The shock of the old… The Great Victorian Moving Picture Show, with Bryony Dixon, John Sweeney and his Biograph Band, London Film Festival 2018

This was the most unusual Archive Gala I’ve seen at the London Film Festival and one of the most thrilling: silent films at the BFI IMAX and all from 1896-1901 …but they’re not even in colour or in 3D?! These restorations of 60-68mm original film and in some cases negatives, didn’t need any further enhancements and, accompanied by John Sweeney’s gorgeous and evocative score, we were pulled into the world of our great grandparents by the sheer scale of the Victorian every day.

The British science fiction writer Bob Shaw had a concept called “slow glass” through which light passes incredibly slowly so that the person on the other side could view events in “real time” years later. So it felt with this collection of 51 films from which light was released of Victorian vitality that was both moving and powerfully familiar.

A ‘phantom ride’ through a Southampton street atop a tram in 1900 felt like we were inside the screen whilst a colourised trip through Conwy, a town I know very well, made me feel like dropping off and into the Liverpool Arms overlooking the estuary and Deganwy – you know the one, on the walls, near the smallest house in Wales. 

Conwy from the L & NW Railway (1898)

Away from the domestic there were also images of Victorian military might with stunning sequences from the Boer War including ambulances crossing the Tugela River at the Battle of the Spion Kop in an immaculately framed sequence with unbelievable depth of field.In the age of the battleship we also saw warships in rough seas and the German Küstenpanzerschiffe, SMS Odin firing her fearsome 9.4 inch guns. 

The 68mm film gives four times the image detail as 35mm and would have been shown on a similar scale in some of the London theatres of the time including the Alhambra (now Leicester Square Odeon) and the Palace Theatre of Varieties on Cambridge Circus (now known as the Palace Theatre). The technology was brought back to Britain by William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, who had worked with Thomas Edison in the USA and whose British Mutoscope and Biograph Company ran at the Palace. In her notes, Bryony explains that Dickson’s films would form a twenty-minute segment of an evening of music hall, with the theatre’s orchestra playing along just as the Sweeney Bioscope Band were tonight.

The crossing at the Tugela River 

But, before we got to the films, the BFI’s silent film curator Bryony Dixon, who programmed the evening and provided delighted commentary throughout, explained the visual history of the Victorian era, a time when few saw much beyond a street level view of their surroundings. Painted panoramas began to be made and exhibited at multi-storey such as Robert Barker’s Rotunda in Leicester Square, which still survives as the Roman Catholic Church of Notre Dame de France. Here people could pay for a broader perspective, a pigeon’s eye view of the capital and much more: travel broadened the mind and so did a bigger view.

As the huge IMAX screen loomed over the audience you could well imagine the impact Dickson’s projections would have had on the audiences of the 1890s: this was a whole new way of seeing the world and not just the streets and buildings of your home town, celebrities too including the old Queen even if her parasol kept her in shadow, it was still a thrill to see Victoria amidst the crowds.

It was hard not to feel connected to the watchers of 120 years past who would marvel in a not dissimilar way at the views on screen; shadow-plays large and small from the intimacy of a royal picnic in the gardens of Clarence House (1897) to the thrilling launch of the Oceana at Harland and Wolff shipyards in 1899. The ship is huge and the crowd fold away as they realise that the backwash will soak them on the shore. Dickson was an engineer and he would have appreciated this massive technical accomplishment more than most. There were also shots of iron foundry workers pouring molten metal into moulds: the work is unremittingly hazardous and they wear platform shoes to protect their feet, one slip and they would be maimed for life.

Britain's best bicycle!

On a lighter note, there were examples of the theatre with Herbert Beerbohm Tree dying an impressive death as King John in 1899 - a promo for his tour of the full play, the Victorians were media savvy and believed in the power of marketing! There was also comedy, Herbert Campbell being quite revolting as Little Bobby and impressive chair-juggling from the Agoust Family circus performers. All precious glimpses of the performance past: Britain's always has talent.

The Dickson films along with some from Prestwich and Gaumont were all restored by BFI National Archive in collaboration with EYE Filmmuseum and Haghefilm. The technology to enable projection at maximum size is only fairly recent and a huge amount of manual work was performed on the ancient film before scanning at 8k could begin. The results are genuinely beautiful and gave you the kind of buzz you get visiting a foreign country for the first time… something familiar and a lot that is unexpected!

As Bryony says: “…all of those things that tell you something is old have been stripped away…” and, indeed, the films are made with a Victorian sensibility that is perhaps the most striking aspect of all once you begin to experience them after the shock of the new-old.

Afternoon tea in the garden at Clarence House (1897)

John Sweeney’s score was comprised of dozens of themes, all conducted by the maestro himself with alacrity from his band: Michael Whight (clarinet), Oscar Whight (cornet), James Dickenson (violin), Nick Stringfellow (cello) and Frank Bockius (hitting everything in sight with precision). I’ve heard John’s expert piano improvisations many times and it was a treat to hear his composition across these players; as soulful and comprehending as you’d expect. They provided a musical conduit to the spirit of these Victorian visuals and there was not a note out of place as they combined concisely whether for sixteen seconds or sixty. Bryony called them a palm court band and sure enough there was a palm tree on the band stand – it was just like Tiffin at The Langham with added visuals.

There’s a lot more to come with the BFI’s Head of curation, Robin Baker, explaining that the films are just the first look at some 700 Victorian films newly digitised by the BFI National Archive that will be available online in 2019 to mark the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birth.

It would be nice to view some more on the IMAX; having been back to the future I’d like to return.

Four times the image size of 35mm... palm tree on the right!