It’s not long before we kick off another Bristol Silents Club Screening and this time we return that great old Hollywood Genre, the Western. Over the past few years we have celebrated the Western’s early heritage by looking at the great William S Hart but for some reason we have never celebrated the pillar of power that is John Ford. At last then step in Bristol Silents’ very own Rosie Taylor who will take us into the world of not only Ford but the world of John Ford before John Ford.

Rosie has been kind enough to write a piece about her interest in the great Mr Ford before she takes to the stage to introduce us into the early work of John Ford.

I coined the title of this piece from Peter von Bagh’s introduction to John Ford: Muti e Primi Sonori at Cineteca di Bologna in 2009. He makes a poignant case for Fords early work, suggesting that “isn’t it about time to eliminate once and for all the deep suspicion that Ford’s silent output was mainly an undifferentiated preparation for his real achievement that came later?” Calling this consensus “Ford before Ford” he talks about Fords work right up to his early sound films. But Scholars begin to become excited about Fords early work after the influence of Murnau’s Sunrise: a Song of Two Humans (1927). So to some extent Fords later silent and early sound output has been considered. For me, however, “Ford before Ford” really represents the very early films – those he made with Harry Carey between 1917 and 1921, when he was effectively an apprentice – “before” his style was really developed. These are the films that perhaps hold the most exciting possibilities of his development. What could we learn about John Ford’s filmmaking from these films? What could they reveal?

John Ford (1894 – 1973)

Ford directed many of the great Westerns of the genres golden age, with a career spanning over fifty years and somewhere around 150 films of many genres. He still holds the record for the most Oscars won by a director, and received the American Film Institute’s first ever Lifetime Achievement Award. He is perhaps best known for his long association with John Wayne; launching Wayne’s career in “A” Westerns with his appearance as The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach (1939). However, this wasn’t a first for Ford. He had previously held long associations with other Hollywood stars, helped launch the career of actors like George O’Brien in the mid 1920’s, and had worked with many of the greatest stars of the silent Western including Harry Carey, Hoot Gibson, Tom Mix and Buck Jones.

Ford made his directing debut with a two reel film – The Tornado (1917), for 101 Bison Company, under Thomas Ince – whom Francis was working for at this time. At Universal Jack would come to direct a series of two, and later five reel films, with the Western star Harry Carey. Carey’s contract was coming to an end, and his public appeal waning, so Ford was assigned to make a final few pictures with Carey as Cheyenne Harry the outlaw hero. Unexpectedly these films became very popular with the public, most notably the working classes, and Carey’s career was re-launched, simultaneously launching Fords career as a director.

Harry Carey as Cheyenne Harry, with his Horse; Straight Shooting (1917)

Of around 25 Westerns Ford made with Carey between 1917 and 1921, only 5 now survive in full, part, or fragments ; Fords first feature Straight Shooting (1917), Bucking Broadway (1917) and Hell Bent (1918) survive more or less in full. Whilst The Secret Man (1917) and A Gunfightin’ Gentleman (1919) survive in fragments. Two other films of this period survive; By Indian Post (1919), a two reeler starring Pete Morrison, missing several minutes; and only the first part of The Last Outlaw (1919) survives, starring Ed Jones.

Considered low brow entertainment at the time, these Westerns were made in high number over a short period of time, with a shoe string budget and minimal resources. Though popular with the public, they were rarely reviewed by the more intellectual publications like The New York Times; they didn’t meet the tastes of middle class audiences, and were certainly not considered worth the critical attention given to Westerns of stars like William S. Hart. Together with few films surviving, little enough is known about these pictures (other than what survives in sometimes brief reviews, synopses and studio papers) to be able to explore the start of Fords career in full. Yet, as Joseph McBride notes in his biography on Ford, the result of little critical attention at the time was that “it allowed [Ford and Carey] to explore their favourite themes without becoming self-conscious or worrying unduly about how their movies would be received,” and before the power and influence of producers in Hollywood really began to shape filmmaking.

Ford and Carey would write their own scenarios based on stories they liked, aided by a writer, at this time George Hively. They would ride out into the mountains with a small cast and crew and shoot – with very little studio input, and a fair bit of improvisation and experimentation. This must have been a very creative time in the young Fords career. One would imagine that the influences from his experience working with his brother Francis, Harry Carey, and even Alan Dwan and the very prolific Thomas Ince, would be fresh in Fords mind. Even the influence of Griffith could have been indirectly present through Carey, who had previously worked for Griffith as an actor.

What does survive of these very early Ford films offers a glimpse into this possibility; from the few surviving films of his brother Francis, Tag Gallagher has noted the obvious influences on the young Jack including his use of composition. And these Ford – Carey productions reveal the emergence of certain traits in Fords filmmaking that would last the entire span of his career.

Opening Shot of Straight Shooting (1917)

Composition became the most defining feature of a John Ford film, refined further in the 1920’s and 30’s, but present from the start. A style he shared with his brother, Ford was long an admirer of great painters of the American west like Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. The opening shot of Straight Shooting has the leader of the rancher’s clan, Thunder Flint; centre frame on horseback, with his cowboys, and cattle down the hill in the background expressing, through depth of field, the grandeur and landscape of the West. As they ride off this continues, shot after shot, subtly choreographed into the epic landscape, the players bring to life the West in grand scale and beauty as if this was a moving painting. Credit must be given to the cameraman George Scott for his ability to successfully capture Fords vision so seamlessly. Ford would come to work with some of the most talented cinematographers in the business including George Schneidermann, Joseph H. August, and Gregg Toland who would photograph some of his most visually impressive films. Bucking Broadway is no less beautifully shot, by Ben Reynolds. In fact it could even show a progression in Fords work in only the short period of a few months. Even Fords use of chiaroscuro in some sequences seems to outdate the German Expressionist influence at least in part.

The Wagon Boss, Charles M. Russell (1909)

The “good bad man” hero was a common theme of the early silent Western, which Ford and Carey utilised throughout their partnership. Fords “good bad men” were noble outlaws with good hearts; usually the saviours of a society that has outcast them, they receive redemption in the audience’s eyes by the close of the film, but are often unable to be assimilated back into the society they saved. A character that would often appear throughout Fords career, most famously John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards in The Searchers (1956) finds its roots in Cheyenne Harry. In Straight Shooting Harry is hired to kill ranch owner Sweetwater Malone, but upon seeing the mans grief at the death of his son, decides against the killing, and ends up defending the Malone family and ranch from the very men that hired him. However, at the close of the film he is unable to stay, acknowledging that he is an outlaw and an outsider, and cannot adjust to life in the community.

The viewer is easily able not only to empathise with Harry, but emotionally engage, beyond just simple spectacle. The Ford hero is often a hardworking man, of lower social status, if not an outlaw. But this provides the opportunity for Ford to mock social status – something he often articulated in his films.

Bucking Broadway (1917)

Evident in Bucking Broadway, Mr Thornton, a wealthy, arrogant horse inspector from the east, steals the affections of Helen, the ranch owner’s daughter and Harry’s love interest. In an extensive and hilarious sequence of cowboys riding down the streets of New York, and fighting Thornton’s associates in a New York hotel restaurant as if they were in a saloon brawl, Thornton’s true colours emerge and he is made a mockery of. Helen returns with Harry to the West. The hard working cowboys, uncouth and rough, but honest and hardworking, are the heroes! Ford would often mock the higher social classes in this way. Perhaps why these films were so well received by the working classes, but less so by the more middle class critical press.

Cowboys riding through New York (actually downtown Los Angeles) in Bucking Broadway (1917)

Bucking Broadway also expresses the beginnings of another very “Fordian” trait – humour! Defined by J. Farrell MacDonald in The Iron Horse and Three Bad Men (1926), and carried on by Victor McLaglen throughout Fords career, the characters would usually be Irish and invariably drunk. At the celebratory drinks for Harry and Helens engagement, in Bucking Broadway, the cowboys sit round a piano drinking, singing and playing songs (another Ford staple). The more they drink and sing old tunes about home, the more nostalgic they become and these tough, man’s man cowboys all start sobbing; missing their mothers, until they are weeping on each other’s shoulders like children. Not yet quite as defined as it would become, this was a seed of Fords humour that would develop in the 1920’s and beyond.

Harry Carey had none of the showmanship of Tom Mix, or the stature of William S. Hart; his costumes were simple and his character rough, but he established the quintessential John Ford hero. He even became the childhood idol of John Wayne. Despite the often seemingly crude simplicity of the Ford – Carey films with their “pulp Western formula” and cowboy antics, they are shot beautifully, with engaging characters, and are filled with a nostalgic romance for the vanishing west, as a good John Ford picture should be. And while critically they perhaps have not always stood in such stead as other films of their time, the ones that survive are a pleasure to watch, unmistakably “Fordian”, and an insightful view into the beginnings of one of the most successful and influential directors in Hollywood.

In the first fifteen years of Fords career, he developed a style that would come to be recognised as uniquely his own. He influenced directors from Orson Welles to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. And he made a strong contribution to the Western from the start, a genre which would dominate America’s movie theatres for almost a further forty years. It is a great shame that so few of his early films survive to testify to his development and early contribution to the medium of film, as well as to give us a further insight into “John Ford before John Ford”.

Bibliography
Anderson, L., About John Ford
Bagh, P.V, John Ford: Muti e Primi Sonori
Bogdanovich, P., John Ford
Gallagher, T., John Ford; the Man and His Films
McBride, J., Searching For John Ford
Sarris, A., the John Ford Movie Mystery

Filmography
Bucking Broadway (1917)
Indian by Post (1918)
Straight Shooting (1917)

As like buses (or trains more like in this case!) you wait ages for the odd post about British Silent Film and in particular a post about the great British film director Anthony Asquith and then you end up with two or three come along all at once (well, over the course of a few months or so anyway).

We first posted about the early work of Anthony Asquith late last year and then posted an introduction by composer Neil Brand about Asquith’s superb Underground (1928) earlier on this year to co-inside with the screening of Underground at the Curzon Community Cinema in April.

COMPETITION TIME:

Now, we are thrilled to announce that the BFI will be releasing Underground on a Dual Format release (both on DVD/BluRay for one price) later on this month on Monday 17th June!

And on top of that we have a copy of Underground to give away to one lucky winner!

All you need to do is answer this very simple question:

What year did the London Underground first become operational?

Simply email the answer to bristolsilents@gmail.com with ‘BFI UNDERGROUND’ in the subject header by the afternoon on Friday 14th June. The lucky winner will then be announced later that Friday evening and we will get the copy in the post for you in time for Monday morning. IT might take a little bit longer if you live outside the UK however!

The Underground DVD/BluRay Release:

Now, we’ve already had a very detailed look at the Dual Format release and it’s perfect. The film itself is wonderfully crisp throughout (on both DVD and BluRay) and the music is incredibly clear, just like the recent theatrical release we should add. What is an added bonus however is the great little extras with the release.

In the late 1920s Asquith, along with Hitchcock, was one of the most audacious young talents in British film and Underground was his own original screenplay. With its scenes of the bustling tube (passenger behaviour is strikingly familiar) and the capital’s parks, double-decker buses, pubs and shabby bedsits, Asquith masterfully balances the light and dark sides of city life, aided by a superb cast of Brian Aherne and Elissa Landi as the nice young lovers and Norah Baring and Cyril McLaglen as their unhappy counterparts.

Restored by the BFI National Archive and following an acclaimed theatrical release in January, the BFI now brings the film to DVD and Blu-ray for the first time on 17 June 2013 in a Dual Format Edition.
Underground is presented with a new orchestral score composed by the great Neil Brand and performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra; along with five short complementary films and an alternative score by musician/sound recordist Chris Watson.

As always, our thanks to the BFI for restoring and releasing a fantastic film!

All photo’s are © Adam Johnson. No part of any of these images are to be stored, reproduced, manipulated or transmitted to third parties by any means without prior written permission. Adam can be reached at hello [at] thisisadam.co.uk.

The performers were: Rob Bryden (Host), Angela Barnes, Tim Vine, Boothby Graffoe, Lee Mack,  Neil Innes and Henning Wehn.

Stop-motion animation genius and weaver of dreams Ray Harryhausen left us yesterday aged 92. Bristol Silents Director Chris Daniels remembers the man who we were lucky enough to count as one of our patrons.

In 2004 I had the unforgettable pleasure of meeting Ray in his home in Central London to plan a Bristol Silents event. He was charming and delightful and quite taken aback that we at Bristol Silents would be interested in screening some early silent works from one of his great heroes and mentor, Willis O’Brien. As part of our two show programme to champion O’Brien’s work we invited that unstoppable modern-day stop motion Guru from Aardman Animations Peter Lord to introduce THE Lost World (O’’Brien’s great dinosaur picture, made before his more famous classic King Kong). Pete introduced the silent movie for us and for the second show Ray was kind enough to come to Watershed in an event called Animated Lives where, in discussion with Andrew Kelly, he spoke about his long career in stop motion, his love for Willis O Brien and his feelings about CGI (Peter Jackson was a fan of Ray’s work, he told me).

It was a privilege to work with Ray at this event, one which some of our other patron’s, Kevin Brownlow, David Robinson and Paul McGann, all attended. We enjoyed the show so much that we produced a further event at the Barbican cinema in 2005, and one more a few years later at Watershed when Ray’’s new book came out. Ray was always delightful and charming, bringing his famous skeleton (in a coffin) out towards the end to squeals a delight from audience members.

Ray told me that the ‘dialogue’ actor sequences in his films were really just a vehicle to move the action to the next creature, encounter or battle. In that, we understood that his ‘silent’ sequences were the bits that people remembered. The ‘action’ was always king in a Harryhausen movie.

When we invited Ray to become a patron of Bristol Silents he wrote a handwritten letter to us (now a treasured possession in the Bristol Silents and Slapstick offices) saying he would be ‘honoured’. Ray will be sorely missed along with other great patrons we’ve been fortunate to have known and to have worked with, including the late great Eric Sykes and Jack Cardiff.

Long may Ray’s work continue to be recognised, celebrated and loved.

Chris Daniels
Director
Bristol Silents/Slapstick Festival

The final lineup for our annual fundraiser has now been formulated and it features a couple more start names on top of those already announced. Also, despite the fact that we keep on telling you that the event sold out some time ago (which to all intents & purposes it had) the good news for any of you who failed to snaffle tickets when they first went on release is that we’ve found another handful which went on sale yesterday.

You can grab these tickets either by heading over to Colston Hall yourself or by phoning their box office (sadly a booking online option is not available for these tickets). Obviously considering the first 1400 tickets sold out in the first week the best advice would be to get on the blower asap if you don’t want to miss out on what promises to be the comedy bonanza of the year!

The box office can be called on either 0117 922 3686 or 0117 204 7220.

Now, for those of you who are definitely attending “stand up (again) for slapstick” we have news of the final lineup. Joining the already announced comedy giants that are Rob Brydon, Lee Mack, Henning Wehn, Shappi Khorsandi and Boothby Graffoe will be two other artists you will all no doubt be familiar with.

First off we’re being joined by long time festival friend & Monty Python song-smith Neil Innes. Neil is also of course famous as being a member of both the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and the Rutles and is generally thought of as “the seventh Python”. More recently of course Neil’s been a member of The Idiot Bastard Band, a comedy musical collective featuring himself, Adrian Edmondson, Phill Jupitus, Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron.

Also joining us for the festival as the sixth stand up artist will be a past (and, indeed, current) master of the art. He’s also of course well-known as Lee Mack’s Not Going Out co-star & is, of course, Tim Vine. Perhaps Tim’s most notable claim to fame is that for a while he held the world record for the most jokes told in an hour, a phenomenal 499! He also won the award for best joke at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2010 and came second in 2011 and 2012. Finally, proving how multi are his talents, he was a finalist in the 2013 series of “Let’s Dance” for Comic Relief.

The night promises to be one of the best in the history of the Slapstick Festival so here’ hoping as many of you as possible will be down to enjoy it with us.

The screening is commisioned by the Birds Eye View Film Festival and will take place at Watershed as part of the Filmic Festival 2013 on Sunday 14 April at 6pm (the day after the Underground Screening at the Curzon Community Cinema, Clevedon; so very much a full on silent film weekend).

Running up to the screening, Amira Kheir, a contemporary jazz singer, musician and songwriter of Sudanese Origin, has given written down her thoughts about the new challenge of creating a live film score for Lubitsch’s ‘One Arabian Night’, and learning to think of herself as a ‘composer’.

“When Rachel Millward – the Director of the Birds Eye View Film Festival – called me up and asked if I’d compose the score to a silent film based on the ‘Arabian Nights’, my first reaction was ‘Of course!’ – without really thinking about it!

Later, when I thought it through, I wondered if I was actually the right person for the project. I’ve never thought of myself as a ‘composer’ – at least not in this sense . I write my own songs and have been performing in the UK and internationally for the past few years, but up until then had always thought of myself more as a singer-songwriter and musician than a ‘composer’. How would my style of music translate to this setting?

Embarking on this commission has been a transformative and eye-opening experience for exactly that reason. It has allowed me find new significance in my work as a musician and re-learn the meaning of music as a form of expression that manifests itself not as a result of defined roles but in spite of them.  When I write music independently, the driving force is always what I want to express. When scoring a film, the driving force shifts to trying to best interpret what someone else tried to express and lending my own relationship with music to that.

It’s been an amazing new way to interact with sound and with an ensemble, but actually rather than changing my approach I’m most excited about how it can be adapted and re-applied to the new challenge. My work has always been largely based on improvisation, and I think it’s going to be fascinating to keep that approach in developing the score with the band – I’ve already got some great musicians on board, including Nadir Ramzy on oud, Ben Hazleton on double bass, Elizabeth Nott on percussions, and Kalia Baklitzanaki on Nay.

It’s truly exciting to be entrusted with creating the soundtrack to such an aesthetically and dramatically beautiful film and add my interpretation to the story, and be part of such challenging and exciting Festivals as Filmic and Birds Eye View, both of which have pushed my work in new directions.

While I’m not quite there yet, I am enjoying the new feeling of calling myself a ‘composer’, and seeing how that will affect my work in future.

Meanwhile, bring on Bristol!

Our thanks to Amira and everyone at Birds Eye View Film Festival. Amira’s live score for One Arabian Night (Sumurun) comes to Bristol on Sunday 14 April at 6pm as part of Filmic Festival, commissioned by the 2013 Birds Eye View Film Festival: Celebrating Arab Women Filmmakers, at the Watershed.

More information and booking at www.watershed.co.uk.

January 2013 saw the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the London Underground. To celebrate one of the oldest transport systems in the world the BFI have released their brand new restoration of the superb British silent film, Underground (1928).

On Saturday 13th April the Curzon Community Cinema, Clevedon will be screening Anthony Asquith’s masterpiece with a newly recorded score by Neil Brand. In the past we’ve discussed the silent film work of Anthony Asquith including A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929), but we have rarely mentioned Underground.

For this occasion we thought it best to leave the discussion of the importance of Underground to the one man who knows the film far better than many of us, writer, composer and silent film accompanist Neil Brand.

Neil has allowed us to reprint his original thoughts about seeing the film as well as scoring the film for the new BFI release.

Underground is the first film that the 26-year-old son of Britain’s wartime prime minister directed on his own. The Hon. Anthony Asquith, (‘Puffin’ to those who knew him), had visited Hollywood in 1926 to see how it functioned and returned to London determined to direct. Over the ensuing years he was to shuttle between Hollywood and Britain again and again, directing such legends as Olivier, Edith Evans, Michael Redgrave, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, creating the greatest film adaptations of the works of Rattigan and Wilde and winning George Bernard Shaw an Oscar.

His career ranks with Hitchcock, Lean and Carol Reed in the pantheon of British directors – but he never again made anything as bold as Underground.

The movie begins with a quote from Shakespeare, continues with comic vignettes, London locations, romantic complications and then… it snaps. A shopgirl becomes an avenging, black-leather clad angel, sexual obsession becomes madness and ghastly murder, German expressionist techniques invade the film’s quotidian, working-class world and Underground climaxes with a punishing chase which would do justice to any movie of the last five years, let alone the past eighty-five.

It is bold, joyous, enthralling storytelling; undeniably a young man’s film.

I waited 22 years to see Underground properly, let alone work with it – while its charms were apparent from the viewing copy I first came across at a BFI Education summer school in 1989, there was a major problem with the print. The final chase, violent and magnificently shot over vertiginous drops and through murky tunnels, was almost obliterated by nitrate damage on the negative. There were rumours of another print in Brussels but that was thought to be a dupe of the BFI’s original.

Underground couldn’t really take its place as one of the greatest British silent films without our seeing the chase clean – and, miraculously, the Belgian copy was indeed clear of nitrate damage. The whole film was then given a gorgeous restoration by the BFI National Archive which made it look, as Matthew Sweet commented ‘as if someone had turned the lights on’. Underground now glows with a pulsing, electrical energy, even in its darkest places, real and imagined.

At the 2010 storming BBCSO performance of my ‘Blackmail’ score I was struck by the obvious delight the orchestra took in ‘playing out’ a film score. Orchestra members commented that in today’s scoring sessions the players are often told to ‘hold back’ because of dialogue or other soundtrack requirements – but with a concert presentation of a silent film, the music has all the room it needs to breathe and the players can really perform. When I was fortunate enough to be commissioned by the orchestra and the Barbican to score another silent film, I took that lesson to heart.

This score is, I hope, sensitive to the emotional needs of the film, but it is not discreet. It attempts to be as bold with the visuals as the young Asquith was, and above all to be a celebration of music put to work with film. While the dark, edgy noir harmonics of Herrmann and Rozsa are again to the fore, they are leavened, like the film, by quirky comedy, wry observation and soaring, joyous romance.

In those moments I have dragged others of my composition heroes into the frame and you will hear echoes of Malcolm Arnold, with his playful, unapologetic use of popular tunes in orchestral guise, Richard Rodney Bennett’s jazz-tinged menace and soaring, theatrical love themes – even John Barry’s pounding brass writing and full-tilt percussion in the final chase.

I have tried to make the score perform one other major function. Underground is the first feature film to utilise the tube system itself as a location, filming extensively at Waterloo station and Lots Road power station with the full co-operation of company chairman Lord Ashfield – however in 1928 the tube network was still years away from becoming what we know today –no London Transport, no roundels, no Harry Beck Tube Map (check out the stunted, stringy Northern Line map on the carriage wall), no Metroland and less than half of the network we now use.

But the film carries a fascination with (and a pride in) the Tube, its frustrations and unlikely meetings, its surging crowds and quiet corners. It becomes a template for the contemplation of London itself, the city as anthill within which we get to follow some of the ants onto trains and buses, down escalators, out of pubs and into Power Stations. These workaday locations are no longer mundane but transformed through lighting and superb art direction into theatrical spaces for the twists and turns of story and character. The effect is one of magical realism, as if the city itself is transformed by the emotional energy of its inhabitants and I have tried to make the music reflect that transformation. In my score, this Underground is a magical world where anything can happen, where love and madness could be just around the corner, and there is no such thing as the commonplace.

And as before, none of my work would have been possible without the extraordinary talents and generous support of maestro Timothy Brock who is the collaborator of anybody’s dreams, the trust and support of the Barbican and the BBCSO – and the phenomenal players of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

And so… let the journey begin…

Our thanks to Neil for his words, we would like to also thank the BFI for their continuous support and many thanks to the great Curzon Community Cinema, Clevedon for putting on this gem of British Cinema. Hope to see you all at the event on Saturday 13th April at 14:00hrs

Worth checking out our past article about Anthony Asquith as well.

Bristol Silents is joining forces with Bristol museum to help celebrate the British Museum’s touring exhibition Pharaoh: King of Egypt, an exhibition is going to be in situ at Bristol museum from March 16 to July 21. Bristol Silents  involvement in helping to celebrate this remarkable show will be to co-host a screening of the silent film “The Loves of Pharaoh”. 

The date for your diary is the 22 March 2013, with doors open at 7.00 pm for 8.00 pm. As your ticket also gives you entry to the exhibition before the film starts you’re encouraged to arrive early. More details about the exhibition itself can be found here, or by downloading this pdf.

The Loves of Pharaoh: This silent epic, lost for 80 years, has recently been restored from surviving copies and fragments in various film archives and private collections.

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, the film gives a spectacular vision of ancient Egypt, with a cast of thousands and opulent sets and costumes. The story mixes a little fact with a lot of fiction: Samlak, King of Ethiopia, offers his daughter Makeda to Amenes (Ahmose I), Pharaoh of Egypt, to ensure peace between their countries. But Amenes chooses Makeda’s slave girl, who loves a young Egyptian … Rather than peace, the two countries go to war.

As per usual with Bristol Silents productions there will, of course, be a live musical accompaniment, this time a specially commissioned score on the harp by Elizabeth Jane Baldry.

This will be a great night out for lovers of ancient Egypt, silent film, harp music, museums; so if you consider yourself to be a fan of any of the above make sure you don’t miss what will undoubtedly be a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Tickets are £10 & must be booked in advance through the Museum Shop: please do so in person or call 0117 922 3650 to book.

Any questions feel free to drop a comment in the section below, otherwise we hope to see you at the museum on Friday!

Travelling from 1901 through both World Wars, into peacetime and the modern age, From the Sea to the Land Beyond shows our coast as a place of leisure, industry and wild nature. With an emphasis on the romantic and the ritualistic, the archive footage used in the film’s assembly is rich and varied. Both film and music incorporate themes of work, play, childhood, romance, melancholy, hope, transportation, wilderness, the power of the elements and the beauty of wildlife.

So not only can we highly recommend this release! We can also offer the opportunity to win a copy of From the Sea to the Land Beyond on DVD!

COMPETITION TIME:

As mentioned above we have a copy of the BFI’s new DVD From the Sea to the Land Beyond to give away… all you need to do is ansewer this very simple question.

Good Luck!

Did you really think that Slapstick Festival 2013 would finish on Sunday 27th January?! Not on your life! We are about to go on tour! Info about dates, locations and screenings below.

Hope to see you at the events!

A Classic Silent Comedy Double Bill with Live Music:
Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill Jr (1928) with Charlie Chaplin in The Rink (1916)

Hot on the heels from Bristol’s ninth Slapstick Festival a third tour of the UK sets off celebrating the late great comics of the golden age of visual comedy. Presenting the ‘best of the fest’ Director of Slapstick Festival Chris Daniels introduces two film masterpieces from the festival canon of silent comedies.

The double bill begins with Chaplin’s classic comedy from Mutual studio The Rink. Charlie plays a waiter with a penchant for roller skating in this very funny and delightful comedy short.
US, 1916, Dir: Charles Chaplin, 24mins.

Steamboat Bill Jr stars the irrepressible Buster Keaton as the hapless son of a Mississippi riverboat captain who returns home to help out his father’s business – with disastrous consequences! One of Keaton’s most accomplished and funniest works, whilst the hurricane scenes are landmarks in cinema slapstick.
US, 1928, Dir: Charles F. Riesner, 71 min

With live musical accompaniment by silent film maestro Stephen Horne who will be performing on piano keyboard, accordion and flute.

Wednesday 20th March: The Quad, Derby
19.45pm
Book Online or Telephone: 01332 290606

Friday 22nd March: The Electric Cinema, Birmingham
20.00hrs
Book Online or Telephone 0121 643 7879

Saturday 23rd March: The Barn Dartington
19.30pm
Book Online or Telephone 01803 847070

Sunday 24th March: The Curzon Community Cinema, Clevedon
2.30pm
Book Online or Telephone 01275 871000