Is it a little hot in here… or is it just me? Outside the weather is turning autumnal, inside here I am contemplating the sizzling lineup for HippFest’s Taste of Silents season, which opens next month. Complete with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert sharing a cigarette, and much more, in Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown, 1926).
Stephen Horne will accompany Flesh and the Devil on piano and flute at the beautiful Hippodrome Cinema in Bo’ness, Falkirk on 20 September. This event will open the programme, which has been curated by the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival’s Young Programmers: an educational programme to support future cinema programmers and film exhibitors.
On 4 October, Scottish improvisational ensemble S!nk will accompany a centenary screening of Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eiesenstein, 1925). And on 18 October, HippFest favourite Mike Nolan will be at the keys for Buster Keaton’s Go West (1926), the best film about a man and a cow you ever saw.
For those who can only attend virtually, Neil Brand: Key Notes will be available online for a limited time. This is “a high-speed voyage into the art of silent cinema accompaniment presented by the world’s foremost proponent of this specialised artform, Neil Brand. A unique and memorable show that will leave you in awe of the great filmmakers of the silent era and the artistry of the accompanists who breathed life… and sound into their work.”
All this and another centenary screening comes to the Hippodrome on 30 October, something a little creepy for spooky season: Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925), with a new live score from Tommy Perman and Andrew Wasylyk commissioned by Dundead. This one will then tour Scotland, hitting up the DCA in Dundee, Filmhouse in Edinburgh, Glasgow Film Theatre and Eden Court, Inverness.
No, there’s actually more. HippFest’s 2024 Commission The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric (1933) with live musical accompaniment from Inge Thomson and Catriona Macdonald will tour across Scotland this autumn too, 19 September to 24 October, visiting the Sea Change Festival in Tiree, ARC in Glasgow, Mareel in Lerwick, Eden Court in Inverness and An Lanntair in Stornoway.
- For more on HippFest’s Taste of Silents season, visit this site.
- For The Rugged Island tour dates, click here.
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