That’s right, we’re back at the Hippodrome for our 2023 Taste of Silents season! If you’re silent-cinema-curious and wanted to dip a toe into this rich and extraordinary moving image world, now’s your chance. Festival Director Alison Strauss has programmed a short season of three feature films, running every two weeks from Saturday September 23 – to Friday October 20th. Will you join us?
Any opportunity to settle in at Hippodrome Cinema (Scotland’s oldest purpose-built picture palace) is special, but perhaps even more so when transported back in time to the magic of movies made 100 years ago… A perfect tonic to chilly Autumn nights, and guaranteed to warm your weekends as the days get darker.
PLUS! For those unable to join us in Bo’ness, we are excited to live-stream our final performance, Salomé (1922), to online audiences across the world. Since 2021 we have been committed to translating our screenings into online experiences, and we are excited that our international community can join us for this very special performance, complete with introduction by Invisible Women – an archive activist film collective which champions the work of women and filmmakers with marginalised identities from the history of cinema. We can’t wait!
For long-term silent film aficionados, why not take the plunge and book all three? Book for all three in-person screenings for just £36 (£30 concession) including booking fees. That’s surely an offer you can’t refuse?
What’s on
But what are the silent titles coming to Bo’ness this month? Read on for a full synopsis of each screening, the talented musician(s) accompanying live, and some extra facts, quotes, and anecdotes about each spectacular slice of film history.
The Manxman (1929) 23.9.23
Hitchcock’s last silent film, and one of his very best!
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock / UK / 1929 / 1h 40m
With: Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen, Randle Ayrton, Anny Ondra
In a small fishing community (with beautiful Cornish locations standing in for the story’s Isle of Man setting), two boyhood friends are inseparable as youths but take different paths in adulthood. When they both fall in love with Kate, the daughter of a puritanical Methodist, they are forced to deal with their own moral codes and with the strict Manx society in which they live. This tempestuous melodrama is bursting with bold, Hitchcockian bravado and shines even brighter thanks to the complex, sensual performance of Anny Ondra, as Kate.
“Horne’s music is as deft as Hitch’s camera: always gorgeous, but sometimes delicate and other times thick with portents of doom.”
Pamela Hutchinson (Silent London) – LE GIORNATE DEL CINEMA MUTO 22: PORDENONE POST 8
This evening’s screening will be accompanied live by acclaimed composer and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Horne (piano, flute, accordion), who has a deep affinity with this title having been commissioned to write the score for the BFI London Film Festival Gala screening in 2012.
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) 7.10.23
One of the most iconic masterpieces in cinema history!
Dir: Robert Wiene / Germany / 1920 / 1h 17m
With: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt
At a local carnival in a small German town, hypnotist Dr. Caligari presents the somnambulist Cesare, who can purportedly predict the future of curious fairgoers. But at night, the doctor wakes Cesare from his sleep to do his evil bidding!
Hugely influential, Caligari’s nightmarish jagged sets, sinister atmosphere and psychological overtones sent ripples amongst countless horror and noir films for the next hundred years. The film’s chilling, radically expressionist vision retains its grip on our imaginations even today, hailed as a classic by everyone from Nicholas Cage to Akira Kurosawa.
With all the weird gaping and gurning, and the distorted perspective of its expressionist sets, Caligari is a nightmarish cinematic extension of Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic Dracula, combining as it does romantic superstition with the supposedly rational world of psychiatric surveillance and control.
Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian) – ***** Review
This screening will be accompanied live by Mike Nolan (piano) a musician with over 30-years experience of performing for silent film, fresh from his recent performance at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Cinema Under the Stars. Listen to Mike Nolan discuss this film (the first silent film he ever saw!) in Episode 6 of the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival Podcast.
Salomé (1922) plus live-stream | 20.10.23
A Hollywood picture unlike anything Hollywood had ever dared make before!
Dir. Charles Bryant, Alla Nazimova / USA / 1922 / 1h 12m + intro
With: Alla Nazimova, Mitchell Lewis, Rose Dione, Nigel De Brulier
Based on Oscar Wilde’s play with fabulous costumes, stylised sets by Aubrey Beardsley, and starring Alla Nazimova as Salomé, the flamboyant superstar of the silent era mesmerising as the barefoot dancer who beguiled a king and beheaded a prophet.
“Salomé’s entrancing oddness, gorgeous aesthetic and queer allure mean that its reputation has risen steadily”
Pamela Hutchinson
Live accompaniment will be provided by celebrated musical duo Jane Gardner (piano) and Hazel Morrison (percussion) who perform regularly at HippFest and venues across Scotland. Tonight’s screening will be introduced by Invisible Women – an archive activist film collective which champions the work of women and filmmakers with marginalised identities from the history of cinema.
This screening of Salomé’ is presented as part of Cinema Rediscovered on Tour, a Watershed project. With support from BFI awarding funds from The National Lottery and MUBI.
The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival 