I may be a humble blogger typing at my desk, but just imagine I am a glamorous celebrity cracking first-rate jokes while wearing a designer ballgown. I have counted the votes, and I am ready to announce the winners of the Silent London Poll of 2023!
Congratulations to all the people mentioned below – as ever, these categories were bursting with great nominations. Thank you for all your votes, and your comments, which remind us all of the passion for silent film out there.
Without further ado, let me open this giant stack of golden envelopes. Here are your winners.
1. Best orchestral silent film screening of 2023
Your winner: Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925), with a score composed by Stephen Horne, orchestrated by Ben Palmer and performed by Orchestra del Teatro Comunale directed by Timothy Brock, in the Piazza Maggiore Bologna, as part of Il Cinema Ritrovato
I said: “Before Monday night’s screening of the original 1925 adaptation of Olive Higgins Prouty’s weepie, some people in Bologna were still dropping the names of Barbara Stanwyck and King Vidor. After Monday, the talk of the town was only Belle Bennett, Henry King and Stephen Horne, whose marvellous score, alongside Bennett’s impeccable performance, left the piazza awash with tears. Horne has long championed this film, as have I, and the new restoration from MOMA is a very welcome, and beautiful thing. I really hope more people get to see this wonderful film now. Silent melodrama really can be the very finest melodrama.”
Honourable mention: Lady Windermere’s Fan (Ernst Lubitsch, 1925), at the same festival, with Timothy Brock’s new orchestral score.
2. Best silent film screening with a solo musician or small ensemble of 2023
Your winner: The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928), with accompaniment by Stephen Horne, BFI Southbank, London
A silent masterpiece, too rarely seen, accompanied by one of the very best in the business. Bravo, Stephen Horne!
Honourable mention: In Spring (Mikhail Kaufman, 1929), Roksana Smirnova and Misha Kalinin, Hippfest. More on which here.
3. Best online silent film screening of 2023
Your winner: Circe, the Enchantress (Robert z. Leonard, 1924), accompanied by Donald Sosin for the online edition of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone.
I said: “This was a real find, so brilliant to see to iconic Mae Murray and her bee-stung lips in action, even if we wanted to keep the party going a little longer, rather than face the consequences.”
Honourable mention: The Blue Bird (Maurice Tourneur, 1918), accompanied by Sonic Bothy, for Hippfest At Home.
4. Best silent film festival of 2023
Your winner: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone
The original, the best, triumphs again. Festival number 42 was an emotional one, and all the better for it.
You said: “Pordenone Giornate del Cinema Muto!!! (With shoutouts to Bonn Stummfilmtage + FIC-Silente)”
“The best festival I attended online was Stummfilmtage Bonn and I’d like to give a shout-out to the 2023 in-person edition of the Netherlands Silent Film Festival. Both festivals really impressed me with their attention to diversity and interesting programming! (For extra credit, the best in-person film series was “After Alice, Beyond Lois: Mining the Archive with the Women Film Pioneers Project”)”
Honourable mention: Hippfest scored a very impressive tally of votes.
5. Best silent film Blu-ray/DVD of 2023
Pandora’s Box (masters of Cinema, Eureka). (I’m really pleased about this one!)
I said: “Very welcome news from Eureka Entertainment! The good people of Eureka, who have brought us so many beautiful silent film Blu-rays, in the past are releasing Pandora’s Box (GW Pabst, 1929) on Blu-ray on 30 October this year. This is the film’s debut on Blu-ray in the UK. The really good news is that this disc will contain the new, beautiful restoration completed by Martin Koerber and Angela Holm at the Deutsche Kinemathek, using prints from four different archives. And there are special features! Lots of them. I am honoured to be a contributor to this set – I recorded the audio commentary.”
Honourable mention: The Johnstown Flood (Irving Cummings, 1926) – MOD Blu-ray of the new restoration by Robert A Harris and James Mockoski. Find out more on the Nitrateville Podcast.
6. Best silent film book of 2023
Your winner: The Story of Victorian Film, Bryony Dixon, BFI Bloomsbury.
I said: “This book is an absolute delight. It’s an excellent introduction to the concept of 19th-century British cinema, but there is plenty here to intrigue people who are already familiar with the topic.”
7. Silent film hero of 2023
Your winner: Alison Strauss, director of the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival. Brava, Alison for all the tremendous work you do for silent cinema all year round, but especially in Falkirk in March.
You said:
- “She continues to bring wonderful films and pair them with exciting and unexpected musicians as well as curating a festival that is inclusive whether you’re a SFF newbie or expert.”
- “Alison Strauss/Hippfest Team. What they do, these days more than ever, is a minor miracle.”
- “Alison Strauss! That woman can organise A Festival!”
Honourable mention: Ed Lorusso
You said: “Ed Lorusso, author of Silent Films of Marion Davies, founder of Colonial SFF in Augusta, Maine, producer of dozens of silent film restorations”
“Ed Lorusso for another year of interesting Kickstarter projects”
Some of your other nominations:
- “Chris Bird for his incisive, fact-filled but never dull, curation and introductions at Kennington Bioscope, especially his lovely tribute to David Wyatt.”
- “always in awe of Maggie Hennefeld!”
- “Kate Stewart of Silents Please STL. She continues her commitment to bring silent screening to St. Louis and spreading the joy of silent cinema.”
- “Frank Bockius (for many years of great work)”
- “ALL the musicians (around the world, online and in person)!”
8. Silent film discovery of 2023
Your winner, your words: “Has to be Harry Piel!” The German actor and filmmaker known as “the dynamite director” was showcased to great effect at Pordenone this year.
I said: “Harry Piel, I am reminded, is supremely comfortable on land, sea or in the air. A man you can take anywhere. And what is better than a film with Harry Piel in it? A film with two Harry Piels in it.”
More of your nominations:
- “The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum in Exeter,”
- ““Tih Minh” by Louis Feuillade via the Gaumont Region B Blu-Ray set. (Second choice: the 7 hour version of “La Roue” on The Criterion Channel).”
- “Harry Lachman (the two Riviera Revels shorts shown at the screening of The Magician).”
- “I saw Greed, The Crowd and several Ozu silents for the first time this year. Wow! Little wonder these films continue to be talked about. But it was seeing Raymond Griffith and Edward Everett Horton as two elegant, inventive silent comedians via Ben Model’s releases, that were mostly accurately ‘discoveries’.”
- “Adam a Eva (1922)–encountered in the MoMA series, “After Alice, Beyond Lois Mining the Archive with the Women Film Pioneers Project” curated by Kate Saccone. And the orangutan in Merry-Go-Round (1923)”Adam a Eva (1922)–encountered in the MoMA series, “After Alice, Beyond Lois Mining the Archive with the Women Film Pioneers Project” curated by Kate Saccone. And the orangutan in Merry-Go-Round (1923).”
- “‘The Silent Enemy’ about the Ojibway people, at Bo’ness HippFest.”
- “Max Linder. I had known his works and his art but when I read Lisa Stein Haven’s biography I completely understood how tragic Max’s life really was.”
- And many, many votes for the wonderful Reginald Denny!
9. Best silent film restoration of 2023
Your winner: Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925), restored by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Film Foundation chaired by Martin Scorsese.
Another accolade for this tremendous restoration and its new score, showcased at festivals and online this year, converting many, many more cinephiles to its sheer dramatic perfection. Also likely responsible for selling more handkerchiefs.
Honourable mention: Pavement Butterfly/Großstadtschmetterling (Richard Eichberg, 1929), restored by Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum.
10. Best intertitle of 2023
No consensus, this year, but some fantastic nominations:
- “Don’t interrupt me——I think I’m thinking!” (from “The Cat and the Canary”, US 1927)
- “If you look for the canary, it’s in the cat” from Oh! What a Nurse (1926) with Syd Chaplin
- “THE DAM IS BREAKING! from The Johnstown Flood”
- “Go out and milk the cows and forget my daughter.”
- “Idiot!” Michael Powell’s favourite from A Woman of Paris (1923)
- “If you could fish as well as you can crab there’d be many an empty lake up here” (Mantrap)
- “He’s gone meshuga after viewing a sex education film!” De Er Splittergale They Are Completely Crazy
- “You unutterable cad!” – The First Born
- You were just my fancy, see ?? – Fanny Hawthorne, Hindle Wakes.
What a year! Thanks to everyone who voted, and congratulations to all the wonderful winners!
- See you tonight: my Hippfest lecture on Frances Marion, scribe of Stella Dallas, goes out on YouTube at 7pm.
- Silent London will always be free to all readers. If you enjoy checking in with the site, including reports from silent film festivals, features and reviews, please consider shouting me a coffee on my Ko-Fi page.
