British Silent Film Festival, The Cinema Museum

The British Silent Film Festival offers the ultimate experience for cinema purists. Crammed with rarely seen silents from the BFI National Archive, the screenings take the audience through a plethora of historic directors (Geza von Bolvary), iconic starlets (Betty Balfour) and nationally treasured writers (J.M. Barrie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).  

The selection of films share a prevailing theme of put-upon ladies inclined to take on the world. Opening the collection is J. M. Barrie’s The Twelve Pound Look (1920), directed by Jack Denton and starring Milton Rosmer (Hour of Glory, Goodbye Mr. Chips) and Jessie Winter (Goodbye, The Diamond Necklace). When a despondent woman marries a cold, wealthy businessman to financially support her brothers and sisters, she soon uses her newfound financial independence to buy a typewriter and work independently as a writer. Next is Britain’s darling of the 1920s, Betty Balfour, who stars as a stand-in princess in The Vagabond Queen (1929). The classic British comedy follows a young woman who, taking the place of a princess, finds herself the target of an assassination. Balfour’s next film in the program is Bright Eyes (1929), where she plays the part of a humble kitchen worker in a luxurious hotel, who, by an extraordinary twist of fate, ends up performing a comedy routine to the hotel’s sophisticated guests. Needless to say it is an instant success, bringing her fame and fortune. Both of these charming comedies are directed by Geza Von Bolvary (the Hungarian cinematic powerhouse with over a hundred films to his name) and they proved to be his last films to be produced in England. 

With additional screenings of silent short films, and food and drink to keep the energy levels up, The British Silent Film Festival promises to be an amusing, intriguing and educational experience.