Battleship Invincible… The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands (1927), LFF Gala with the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines

Back to the Southbank’s Queen Elizabeth Hall for the London Film Festival archive gala performance of The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands (1927) a striking docu-drama with the emphasis on the latter and yet which manages to be authentic and even handed.

Of all the silent films at this year’s festival, Battles has had the most coverage and, remembrance to one side, one of the principle reasons is its revelation of another fine British silent film director in Walter Summers. Aside from marshalling eight Royal Naval ships in his re-enactments he also cuts, cross-fades and controls tempo with the skill of a Gance or an Eisenstein (although as the BFI’s Bryony Dixon points out, he probably hadn’t seen Potemkin at this stage).

Summers had fought in the Great War and he was at pains to keep any retelling of the conflict as respectful and procedurally-accurate as possible. Comic interludes and admirable-Admiralty (on both sides) apart, his drama is derived from the movement of the ships and his mastery of a compelling, historically-accurate narrative. Many sailors died in these battles – almost three and a half thousand - and he’s not going to make a drama out of their tragedy but a tribute.

Tonight was a special night with a magnificent, moving new score from Simon Dobson being performed by the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines – a 24 piece ensemble in memory of the 24 bandsmen who perished on HMS Monmouth at Coronel. My cousin is a serving marine and whatever your politics and beliefs you have to respect the sacrifices these men and women have to make in the service of their country.

HMS Good Hope begins to slip away

This was a main them for Summers who showed the nobility of both sides, their discipline and willingness to follow the rules of engagement even down to helping to rescue the vanquished. There may have been broader political motivations behind this at the time but they shouldn’t diminish the director’s clear agenda. Born in Liverpool - as I'm contractually-obliged to point out - he described himself as a “workman”, constructing his pieces in methodological fashion with little or no aspiration to be an “artist”…

SMS Scharnhorst under attack

He had already made a number of Great War films by the time Battle came along but none on this scale. Working from a script co-written by John Buchan amongst others, this was to be the jewel in the crown of Harry Bruce Woolfe’s British Instructional Films re-telling of the greatest battles of the conflict still regarded as perhaps the “war to end all wars”; an alien event that, surely, could never happen again. The film’s international success suggested that hope was also shared outside of Britain.

There are no model shots in the film; everything is either in-studio or shot on the high seas using Summers' large grey acting fleet. The cinematography of Jack Parker should also be commended with the restored images revealing some dazzling compositions that help to create a believable spectacle under-pined by the close-quarters human drama in cramped cabins and over-heated boiler rooms.

Rapid-cut re-fit

There are strange echoes of more recent South Atlantic naval conflict as two Royal Navy battleships, HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible are rapidly made ready for a revenge mission after the defeat of Coronel. This sequence shows men working around the clock on the two battle cruisers and is a masterpiece of montage that composer Dobson found almost musical, so regular was the rhythm of the cutting, the hammer strikes and the movements of men on and off board.

But whilst South American German colonists gather to celebrate their victory, von Spee refuses to toast anything but the nobility of the vanquished noting also that a large bouquet of flowers should be kept for when his time comes…

After the almost impossible dash to ready the British squadron, the remainder of the film gives a detailed account of the second, decisive battle. War at sea moved at its own deathly pace and the margins between success and failure were remarkably prosaic, depending on the accuracy and calibre of your guns as well as basic speed: when the balance of forces became clear to von Spee he knew in moments that he faced defeat. Yet, he had found the British squad re-fuelling in Port Stanley and, had he pressed on, there may have been a different outcome…

The skill of Summers' film is in creating such a compelling story around these fateful moments. There are good performances – especially from von Spee and Vice Admiral Sturdee - yet the actors are unnamed and instead the credits list the names of the naval vessels involved along with the twenties ships that acted in their place.

That’s as it should be with Battles celebrating the communal resolve of the Royal Navy, the collective greatness achieved by the unity of spirit contained in these warcraft. It’s a past the navy are proud to celebrate but also one that connects to their future, as Admiral  Sir George Zambillas’ introduction made clear with his reference to the new "Elizabethan age" with the Royal Navy’s long-awaited aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth.

It watching silent film is a process of trying to re-connect with the sensibilities of their makers and audience, this event was lent additional poignancy by the naval presence - smartly uniformed marines were even handing out programmes. This along with the almost pristine restoration and the excellence of both music and musicians, created a moment in which the boundaries between past and present shifted just a little bit more than usual.

The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands is showing now in selected cinemas across the UK and is also available to view now on the BFI iPlayer.

Details of the battles are on the Naval History web pages and The Coronel Memorial  website.

The reality: HMS Inflexible picks up survivors from SMS Gneisenau (copyright IWM)

The Battle of Coronel was fought on 1 November 1914 with the loss of two Royal Naval ships: battle cruiser HMS Good Hope and light cruiser HMS Monmouth

1,570 British lives were lost.

HMS Good Hope

The Battle of the Falklands took place on 8 December 1914 with four German ships sunk: battle cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau along with the light cruisers SMS Nürnberg and SMS Leipzig.

1,871 German sailors were killed and 215 rescued.

SMS Scharnhorst

Ruan Lingyu in The Goddess (1934) with Zou Ye & ECO, LFF, Queen Elizabeth Hall

It might seem curious that a “goddess” may be an ethereal protector of life as well as a sex worker… but in this case they are very much inter-twined: the lead character can only achieve one by being the other.

I know not even next to nothing about Chinese culture in the thirties and this film was like entering another cinematic universe with those dancing feet of 42^nd Street represent a charming, sugar-coated parallel world in which good things happen to those who wait. Not so here where you may wait a lifetime and never gain happiness: a culture with a conflicted desire to modernise and which was still firmly rooted in the nineteenth century.

Ruan Lingyu

In the desperate Shanghai of 1934 there were as many as 100,000 women scraping a living as a prostitute: around one on thirteen… In the year of the Long March Chinese society was in flux as warlords and politicians struggled for control whilst a newly urbanised peasantry lived in squalor. For a society still viewed as relatively guarded in western eyes, it is surprising to find a film of such unflinching honesty.

The Goddess (神女) was showing in the splendid Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’ Southbank as part of this year’s London Film Festival and also as a continuation of the BFI’s Electric Shadows series of Chinese film past and present.

Another hotel morning...

The film was famously Ruan Lingyu’s last film as she committed suicide within a year of its completion – she was only 24 and on this evidence a performer of the highest order with a range of controlled, natural emotion that cuts through in a very modern way.  If not the Chinese Garbo of legendary cliché but maybe a forerunner of the Isabelle’s Adjani and Huppert: someone who works their interior world very hard and yet gives only glimpses of the powerful turmoil just bubbling below.

Ruan Lingyu and Zhang Zhizhi

She’s almost matched by the baby-faced Zhang Zhizhi who plays her pimp, a compulsive gambler and a bully who can smile and smile and indeed be a villain. But he’s not the clichéd control freak and psychotic bully boy; he’s weak and irresponsible another highly believable character.

Then there is the woman’s young son, played by one Shuiping who gives a very good account of himself… dare I say the Chinese Jackie Coogan? No, he’s his own boy.

The film was written and directed by Wu Yonggang who’s screenplay had been partly inspired by his observing prostitutes ‘forced smiles as they greeted customers: what horrors lay behind those phoney faces? Wu had spent time in Hollywood and his experience is clear from any number of clever tracking shots, expert close ups and a wonderful overhead as the woman engages with another client and the two walk off together to heaven knows how much hotel room misery…

The film is unflinchingly frank throughout as the woman seeks to find a way to support her son using the only option open to her. She is almost run in by the police but takes shelter with her soon-to—be protector who starts to make her work more… profitably.

But she wants more than just subsistence; she doesn’t want her boy to suffer for her faults and starts to hide away money in order to enrol him in school.

Delight at the school play

For a while she succeeds until gossip becomes too much and the kindly principal investigates to see if the boy’s mother is indeed a woman of ill-repute. She reveals the truth but he is impressed with her determination and willingness to sacrifice all to give her son the best possibly chance in life.

But prejudice is rife and the other school governors are not so open-minded nor are the parents. Meanwhile the gambling-pimp finally finds the stash of money, is he about the throw away the only chance the boy will ever get?

The Headmaster calls

No spoilers:  Even if this was a Hays dodging pre-code Hollywood film, there would be retribution in store but here the twists and turns have the ring of truth and you’re never certain of the end game as the story plays its course. It remains a genuinely moving experience and a story the resonated strongly for every parent in the room.

Chinese composer Zou Ye’s newly commissioned score moved with subtle grace alongside the film in perfect step courtesy of the thirty-piece English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Chalmers. It was a perfectly judged accompaniment that interwove modern themes with more traditional sequences: a bridge connecting us to the time and the place…

There was long and loud applause at the end from the mixed audience of bearded silent cognoscenti and Jermyn Street bespoke-tailored concert buff-age: we really liked the music but, for most, I would think the vision of Ruan Lingyu will live in the min a while longer.

As Stanley Kwan said in the programme notes: “I was stunned by her performance, which was subtle and rich – an emotional tour de force. It was amazing to me that such a thing could be achieved in silent cinema…”

The Goddess is available in reasonable quality, free-to-view at the Internet Archive, not a patch on this crystal clear restoration though! Catch it if you can: the cinematic world was clearly always bigger than it seemed.

The sounds of silents... The First Born (1928)

Musical accompaniment has always played a major part in the most successful viewing of films from the silent era. Silent movies were never actually that silent and now there is so much new music.

2011 has been a great year for watching silent film with new and innovative musical performances. I have seen The Dodge Brothers trad Americana help bring Louise Brooks' Beggars of Life back to life at the BFI, Pola Negri's rediscovered Mania embellished with a vibrant new Jerzy Maksymiuk score performed by the Wrocław Leopoldinum chamber orchestra and twice witnessed Goldfrapp's Will Gregory and Portishead's Adrian Utley perform their amazing new score for Joan of Arc.

All have been musically excellent and have brought audiences closer to the films; helping us to reconnect and fully appreciate the depth of art in the older work. There's also something magical in the combination of the live performances with the images sealed on the celluloid. The spirit of the films is re-animated by the sound especially when it's live and without a safety net.

To the above list must be added the name of Stephen Horne whose musical support of The First Born at last night's London Film Festival Archive Gala performance was nothing short of exhilarating. Accompanied by Janey Miller on oboe and Martin Pyne on percussion, Mr Horne produced a totally sympathetic score that underpinned the story and contributed to an extraordinary level of engagement from the audience.

The music was soulful and melodically inventive with Janey Miller's mournful oboe particularly prominent. Elements from Gershwin's The Man I Love were woven into this story of the well-heeled selfish classes of whom only one truly follows her heart, patriotic themes drummed alongside another character's drive to become an MP whilst Stephen picked up a flute for the rhythmic change of pace of this character's time in the Dark Continent.

The audience response was synchronised by the music, we laughed along with and not at the film and some even gasped out loud during moments of peril! How can a jaded modern audience be wooed into the pace of such a film? It's so much about the music.

None of this takes away from what is an exceptional restoration by the BFI National Archive of a pretty smart movie! The First Born joins A Cottage on Dartmoor (also with accompaniment from Mr Horne) and Blackmail as amongst the best British late period silent films. It's directed with some panache by Miles Mander from a scenario he co-scripted with Alma Reville (Mrs Hitch no less) and features inventive cinematography throughout, including one startling sequence of hand-held work.

There are shots from acute angles, characters addressing each other via mirrors, dollies backing off to reveal and explain... and Gance-styled "flashbacks" showing inner lives.

Miles Mander stars as the weasel Sir Hugo Boycott a man with ill-fitting suits and a twisted moustache. He is doted on by his wife, Madeleine, played by the divine Madeleine Carroll, but she has not given him the child he wanted. So Hugo strops off to Africa to punish her and to pretty much do as he pleases. Loving and faithful throughout, Madeleine conceives of a plan that will lure him back. And, whilst Hugo makes merry with the local dancers she politely rebuts the advances of the handsome (very), well groomed and perfectly-attired David, Lord Harborough (John Loder).

Hugo returns following the arrival of their apparent first born child and they settle down as he pursues a career in politics as well as continuing his interest in other women, including one of Madeleine’s best friends. He is, as she later exclaims, "an utter cad!"

But Madeleine’s love is constant, they have a second child and Hugo is on course for Parliament: will the truth and love win out?

The restoration is simply amazing and rich in texture. Some sections looked almost pristine even on the Queen Elizabeth Hall's large screen from four rows out. There was a moment, staring at the fabric on Madeleine Carroll's sleeve that I felt lost in the image... unselfconsciously drawn into the heart of the film.

That was the image but it was also the sound.

Both worked together to give us an evening of uncomplicated pleasure. At the end the film and the musicians were applauded of the stage sent to the dressing room with cheers and beaming smiles... when was the last time I saw an audience so lifted by a film in this way?

Top notch entertainment and I'll be watching the whole thing again first chance I get.

Tip of the hat to Stephen Horne who played it and also to Pamela Silent London who recommended it in the first place!

There's a tantalising clip here: DVD next year BFI?!