent London by Sean Crose, author of Catholic Girl: The Life and Times of Mabel Normand, published by BearManor Media. To order this biography of the iconic silent comedienne, click here.
“My first parts were all in tragedies,” Mabel Normand told the Los Angeles Examiner in 1924. “Mr Griffith never could see me as a comedienne.” Sure enough, Mabel, the pioneering comedic icon of the silent era, got her start in film doing tragedies for director DW Griffith. Difficult though it may be to imagine, Mabel was more apt to be found on screen back then trying to steal the husband of Mary Pickford’s character than performing the groundbreaking, sometimes quite dangerous, slapstick she would become famous for. Over ninety years after Mabel’s death at the far-too-young age of 37, it’s worth asking how she made the transition from tragedy to comedy so masterfully.
Continue reading How Mabel Normand Made Her Mark in Comedy: “I had to cleave a new path to laughter”
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
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
Video: behind the scenes with Charlie Chaplin on City Lights
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.
Continue reading Video: behind the scenes with Charlie Chaplin on City Lights
Win The Great Dictator on Blu-ray from Criterion Collection
The greatest political speech in film history is delivered by cinema’s most famous silent clown in 1940’s The Great Dictator. In this comic masterpiece, Charlie Chaplin writes, directs and stars as both a Jewish barber and the Fascist tyrant Adenoid Hynkel – any resemblance to a living person, in particular the leader of the Third Reich, was entirely intentional.
It is a timeless comedy of resistance and compassion in the face of evil, which uses physical comedy to puncture political megalomania. In short, a film worth breaking a vow of silence for.
Continue reading Win The Great Dictator on Blu-ray from Criterion Collection
Il Cinema Ritrovato: a week in 1922
Three little words of Italian you need to learn if you attend Il Cinema Ritrovato: Cento Anni Fa. This must-see strand of the festival, curated by Bologna’s silent cinema supremos Mariann Lewinsky and Karl Wratschko, dials back the programming clock by a century. The name means simply: a hundred years ago.
So it was that this week, in between blasts of restorative Italian sunshine and shots of iced coffee, I spent a week in the 1922 cinematic universe: a world of gorgeous location photography, penetrating psychodrama, impeccable slapstick and to generalise, a healthy number of female-led films (including a handful of nasty women). It was clearly a good year for the movies, so much so that even though I skipped some of the Cento Anni Fa screenings as they were already familiar to me (or outside my days at the festival), that left plenty of room to explore some less well-trod pathways through the year, one massive restoration project and at least one cult classic that I had been saving up for a big-screen viewing. Here are some of those highlights.
Continue reading Il Cinema Ritrovato: a week in 1922
Hippfest is back in Bo’Ness for 2022
Hippfest returns! You don’t know how happy it makes me to think about watching silent films with live music at the stunning Hippodrome in Bo’Ness.
The festival is held from Wednesday 16 to Sunday 20 March and the full toothsome lineup just dropped, as they say. Here are a few highlights, some of which have been postponed from the sadly cancelled 2020 edition. I am so ready.
- The Dodge Brothers accompany FW Murnau’s City Girl on Saturday night – this is the Scottish premiere of their brilliant score for this incredible, jaw-dropping Hollywood silent.
London Film Festival review: The Real Charlie Chaplin
It’s a bold, almost alarming title. At this distance, can it be possible to uncover The Real Charlie Chaplin? And if there is something hidden in the biography this most famous of filmmakers, one that can without trepidation be called an icon, might those of us who love his films really want to know?
Rest easy then, as this documentary by Peter Middleton and James Spinney (Notes on Blindness) has no disturbing revelations. That is, as long as you have already been reading those large gaps between the lines of his biography. Chaplin liked the company of young women – girls, in fact. He married teenagers. He sometimes (often?) treated them badly. It’s a been said before and it is stated again here without excuses or attacking the women such as Lita Grey who testified to his ill-treatment. This has been trumpeted in some quarters as a belated #MeToo reckoning for Chaplin. That would be very belated. In truth we have always known this, but some fans refuse to hear it.
Continue reading London Film Festival review: The Real Charlie Chaplin
Hollywood history: Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley
Quick question. Can you remember March 2020? Me neither. Far too long ago.
So, a few things have happened since then, but at the beginning of March I reported for the Guardian on film historian John Bengtson’s campaign to have one alley in Hollywood renamed in honour of Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd, who all shot famous scenes there. When I wrote the piece, I hoped to be visiting the alley to see it for myself quite soon. Now there’s a bad joke.
The point is, that the campaign continues, and gathers support. Also, I wanted to share this video John has made that sums up the importance of the alley rather smartly. Why share, give it a thumbs-up, or just enjoy the gags?
- Find out more about John’s campaign here.
- On a not-entirely-related topic, did you know that you can watch Il Cinema Ritrovato from home this year? Sign up here for a streaming pass.
- Eureka releases another great Buster Keaton box set next week, comprising College, Our Hospitality and Go West.
- 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.
Tulák Chaplin review: a ballet tribute to the Little Tramp
The thought of a telling a story without words never fazed Charlie Chaplin, creator of some of the most indelible silent films ever made. But can his own complex life story be related in just over two hours, in dance? I went to Bratislava to find out. Yes, really.
Tulák Chaplin (the name means “Chaplin, the Tramp” in Slovakian) is a bio-ballet for the slapstick star-director, which premiered at the Slovak National Theatre last March – that’s in beautiful Bratislava, Slovakia. It’s part of the celebrations for the 130th anniversary of Chaplin’s birth. The choreography is by the Brazilian Daniel De Andrade, whom you may know from his work with the Northern Ballet, and the score is by the estimable Carl Davis, whose work you certainly do know if you are a regular reader of this blog – he has written some of the most iconic orchestral scores for silent film, not least of which is his epic composition for Napoléon. The two collaborated once before on a commission for the same theatre – that time it was a portrait of Nijinsky, another great physical artist of the 20th century. Continue reading Tulák Chaplin review: a ballet tribute to the Little Tramp
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2019: Pordenone Post No 1
Charlie Chaplin, whose early masterpiece The Kid played this year’s Giornate opening-night gala, said some very wise things. Among which was the famous dictum that “a day without laughter is a day wasted”. It’s especially glorious to reflect on that idea after a day spent in fits of giggles in the Verdi. Today belonged to Chaplin, to Max Linder, to Suzanne Grandais and Léonce Perret. And more than that, to a rather more grand cosmic joke, played in Pordenone today, which thankfully had results rather more charming that catastrophic.
Yes, the slapstick gods truly smiled on us at the start of the 38th Giornate del Cinema Muto. How else to explain the fact that the industrious town of Pordenone had scheduled both a silent movie festival, and a marching band convention for the same day? Yes, a dozen or more brass bands were stepping around the piazza outside the Verdi reinterpreting pop and rock favourites, all while the afternoon films were playing. Fret not, the Verdi was entirely soundproofed, so there was no interruption to the excellent work of the day’s pianists. But just imagine what Messrs Chaplin and Linder might have made of such a circumstance?
Anyway, enough of my prattle. Welcome home! Today your humble correspondent enjoyed an especially fine afternoon of silent goodness, and she is feeling very buoyant indeed about the week to come. Continue reading Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2019: Pordenone Post No 1
No Joker: 10 sinister smiles in silent cinema
You may have noticed, due to the onslaught of thinkpieces and angry debate, that Todd Phillips’s Joker is released this weekend. This controversial film, starring Joaquin Phoenix, is a kind of origin story for the Batman villain of the same name.
Regular readers of this site, or anyone who has seen the trailer, may be aware that there is a little nod to silent cinema in this movie. So in honour of Joker and his famous grin, let’s count down the 10 most sinister smiles in silent cinema. Please don’t have nightmares.
The dog in Mighty Like a Moose
This shouldn’t really be so creepy but it most certainly is. Charley Chase’s plastic surgery comedy Mighty Like a Moose imagines what a dog would look like wearing false teeth. Dear lord above this image is not for the faint-hearted.
The Laughing Jester in Blackmail
Hitchcock transfers culpability back and forth in this late silent’s tale of rape, revenge and retribution. But who’s bearing witness to all this human misery? The scoundrel artist’s icky painting of a court clown yucking it up – and pointing the finger of guilt. Continue reading No Joker: 10 sinister smiles in silent cinema
The best and worst Charlie Chaplin films – ranked!
Why did I do this? Well partly that’s between me and my conscience. The man we know as the Little Tramp was born on 16 April 1889 and in Chaplin’s 130th anniversary year I thought it would be fun to list his feature films* in the manner of the Guardian’s Culture – ranked! series.
So here goes …
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A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
Sneeze and you will miss Charlie Chaplin himself in this, his final feature, which was also his only film to be made in colour. Sophia Loren plays a stateless stowaway who catches a ride to America in the cabin of a US diplomat, played by Marlon Brando of all people. Although Chaplin pokes his head round the door to play a steward, and a handful of his children have roles too, this is barely recognizable as his. The physical comedy drags, the sentiment is forced (Brando’s mumbles are the antithesis of Chaplin’s style) and it’s hard to disagree with the New York Times critic, who wrote: “if an old fan of Mr Chaplin’s movies could have his charitable way, he would draw the curtain fast on this embarrassment and pretend it never occurred”. Continue reading The best and worst Charlie Chaplin films – ranked!
So this is comedy: 2019 Kennington Bioscope Silent Laughter Weekend
This is a guest post for Silent London by Michelle Facey, a member of the programming team at the Kennington Bioscope.
Feeling a post-Easter ennui? Well, you could do no better than to ready your laughing gear and get yourselves down anywhichway to the Cinema Museum for all or part of a weekend of silent comedy fun 27-28th April, curated by us, especially for you, at the Kennington Bioscope.
This last week saw the 130th anniversary of the birth of Lambeth’s most famous son, the Little Fellow himself, Charlie Chaplin, and as many of you may know, the Cinema Museum is of some significance in his origin story. The Master’s House, home of the Museum in Kennington, was at one time, part of the Lambeth Workhouse where Chaplin was sent as a child, and we will be marking his birthday anniversary with several programmes. Respected Chaplin biographer David Robinson will introduce Charlie’s stone-cold classic silent film, The Gold Rush (1925), showing with its recorded score. Filmmaker, collector and editor, Christopher Bird, brings us his original 16mm amber prints of The Immigrant (1917) and The Vagabond (1918). And (tweet tweet) that little Bird has told me his copy of the former “looks gorgeous.”
Continue reading So this is comedy: 2019 Kennington Bioscope Silent Laughter Weekend
Silent London 