2023 - The Year in Silents

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'

Into the future...

We’ve had yet another big tick of the clock and, as Steve Miller (and his Band) implied, we need to establish exactly how it happened, at least in terms of the silent screenings I witnessed. So, here in no particular order, is the breakdown of twelve outstanding moments from the year they called 2023…

Game of thrones… Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924), with Costas Fotopoulos, Kennington Bioscope

First Bioscope of the year and it was an epic evening for one of the cornerstones of Weimar Cinema, one in fact that I’ve been saving up for just such an occasion and, judging from a non-too scientific sampling of the audience, I’m not the only one with the DVD/Blu-ray at home on the shelf, waiting to be watched after a proper screening and the Bioscope made sure that this was indeed a special screening. A 16mm print was shown, slightly shorter the restoration on which our home media is based but still very impressive, astonishing even given the scale and verve of the film making. Fritz Lang and his script-writing partner Thea von Harbou, dug deep into early 13th Century Saxon epic poetry, Der Nibelungenlied, written in High Middle German and by unknown hands in what is now southern Bavaria. 

I was transported with the help of Costas’ dynamic piano accompaniment and I’m not alone in hoping for Part 2, Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge to complete the story in 2024.

 

I Don’t Want to be a Man (1919)/Beverly of Graustark (1926), Kennington Bioscope and Vito Project

Oh, this has to be one of my favourite screenings ever at the Cinema Museum with the KB co-presenting these two classics of cross-dressing and gender confusion with the Vito Project, another film club specialising in LGBTQ+ influenced film. The mixed audience brought out the best in both of these cross-dressing classics as pennies dropped and we became immersed in the moments as Ossi Oswalda and Marion Davies played with gender and sexuality in ways that resonate in the most human and historical ways. Accompaniment came from Colin Sell and John Sweeney who both love a party with atmosphere!

 

Master of the House (1925), John Sweeney, Hippfest 2023

I finally found my way to Bo’ness and the magnificent Hippfest which proved to be everything I’d expected and more, just the most friendly and good-hearted festival in the business and a small Scottish town filled with connoisseurs of silent film. Du skal ære din hustru translates as Thou Shalt Honour Thy Wife and shows Carl Theodor Dreyer at his most observational and heart-warmingly comic. It’s the story of an abusive relationship told with context and compassion; the ironic tone set from the first title card which tells us that this is a story of husbands no longer found in Denmark but still persisting elsewhere. Clearly this subject matter was just as loaded in 1925 as it is now and, if Dreyer handles the subject with such a light touch it’s only to underline the misery often experienced; he knew his audience well enough to know the prod of recognition was all they needed.

 

John Sweeney was master of the accompaniment as you’d expect.

Stella Dallas (1925) with Stephen Horne, Il Cinema Ritrovato XXXVII, Bologna

The best silent scores don’t pummel you into submission with dozens of drums, decibels and Dolby, they embrace the visuals in sympathy with the narrative and the actors, they duet with the directors and audience to connect our sympathy and imagination, interpret our response and subtly guide it too; a multi-verse of meaning, one that opens up a portal removing you from reality… irresistible forces, for un-resisting volunteers for a kind of magic.

 

This is no job for anything less than the most experienced of compositional pilots though and in the Piazza Maggiore and then the Teatro Auditorium Manzoni, first Stephen Horne and then Timothy Brock, who conducted the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, provided scores that enhanced two of the very finest Hollywood performances and silent films. Consider them as restorers, replicating the high impact of these films’ first screenings, Time Lords able to whisk us back to the feelings our grandparents felt. We are all companions now and Doctor Who plays, composes and conducts…

Irene Rich and May McAvoy

Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925), with Timothy Brock, Teatro Auditorium Manzoni, Il Cinema Ritrovato XXXVII, Bologna

As the cricketing Ashes started back in the UK, rain unexpectedly stopped play in Bologna and the screening of Ernst Lubitsch’s take on Oscar Wilde’s play was shifted to the splendid Teatro Auditorium Manzoni; a purpose-built modern auditorium with splendid acoustics, all the better to experience the power of Timothy Brock’s new score as conducted by him and played by the mighty Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Given the sophisticated wordplay of Oscar Wilde, he seems an unlikely candidate for silent film but here Ernst Lubitsch takes on Oscar using the wit and sophistication of his direction. There are some excellent performances and Ernst’s inch-perfect positioning, cross-cutting and way with purely visual messaging ensures that this take on a wordy, comedy of manners works bursts into sensational silence on screen.

Stephen Horne and Timothy Brock in Bologna

The Cave of the Silken Web (1927), with Richard Seidhoff and Frank Bockius, Silent Film Days Bonn 2023

Very little survives from Chinese cinema of this vintage and indeed this film was considered lost until a copy was found in the Norwegian National Library and restored with both Chinese and the Norwegian intertitles which add extra Scandinavian flavours. It feels something like a miracle, popping off the screen with so much style and energy in this film with director Dan Duyu and Yin Mingzhu, wife, spier woman and expert collaborator unleashing an imaginative riot based on Journey to the West, one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature dating from the 16^th Century.

Accompanists, Richard Seidhoff and Frank Bockius had so much fun with this, Franks’ percussive variety and energy reflecting the extremes of violence and drama whilst Richard weaved some delicious lines over the sweet and sour storyline.

Yin Mingzhu

The Crowd (1928) with Stephen Horne, BFI

King Vidor’s The Crowd undoubtedly breaks a number of golden rules for Hollywood and indeed a full seven different endings were filmed and tested reflecting MGM’s concerns about the more realistic style deployed and their audience proved them wrong by preferring Vidor’s take. Vidor’s wife, the glamourous and divinely elegant Eleanor Boardman, threw herself into the project with one of the most selfless performances of the twenties; hair tangled, dowdy-clothed and make-up free all a long way from the glittering gowns of Proud Flesh, subjugating her star-status to play the long-suffering but steadfast lower-middle class wife and thereby enabling her surprise leading man to excel. James Murray was far from Boardman’s level and had been pulled from the ranks of the extras after being spotted by Vidor. Certainly, nearer failure than success at this point, he acts his heart out in the film a good-looking guy with natural charisma and yet who might not have that extra drive and/or skill to really stand out from the crowd.

Stephen Horne accompanied with his usual elan, taking the moment as we all did to watch a film that is just not screened enough and is not even on home media. Perhaps it’s still far too close to the bone?

 

Murray and Boardman

It (1927) with Cyrus Gabrysch, Kennington Bioscope 10th Anniversary

This was the Kennington Bioscope’s 10th Anniversary edition and the package was so sweetly wrapped it even had a Bow on it. Cyrus Gabrysch is, he said, often accused of starting the whole thing but what he and then John Sweeney thought would be a connoisseurs-only cinema club was transformed by a brave dog fighting his way up the stairs of a lighthouse to relight the beacon. Kevin Brownlow’s copy of a Rin Tin film provided the moment when the audience erupted with applause for the heroic hound and Cyrus realised something special was happening.

 

This was a 35mm print from Photoplay – company by-line “Live Cinema” - which had the natural warmth of a pre-digital restoration and looked stunning on the big screen. I say stunning and I mean Clara Bow who, despite a cameraman buddy complaining how difficult her kineticism made her to catch on film, featured in close-up after close-up that left the watchers hanging on her every smile. Clara remains her own special effect as her light shone through the celluloid and Cyrus added his own sparkle.

You know...

Hindle Wakes (1928), with Maud Nelissen Ensemble, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 42

 

Maurice Elvey told the BFI in 1949 that Hindle Wakes was “the greatest play ever written” and one of the films he most enjoyed making. Watching this new BFI 35mm print – a full restoration is apparently ongoing – the film stands out as one of the major works of British silent cinema because of the expertise with which Elvey controls character and the narrative; everything is there to serve a purpose and every character will have their moments.

The score was composed and conducted by Maud Nelissen and performed live by Daphne Balvers (soprano & alto sax), Lucio Degani (violin), Francesco Ferrarini (cello), Rombout Stoffers (percussions & accordion) as well Maud on piano. In the catalogue she talked of how she researched locations and culture for the film, immersing herself in mill town history and the times of the annual Wakes weeks when the whole mill shut down and the workers went off together in search of precious joy. On the evidence of this lovely, soulful score she’s now an honorary Lassie from Lancashire.

 

Hell's Heroes (1929), John Sweeney and Frank Bockius, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 42

After the first half an hour of this film, after the four main characters, all outlaws, have terrorised a small town, robbed their bank and killed in the process, and as they made their getaway across the parched desert I was thinking what could possibly redeem these characters, especially with no heroes in sight apart from the two six-gun totin’ preacher. I was, of course, wrong – which is very much this blog’s USP – and as the rogues survive a sandstorm and lose their horses whilst Bill has also been shot in the shoulder by the posse. They proceed on foot, their only hope a well spring miles ahead, they come across an abandoned wagon and inside find a new reason to live…  John Sweeney and Frank Bockius rode along with sensitive accompaniment as this film took us all into the desert and made us question our hearts.

Sherlock Jnr (1924), Daan van den Hurk, Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 42

Even the most enthusiastic silent soul can become jaded but here Daan van den Hurk's emphatic new score provided the jolt I needed to re-connect with the timeless and universal appeal of this very familiar film anew. The music highlighted pretty much every section of the Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone and it just grew in momentum and delicious tonality with the film. It was a symphony to silent style pretty much as Keaton intended but given extra emphasis and depth as the adventure of the Projectionist and all the films he has shown is laid before us.

A thrilling sonic adventure all round and, most of us tired after a full week, the Verdi still erupted with the joy of recognition or holding this shared fascination close!! In the best showbusiness tradition, Le Giornate always leaves us wanting more!

 

 A Woman of Paris (1923), with Mark Fuller, BFI Cinema Unbound

 

The BFI treated us to the most exhaustive programme of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger films in decades, perhaps ever, which stretched from October to December. The Powell Silent Connection was represented by Rex Ingrams’ gonzo The Magician (1926) in which the young Mickey had a comedic cameo or three, followed by one of the films that had the biggest influence on him which as Archers expert Mark Fuller explained he saw as an 18-year-old bank clerk in Boscombe near Bournemouth. Powell’s reactions and praise made me reappraise Chaplin’s film for the ground breaker it was and for the influence it would have on Lubitsch and others.

 

Thank you to ALL who make these screenings and events work, and here's to more of this in 2024!!

 

 

Film on film on stage: Chris Bird of the Kennington Bioscope