From May 5th – 31st, theatres across Sheffield, Leeds, Hull, York and many more across Yorkshire will be showcasing some of the best silent movies ever made.
Yorkshire Silent Film Festival is the biggest silent film festival in the UK, and each movie comes with a traditional live music accompaniment. Sheffield’s Abbeydale Picturehouse, Thirsk’s Ritz and Leed’s Hyde Park Picturehouse are some the historic theatres that will be hosting the events.
The festival will open at the Abbeydale Picturehouse with Alfred Hitchcock’s first thriller “The Lodger,” featuring an all new score composed by Neil Brand and performed live by the Orchestra of St Paul’s.
Opening weekend will also feature a 12 hour all-day programme at the Picturehouse, starting with a programme of classic silent cartoons. The rest of the films showing include Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman (his other comedy, Sherlock Jr will also be shown at the Picturehouse during the festival), fantasy films by George Melies and Segundo de Chomon and Man Without Desire starring Ivor Novello. There will even be Soviet comedy The Girl With A Hatbox and cinema legend Greta Garbo starring in the lusty drama Flesh and The Devil. To complete the day there’ll even be a late night showing of Behind The Door, one of cinema’s most shocking films.
The Showroom Cinema will also be screening films during the festival, including The House on Trubnya Street, and rarely-seen classic Danish film The Golden Crown.
Other classic movies that will be shown during the festival include MGM’s most epic production, Ben Hur (Sheffield, Hull and Halifax) and Hitchcock’s final silent movie Blackmail (Scarborough, Leyburn, Halifax.)
For more information about the festival, go here.
