The 14th British Silent Film Festival, presented at the Barbican in London in partnership with the BFI, opens today, runs through Monday, and features a program that aims to recreate "the experience of cinema going from the Great War to the late silent period; looking at the unlikely relationship between radio and the silent film, celebrating the centenary of the birth of the British newsreel and hosting the world premiere of the restored musical score for the Russian fantasy film Morozko." Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky's 1924 film, "based on a well-known Russian fairy tale about a stepdaughter who is driven out to face the spirit of winter," is to be presented tomorrow "with a score that was specially composed by British composer Frederick Laurence for the film's 1925 London run, and hasn't been heard since." Here's more on the discovery of the score, its reconstruction and resynchronization with the film.
Update, 4/8: "Until recently,...
Update, 4/8: "Until recently,...
- 4/8/2011
- MUBI
The British Silent Film Festival has done much to lift the lurid lid on the film industry before the arrival of the talkie
In November 1918, as victory bunting fluttered between lamp-posts all over London, a young British movie star had his day in court. Lionel Belcher, much more handsome than his name, the leading man of Bonnie Mary and In Another Girl's Shoes, did not emerge with his reputation intact. He had been one of the last people to speak to Billie Carleton, a West End musical comedy actress, before her drug-swashed body was discovered in her apartment next door to the Savoy hotel. The subsequent inquest revealed that Belcher was not as redeemable as some of the troubled romantics he embodied on the screen. He had deserted his wife. He was a heroin addict. Thanks in part to his father's bankruptcy, he was supplementing his earnings by dealing cocaine,...
In November 1918, as victory bunting fluttered between lamp-posts all over London, a young British movie star had his day in court. Lionel Belcher, much more handsome than his name, the leading man of Bonnie Mary and In Another Girl's Shoes, did not emerge with his reputation intact. He had been one of the last people to speak to Billie Carleton, a West End musical comedy actress, before her drug-swashed body was discovered in her apartment next door to the Savoy hotel. The subsequent inquest revealed that Belcher was not as redeemable as some of the troubled romantics he embodied on the screen. He had deserted his wife. He was a heroin addict. Thanks in part to his father's bankruptcy, he was supplementing his earnings by dealing cocaine,...
- 4/8/2011
- by Matthew Sweet
- The Guardian - Film News
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