Thank you for bearing wth me during a few several technical glitches related to this year’s poll. Relax, enjoy your glass of wine-flavoured carbonated beverage, and welcome to our glittering award ceremony. I have counted the votes, and I am ready to announce the winners of the Silent London Poll of 2024!
Congratulations to all the people mentioned below – as ever, these categories were bursting at the seams with excellent, worthy nominations and a great reminder of how exciting the global silent film scene is. Thank you for all your votes, and your comments, especially.
Without further ado, let me open this giant stack of golden envelopes. Here are your winners.
1. Best orchestral silent film screening of 2024
Your winner: The Winning of Barbara Worth (Henry King, 1926), with a score composed by Neil Brand, arranged by George Morton, conducted by Ben Palmer, performed live by the Orchestra da Camera di Pordneone, at Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone
I said: “t’s a big, big movie, with the youthful star trio of Ronald Colman (on $1,750 a week), Vilma Banky (on $1,000 a week) and Gary Cooper (on $50 a week!) in a desert love triangle, and a tremendously terrifying climax, as the townsfolk run for their lives when the river bursts its manmade bounds. Plus we were to enjoy the world premiere of a wondrous new score composed by Neil Brand, arranged by George Morton, conducted by Ben Palmer, and performed live tonight by the Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone. If you know the film you will know that it is celebrated for its scale, but also that this is a Frances Marion script, with a touch of melodrama (Vilma overhearing Ronald’s confession that he won’t propose to her, but not the reason why), her pet subject of adopted children, and her love of a grand theme – here the pioneers’ battle for mastery over the elements, and capitalism’s battle for mastery over the populace. You’ll also know that between the big action scenes there are several more sedate moments, discussions of policy and payroll. As, quite frankly, we have come to expect, Brand’s score was buoyant and nimble, keeping the film on its toes, teasing out the romance and flooding (yes, I went there) the auditorium with sound during those blockbuster setpieces, starting with a sandstorm in the first reel and the deluge in the last. Timed to a T, so that image and sound met in perfect harmony, and just a joy to listen to – for what it’s worth, I think it’s a winner. Geddit?”
2. Best silent film screening with a solo musician or small ensemble of 2024
Your winner: The Wind (Victor Sjöstrom, 1928), accompanied by Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius, Hippfest 2024.
Lillian Gish stars in a veritable silent masterpiece, accompanied by one of our favourite occasional duos!
Highly commended: Saxophon-Susi at Pordenone, accompanied by Neil Brand, Frank Bockius and Francesco Bearzetti.
3. Best online silent film screening of 2024
Your winner: Song (Richard Eichberg, 1928), accompanied by Stephen Horne for Giornate del Cinema Muto online.
I said (about the in-person screening): “This afternoon’s return visit was a stunning new restoration of one of Anna May Wong’s better European films, Song (Richard Eichberg, 1928), using material from the British Film Institute and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, by Filmmuseum Düsseldorf. And it looks stunning, you can almost feel the fresh air, the images are so clear… [Anna May Wong] was a phenomenon, and it is such a thrill to see this British-German co-production sparkling, even better with the always simpatico duo of Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius adding melody and dynamism to this vivid story of backstage life and love.”
4. Best silent film festival of 2024
Your winner: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone
The 2024 edition was excellent on many fronts, as you will have already seen from the first awards. One innovation that was mentioned time and again in several poll responses was the hugely popular Sine Nomine strands. Fingers crossed for its return in 2025!
Honourable mention: Yet again, Hippfest gave the Italian festival a run for its money.
5. Best online silent film festival of 2024
Your winner: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone
Honourable mention: Stummfilmtage Bonn was just a handful of votes away from victory.
6. Best online silent film platform of 2024
Your winner: Stumfilm.dk, the Danish Film Institute’s comprehensive platform for its online collections.
Honourable mention:This was a VERY close call. Eye Film Player from the Netherlands was right behind the Danes in this race.
7. Best silent film Blu-ray/DVD of 2024
Your winner: The Enchanted Cottage (John S. Robertson, 1924), from Ed Lorusso via Kickstarter, with a new score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
Paul Joyce said: “Ed made a 4k scan of the Library of Congress’ 35mm print, perhaps the only surviving copy on this stock, which had oddly been copied onto stock containing the music track from another film. He cropped the music off and makes the most of what is a pretty decent print to which he added new opening credits which fit very well with the style of Gertrude Chase’s intertitles. The result also highlights Livingston Platt’s gorgeous designs of the titular cottage, enabling us to feel anew the romantic and possibly even supernatural properties of this space.
“The Enchanted Cottage is a sweet film and it makes some brave decisions for the time allowing both those wonderful leads to express its emotive content to the full. I doubt there was a dry eye by the end in 1924 and a century later, this Cottage is still Enchanted. The magic is also manifested by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra who play pianist Rodney Sauer’s score to perfection with the cello of David Short and violin of Britt Swenson aided by the clarinet of Brian Collins and the trumpet of Dawn Kramer. The ensemble are always so good at comedy and here they present their more soulful side.”
Honourable mention: Louis Feuillade: the complete crime serials 1913-19, a beautiful beast of a set.
8. Best silent film book of 2024
Your winner: Death By Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema, Maggie Hennefeld, Columbia University Press
I said: “Maggie Hennefeld’s Death By Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema really is one of the most energisingly wide-ranging and fast-thinking academic books I have read in a long time. Why did US newspapers reprint dubious obituaries of woman who laughed themselves into corpses? What is it like to watch a slapstick comedy while wearing a whalebone corset? If laughter is so deadly, why is it also the “best medicine”? Can mental derangement take the form of laughter, or can laughter beat neurological illness into retreat? And finally, what does it mean for the movies? Why do we love to laugh together, why do women need to laugh at the pictures and how does it feel to see a laughing woman on screen? All this and more, including at least one lethal joke.”
9. Silent film hero of 2024
Your winner: Edward Lorusso, the author, film preservationist and historian, who among his many projects, brought us the Enchanted Cottage Blu-ray, the latest in a long line of crowdfunded silent film discs.
Honourable mention : Donna Hill, San Francisco’s beloved silent film connoisseur and esteemed Valentinologist. The vote was tight, but if the person who voted for “Donna Hill x a million!” had their way, I grant you it would have been a landslife
You said:
Some of your other nominations:
- “Donna Hill, Bryony Dixon, Neil Brand, Oliver Hanley, Stephen Horne, Tamara Shvediuk, everyone has identified the unidentified movies in Pordenone, Jay Weissberg, Elif Kaynakci, Dave Glass, Valerio Greco, Steve Massa, Ben Model”
- “A very special shout out to hotvintagepoll and vintagestagehotties on tumblr whose ‘hot vintage stars’ of stage and screen and ‘scrungly little guy’ polls on tumblr proved that the Conrad Veidt fandom is alive and well and enabled us to enjoy stars from Anna Mae Wong to Zazu Pitts.”
- “Neil Brand: his interview at Pordenone describing the challenges of creating a new score was eye-opening.”
- “Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi (for many reasons, including her playful Sine Nomine program in Pordenone)”
- “Frank Hoyer and co. at stummfilm-magazin.de for bringing all the important news on all-things-silent-film to German-speaking audiences”
8. Silent film discovery of 2024
Your winners: This year was a tie between the marvellous actress Anna May Wong (more of her to come this year), and the fabulous Weimar jazz romp Saxophon Susi (Karel Lamač, 1928), starring Anny Ondra.
More of your nominations:
- Folly of Vanity. A bonkers soufflé of tinsel and excess
- Jenny Gilbertson – the iconic Scottish woman to make The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric pretty much single-handedly in the 1930s (and then marry its dashing male lead)!
- The uncut version of “Girl Shy” (and the discovery that I’d only ever seen the severely edited versions of Harold Lloyd’s features)
- Conchita Montenegro in The Woman and the Puppet (1929)! Blimey O’Riley!!
- Forgotten Faces (1928) – I left the cinema elated (helio-lated – i’m sure there’s a pun in there somewhere)
- I’ve waited YEARS to see Our Dancing Daughters and it was everything I wanted and more
- Irina Volodko (as Tadzhi in UNING HUQUQI), SAXOPHON SUSI (the whole shebang), and the Neptune fantasy sequence in FOLLY OF VANITY… and SATURN RETURN!
- So This is Paris (1926) So much fun!
- Jean the Vitagraph Dog at Silent Laughter Weekend
9. Best silent film restoration of 2024
Your winner, and this year’s It Happened One Night: The Enchanted Cottage (John S. Robertson, 1924), from Ed Lorusso via Kickstarter, with a new score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
You said: “Enchanted Cottage – great film and music by Mont Alto orchestra”
More of your nominations:
- The 1913 Mission to Mars. Because it was shown on live TV thanks to Talking Pictures! Give them this award and maybe they’ll show more silent films!
- The new reconstruction (with new footage!) of The Girl From Carthage as part of the Programma Albert Samama Chikly at Il Cinema Ritrovato
- Hard to select just one. In the end, the work of all film restorers is worthy of praise! (Yes, I know it’s a bit of a cop out, but it’s also true)
- Loved the 4K restoration of The Wind (1928), 3 Bad Men (1926), Blade af Satans Bog (1920), La sultane de l’amour (1919) and but really impressed too in negative because I’ve hated the definitive Napoleon (1927) restoration by Cinematheque Francaise – [In fairness, I must point out several of you did indeed vote for the Napoleon restoration]
10. Best modern silent of 2024
Your winner: Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik)
Slapstick anarchy in the snow. What is not to love? If you are in the UK and haven’t seen this one yet, it is available on Prime Video, plus it is playing at the Slapstick Festival in February.
Honourable mentions: Flow and Robot Dreams did very well too, and rightly so
11. Best intertitle of 2024
Your winner: This corker from La Boheme, which resonates with this here hack who is always on a deadline and very often being mithered by a feline friend:
“Get me something sentimental about a cat – or you can get out of here.”
Your other, fabulous nominations!
- “I don’t care how she votes I’m still going to marry her” The Scarecrow, Buste Keaton
- “What do to, not to die of boredom…?” (unidentified german comedy)
- “Their love was sweeping them on like a torrent, against which they were powerless.”
- “Ma voi chi siete?” MACISTE
- “Now be still you rambunctious son of a buckaroo ’til we tell you how pleased we are to see you”
- “Nobody ever made any speed with a hat like that — it’ll scare the horses” – 3 Bad Men 1926
- “Meow!”
- “When you want to fool aunty dear, Don’t bring a gardener with mannicured fingernails.” (The Bat)
- “Impossible n’est pas Français”
- “Violating realism is a victimless crime”, Breaking Plates
- “His sister, Ethel, was endured by horses and dogs….” The Enchanted Cottage
- “Finally, the vicar was in the pulpit…” Gosta Berlings Saga
- “You never see her again – Now, she nun!” from For The Soul of Rafael
- “My apple pie!”
- “Monk! It’s been a long time since I have eaten monk. Let me at him.”
- “I am going to travel far away to the country of thieves and ghosts.” (Nosferatu, the OG)
- “After nights of animal magic, morning regrets are often tragic” (Saxophon-Susi)
- “If you slap me round the face, I’ll smash your window pane.” (Henny Porten as Liesel in Kohlhiesel’s Daughters)No consensus, this year, but some fantastic nominations:
What a year! Thanks to everyone who voted, and congratulations to all the wonderful winners!
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