Back in the days when you couldn’t stream on demand and
when even recording on VHS just wasn’t enough, the pull of certain television
shows was such that you just had to watch them live. Who shot JR?, Ross
and Rachel’s wedding, the fight between Ken Barlow and Mike Baldwin over Diedre
in Coronation Street, certain things you were desperate to watch and to share
in the knowledge that everyone else was as well.
Throughout lockdown the Kennington Bioscope have been
broadcasting shorter films on their YouTube channel but tonight was something
else as, in addition to a programme of shorts, there was a full feature film
with live accompaniment from John Sweeney and an introduction from Fritzi
Kramer, America’s premier silent-blogger with Movies Silently and the
woman who crowdfunded the restoration and DVD release of the film in question.
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| The face of KBTV |
As usual KB MC, Michelle Facey, held the whole programme
together, the Kennington Bomb-chelle, surrounded by a magnificent floral
display and briefed to the hilt on the treasures we were about to watch. There were
times when it was clearly live – the odd glitch that merely added to the
collective buzz - yet it’s amazing how quickly the KB has evolved its offering over
the five episodes – or webisodes if you will, although I know most of
you won’t - under Cyrus Gabrysch’s
technical direction, Michelle’s presentation as well as Tod Higginson’s facilitation
of the live chat – he also does the translations. The chatter was enlivened by
Fritzi feeding us good-humoured background as the film progressed; if Swanson
had access to a keyboard (and was alive), this is exactly her tone of voice.
The audience was again international, from the Wild West
to Walthamstow (the Untamed East) via the Highlands of “Scotch” and the
lowlands of Holland with a number spreading the word via social media snaps of
Michelle on the big screen. In our world this was an event and we were
re-connecting with a shared experience unlike almost any other since the middle
of March. Marshall McLuhan may have declared TV, cool as opposed to “hot media”
radio, but he reckoned without the “lean-forward” engagement of social media
immediacy and, indeed, the Piano Cam showing us Cyrus, John and Costa’s accompaniment.
So, to the films…
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| All white mate? |
For a man of so many names, it is surprising that Marcel Peréz is the most successful silent comedian most people have not
heard of. Marcel, also known as Robinet, Tweedy, Tweedledum, and Twede-Dan was
a very talented filmmaker who devised and directed as well as performed. I
especially like his deranged serial The Extraordinary Adventures of Saturnino
Farandola (1913) but his shorts are near always great value. Robinet’s
White Suit (1911) is typical of his high-energy style, man wears impossibly
clean suit which gradually gets filthy with the passing of unfortunate events
until, ta-dah!, he bumps into a group of painters and their cans of matt white!
Not rocket but comedy “science” with every element mixed
to perfection. Cyrus Gabrysch added to the alchemy hitting all the notes in
exactly the right order.
Then off to the Turin for a gorgeous travelogue, The River
Pescara (1912), watching boats head through the soothing waters to the coast.
Costas Fotopoulos accompanied helping us keep a cool head on this hottest of
June days.
As with other KB episodes, both shorts came courtesy of
the EYE Filmmuseum and the Jean Desmet Collection.
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| When the river Pescara meets the sea... |
"A film for all the family"… Kidnapped (1917), with
John Sweeney
Fritzi’s aim in putting this film out on DVD was to recreate
the typical programme of a night at the picture house in 1917 and along with
the feature there are various short films including some of the same players
all from the Edison Film Company and their series of Conquest programmes. Conquest
was designed, as Fritzi quoted, to create “… the open road to entertainment and
knowledge…” and to provide “… the first definitive contribution in the propaganda
to popularise clean and wholesome films for all right-thinking Americans.”
Directed by Alan Crosland – who would make The Jazz
Singer a decade later – this is the first feature-length adaptation of Robert
Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped and as per the positive reviews of the time,
is a very decent and highly watchable effort. I have my own special
relationship to this story after having been given an illustrated copy of the
book for Christmas aged two and, being told I couldn’t read it, them opening it
up to discover that no, I couldn’t read. Things have changed on that front but
I poured over the pictures as a toddler and was delighted to see how many of
the scenes are replicated in this film.
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| David asks a friendly crone if she's seen a big castle... |
Raymond McKee stars as a slightly too old David Balfour
(17), who is robbed of his inheritance by his evil Uncle Ebenezer (Joseph Burke)
who first tries to arrange his accidental death on a rickety staircase in the
tower of his castle and then arranges for him to be abducted by the nefarious
crew of the brig, Covenant. Captain Hoseason (Franklyn Hanna) who has
plans to sell him into slavery in the Carolinas.
Kidnapped was set against the backdrop of the
Jacobite Rebellion and some actual events, in particular the "Appin
murder", which occurred in the aftermath and for which the chief suspect
was one Alan Breck Stewart. In the film, the Covenant accidentally rams
a boat carrying Breck (Robert Cain in fine swashbuckling form), killing all but him.
The crew soon realise who their new companion is and attempt to kill him and
take his money, together with young david, Breck proves more than a match for
them and even outnumbered succeeds in fighting them off.
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| Robert Cain about to swash... |
Beck and David escape to the Highlands trying to dodge
the Sassenachs as they resolve their own political differences through honest
dialogue (seriously, take a flipping note Trump and Johnson). They witness
the killing of the King’s loathed agent, Colin Campbell (Horace Haine) at Appin
and are assumed to be the assassins by the English soldiers. They escape to safety
with rebel Cluny McPherson (Samuel N. Niblack) before planning how to recover
David’s fortune from his Scrooge of an Uncle.
The famous dénouement is a classic case of entrapment and
whilst I am fairly sure a smart modern lawyer could get the old man off, here
at least, justice is done!
John Sweeney accompanied live with the piano cam allowing
us to wonder even more about how he flexes the musical narrative and tone with
such apparent ease; the sounds and the sights are bound together instantly in
his hands.
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| David has troubled dreams |
You can order copies of Fritzi’s Kidnapped DVD
which comes with the main feature and the four shorts that accompanied the
Conquest programme: Friends, Romans and Leo, Little Red Riding Hood (also based
on a true story?), Quaint Provincetown and Microscopic Pond Life. Ben Model provides excellent accompaniment of his own and
there’s a twelve-page booklet from Ms Kramer providing more details. It is an education and a joy! Links to retailers can be found on the Movies Silently site right here.
Superb! Until the next time… PJ
Supplementary: The full title of the book is essentially a plot summary
and a little like a pre-internet collection of key tags: Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures
of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his
Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his Journey in the Wild Highlands; his
acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites;
with all that he Suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws,
falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson.
It’s well worth seeking out by boys and girls of all ages
and there’s even a sequel, Catriona, published in 1893 and featuring, women,
unlike the film which has just one “Old Crone” and, as Fritzi pointed out, was
sold on the basis of the “all-male” cast. How times were to change…
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| All Kidnapped screenshots lifted from the Kidnapped DVD. Buy it, buy it now! |
.JPG)
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