3rd Yorkshire Silent Film Festival starts TOMORROW at APH!!
Yorkshire Silent Film Festival is back with us again, and boy are we in for some treats!!
Kicking off tomorrow, with a screening of Charles Dickens’ classic ‘Oliver Twist’, followed by a whole host of other gems showing on Saturday as part of the Sheffield Silent Film All-Dayer, as well as a FREE silent film accompaniment workshop, where you can try your hand at improvising music for silent film – whatever your instrument of choice or level of playing!
All films will be accompanied by live orchestral scores, performed by the festivals very excellent cinema musicians.
Beautiful imagery, sound and atmosphere to boot – not to be missed!
You can get a ticket for the all-dayer HERE for the discounted price of ÂŁ25 (ÂŁ21 concessions), or for individual film film showings; all children 18 and under FREE!
Films, timings, workshop and more ticket information below:
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Oliver Twist, 1922
(Drama)
Oliver Twist is brought up in the workhouse along with all the other orphans – until the day he asks for more gruel. An outraged Mr Bumble takes Oliver out into the street to be sold, beginning an adventure that will take Oliver to the depths of London’s criminal underworld and the heights of wealthy London society. Charles Dickens’ novel is brought to vivid life in this 1922 version starring Jackie Coogan (fresh from his success the year before in Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid), and the great Lon Chaney, the man of a thousand faces, as Fagin.
Celebrated silent film composer Neil Brand has written a new score for small orchestra especially for tonight’s performance and it will be played by the UK’s leading cinema orchestra, Covent Garden Sinfonia, conducted by Ben Palmer.
Oliver Twist is screening with the 1924 short film, Dickens’ London.
ÂŁ16.50 (ÂŁ8.50 concessions), children 18 and under FREE!
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Silent Film Accompaniment Workshop
Would you like to try improvising music for silent film? Yorkshire Silent Film Festival musicians will show you how in this fun session for musicians of all ages and abilities in the amazing auditorium of Abbeydale Picture House.  Whatever musical instrument you play, you can join in with this workshop – so bring along your violin or your recorder or your trumpet or your kazoo or your triangle!
Whatever you play, you’re welcome at this inclusive workshop. If you’re an experienced musician you’ll find plenty to enjoy at this session. If you’ve never improvised before, why not come and give it a try? We’ll work with some excepts from some great silent films and create original scores, then we’ll perform them.
The workshop is FREE. Just turn up and play!
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Sheffield Silent Film All-Dayer
Another Fine Mess – a Laurel and Hardy triple-bill!
(Comedy)
Laurel and Hardy’s warm-hearted, chaotic comedy is loved the world over and they did some of their funniest work together in the silent era. What better way to start off a day of events at the beautiful Abbeydale Picture House than three of their short comedies, back-to-back, accompanied live at the piano by one of the world’s finest silent film musicians, Neil Brand?
Tickets for 18 and unders are free for all YSFF events at the Abbeydale Picture House, so bring the whole family along for a great start to your weekend.
Performing live: Neil Brand (piano)
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ÂŁ10 (ÂŁ7 concessions), children 18 and under FREE!
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The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1921
(Crime/Horror/Mystery)
Investigating the mysterious death of Charles Baskerville, Sherlock Holmes and his faithful assistant Dr Watson discover the existence of a terrifying supernatural hound roaming the dark hills of Dartmoor. Conan Doyle’s most famous Sherlock Holmes story is brought to spooky life in this 1921 British silent film.
Performing live: Jonny Best (piano) and Trevor Bartlett (percussion)
2
ÂŁ10 (ÂŁ7 concessions), children 18 and under FREE!
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South, 1919
(Documentary/Adventure)
South is the film record of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s heroic but ill-starred attempt to cross Antarctica in 1914-16. It is both a unique historical document, and a tribute to the indomitable courage of a small party of men who set out on a voyage of discovery that turned into an epic struggle for survival. At the film’s centre is the astonishing sight of the ship, Endurance, trapped in the ice. Photographer Frank Hurley captured his most dramatic shots in the blackness of the polar night by surrounding the ship with twelve magnesium flares. These ghostly images of Endurance in its final hours are among the most unforgettable images in early cinema.
Performing live: Neil Brand (piano)
4
ÂŁ10 (ÂŁ7 concessions), children 18 and under FREE!
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French cinema double-bill:
MĂ©nilmontant, 1926 (Drama/Mystery)
L’Invitation au Voyage, 1927 (Drama)
Dmitri Kirsanoff’s Ménilmontant remains one of the most celebrated and moving of French avant-garde impressionist films of the 1920s. Legendary film critic Pauline Kael claimed it was her favourite film, calling it “an exquisite, poetic 40-minute movie that is one of the least-known masterpieces of the screen”. This screening will be accompanied by a specially-created sound score blending live foley and sound effects with piano.
One of the major figures of the French film avant-garde of the 1920s and an early feminist, Germaine Dulac combined narratives of psychological realism with the visual techniques of the French Surrealist movement. In the rarely screened L’Invitation au Voyage, she employs a minimum of plot and maximum of atmosphere to convey her tale of the intense desire generated between a bored young wife and a handsome naval officer who meet in a Paris cabaret.
Performing live: Sue Harding (foley), Rebecca Glover (foley), Irine Røsnes (violin), Jonny Best (piano)
6
ÂŁ10 (ÂŁ7 concessions), children 18 and under FREE!
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Speedy, 1928
(Action/Comedy/Family)
Harold Lloyd saves the last horse-drawn trolley car from extinction in Speedy, his last silent comedy – and one of his best. An engaging caper shot on location in New York, ‘Speedy’ shows off the city as it was in 1928, including a breathtaking sequence at Coney Island’s Luna Park and a hair-raising finale chase through the streets of Manhattan. Speedy is showing with a surprise Laurel and Hardy short film and the whole show will be accompanied by live by Neil Brand.
Performing Live: Neil Brand (piano)
9
ÂŁ10 (ÂŁ7 concessions), children 18 and under FREE!
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The Unknown, 1927
(Drama/Horror/Romance)
Better known today as the director of Dracula (1931) and Freaks (1932), Tod Browning’s most individual and striking work was in the silent era. The Unknown is one of his most demented, macabre melodramas, packing a substantial punch into its fifty minute running time. Lon Chaney plays Alonzo the Armless, a circus knife-thrower who is actually a serial killer on the run from the law. Joan Crawford plays the circus owner’s daughter who has a fear of mens’ hands…
Performing live: Jonny Best (piano) and Trevor Bartlett (percussion). The Unknown will be introduced by Vanessa Toulmin, University of Sheffield.
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ÂŁ10 (ÂŁ7 concessions), children 18 and under FREE!
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