This is the time of year for the London Film Festival.
One of the things they had every year was Live Cinema, or Thames Silents, or Channel 4 Silents.
With orchestral accompaniment conducted by and/or written by Carl Davis, we saw some great ‘silent’ films like The Big Parade, The General, City Lights and Napoleon.
Live Cinema continues around the world, and, of course, in London. Wilton’s Music Hall has some, as does Cadogan Hall, near Sloane Square.
This Sunday sees the 1931 Frankenstein, with a new score played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. There are two performances, afternoon and evening, a bit more than one hour though no doubt there will be chat. There are still some tickets available.
We’ll be there, so do say hi!
This actual film is, of course, not silent but this event follows a popular trend of taking a talkie, removing the recorded music and playing it live. The first we ever saw was 2001 at the Royal Festival Hall, when it was a novelty, but now it is something done very often, even for modern films.
