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Others
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The 16th Silent Cinema Festival, the flagship event of the National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute, will take place on 4-7 April at the Warsaw Iluzjon cinema. The main character, Sherlock Holmes
Why Sherlock Holmes? In 2009, a small but very valuable collection of film prints with lost films of the silent cinema era was discovered in the basement of a church in Sosnowiec. Among them there was the "The Hound of the Baskervilles" directed by Richard Oswald in 1929. The film, being the last silent film version of the story about the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes, we restored at FINA in a partnership project with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. In our collection there is the only currently known 35mm copy of this film. The premiere screening of this sensational phenomenon will open the 16th Festival of Silent Cinema.
The decision to present the " The Hound of the Baskervilles" during this year's festival was the starting point for us to program other interesting film works from that period, whose heroes were Sherlock or the detectives inspired by his character. We will show, among others, found in 2014,“Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Berthelet from 1916 with the legendary William Gillette in the title role, as well as "Mark of the Four" by Maurice Elvey from 1923 - a mature achievement of the detective film.
Although the genre cinema has already been hosted at the Silent Cinema Festival, we will show the film adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s prose for the first time. We will supplement them with reference to genre, pastiche and apocrypha. Particularly noteworthy are two films, in which the main characters are women: "Miss Clever vs. Black Hand" by an unknown director from 1914 and constituting the genre mishmash "Filibus" directed by Mario Roncoroni in 1915 - it will be the world premiere of a new restored version.
Serge Bromberg
The second important program block is the original selection of films made by Serge Bromberg. This French populariser of silent cinema, called the Indiana Jones of missing films, for many decades brings them closer to the audience, surprising with an innovative approach to the subject. Bromberg finds films, restores great finds and retrieves for the audience what has remained on the margins of interest in film archives. Serge Bromberg is a truly versatile man - the founder of Lobster Films, producer, director (Caesar winner for the best documentary for "Inferno - unfinished hell") and curator. We will have a chance to get to know him as a host, showman and accompanist.
Although at the request of Serge Bromberg we will not reveal the full program until the day of the show, we can set aside the mystery and announce that it will contain the most valuable films from the first years of the twentieth century: "After the Ball" (1897) and "Journey to the Moon" by Georges Méliès from 1902; "Butterfly Metamorphosis" by Pathé Studio from 1904; "Firemen's Hallucinations" by Folies Bergère with Josephine Baker from 1927. Some of these unusually beautiful films are painted by hand and have never been shown in Poland on the big screen in restored versions. A curiosity will be the show of the only known social advertising in the comedy tone ("Those Awful Hats") made by David Wark Griffith. Screenings - intended for viewers of all ages - can become an extraordinary journey into the past also for the youngest viewers.
100 years ago in cinema
During this edition of the festival, we will inaugurate a new, permanent cycle in the cinema Iluzjon - "100 years ago in the cinema". Not only during the Festival but all year round we wish to show silent films that are milestones in the development of world cinema, representing interesting reconstructive projects, or films that were overlooked in the past but today surprise with artistic values and modernity. The latter include a film "Behind the Door," directed by Irvin Willat in 1919 which opens the cycle.
Screenings of the 16th Silent Film Festival will be enriched by the presence of splendid guests from all over the world: researchers, curators and specialists under whose care archive and restoration work were carried out, who will provide the introduction to the films. Apart from already mentioned Serge Bromberg our guests will be: Prof. dr Giovanna Fossati – chief curator of EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, Prof. Russell Merritt from Berkeley University and Robert Byrne – Director of San Francisco Silent Film Festival. All screenings will be accompanied by live music performed by outstanding Polish artists.
Detailed information: www.swietoniemegokina.pl
The decision to present the " The Hound of the Baskervilles" during this year's festival was the starting point for us to program other interesting film works from that period, whose heroes were Sherlock or the detectives inspired by his character. We will show, among others, found in 2014,“Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Berthelet from 1916 with the legendary William Gillette in the title role, as well as "Mark of the Four" by Maurice Elvey from 1923 - a mature achievement of the detective film.
Although the genre cinema has already been hosted at the Silent Cinema Festival, we will show the film adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s prose for the first time. We will supplement them with reference to genre, pastiche and apocrypha. Particularly noteworthy are two films, in which the main characters are women: "Miss Clever vs. Black Hand" by an unknown director from 1914 and constituting the genre mishmash "Filibus" directed by Mario Roncoroni in 1915 - it will be the world premiere of a new restored version.
Serge Bromberg
The second important program block is the original selection of films made by Serge Bromberg. This French populariser of silent cinema, called the Indiana Jones of missing films, for many decades brings them closer to the audience, surprising with an innovative approach to the subject. Bromberg finds films, restores great finds and retrieves for the audience what has remained on the margins of interest in film archives. Serge Bromberg is a truly versatile man - the founder of Lobster Films, producer, director (Caesar winner for the best documentary for "Inferno - unfinished hell") and curator. We will have a chance to get to know him as a host, showman and accompanist.
Although at the request of Serge Bromberg we will not reveal the full program until the day of the show, we can set aside the mystery and announce that it will contain the most valuable films from the first years of the twentieth century: "After the Ball" (1897) and "Journey to the Moon" by Georges Méliès from 1902; "Butterfly Metamorphosis" by Pathé Studio from 1904; "Firemen's Hallucinations" by Folies Bergère with Josephine Baker from 1927. Some of these unusually beautiful films are painted by hand and have never been shown in Poland on the big screen in restored versions. A curiosity will be the show of the only known social advertising in the comedy tone ("Those Awful Hats") made by David Wark Griffith. Screenings - intended for viewers of all ages - can become an extraordinary journey into the past also for the youngest viewers.
100 years ago in cinema
During this edition of the festival, we will inaugurate a new, permanent cycle in the cinema Iluzjon - "100 years ago in the cinema". Not only during the Festival but all year round we wish to show silent films that are milestones in the development of world cinema, representing interesting reconstructive projects, or films that were overlooked in the past but today surprise with artistic values and modernity. The latter include a film "Behind the Door," directed by Irvin Willat in 1919 which opens the cycle.
Screenings of the 16th Silent Film Festival will be enriched by the presence of splendid guests from all over the world: researchers, curators and specialists under whose care archive and restoration work were carried out, who will provide the introduction to the films. Apart from already mentioned Serge Bromberg our guests will be: Prof. dr Giovanna Fossati – chief curator of EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, Prof. Russell Merritt from Berkeley University and Robert Byrne – Director of San Francisco Silent Film Festival. All screenings will be accompanied by live music performed by outstanding Polish artists.
Detailed information: www.swietoniemegokina.pl