The gem of silent classics! This distinctive movie is inspired by German expressionism. It serves as a forerunner to the film noir genre. Released in 1928, this American silent drama was directed by Josef von Sternberg and features performances by George Bancroft, Betty Compson, and Olga Baclanova.

A blue-collar worker on the struggling waterfront of New York experiences a transformation after rescuing a woman who is trying to take her own life.

In washed the tide. Picked from the driftwood at the waterside. A woman, sullen, weary, disillusioned. And a ship's stoker, ashore for a rollicking rouser. A Josef von Sternberg masterpiece. (Print ad in The Observer, Newberry, SC, 26 March 1929).

Live piano accompaniment

by Agustina Taborda

*****

IMDb: 7.5/10

It was thought to be a lost film, until 2013, when an original copy was discovered in the archives of the National Library in Mo i Rana, Norway. This special effects-intensive silent fantasy/horror film by the husband-wife team director Dan Duyu and actor Pearl Ing premiered 99 years ago in Shanghai. Adapted from a well-known episode of the 16 th century fantasy novel Journey to the West, one of the most famous Chinese literary classics, follows a monk on a journey to the west to find ancient sutras. Six women lure him into their "spider cave." In the kitchen, away from the monk, the spider women and their servant discuss eating him. They try to get the monk to eat, specifically non-vegetarian food, but he refuses. The monk grows weary and suspicious and tries to leave, but the spider women don't let him...

Screening with live piano accompaniment

*****

IMDb: 6.4/10

On the occasion of the Pride Month we invite you to the screening of Different from the Others (German: Anders als die Andern) - a silent German melodramatic film produced during the Weimar Republic. Released in 1919 stars Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schünzel. It was directed by Richard Oswald, and the story co-written by Oswald and Magnus Hirschfeld, who also had a small part in the film and partially funded the production through his Institute for Sexual Science.

The film was intended as a polemic against the then-current laws under Germany's Paragraph 175, which made homosexuality a criminal offense. It was one of the first sympathetic portrayals of gay men in cinema. Censorship laws were enacted in reaction to films like Different from the Others and by October 1920 only doctors and medical researchers could view it. Prints of the film were among the many "decadent" works burned by the Nazis after they came to power in 1933.

Live piano accompaniment

by Mia Fitzgerald

*****

IMDb: 7/10

During the silent film period, more than 300 films based on the works of William Shakespeare were made. Most of them have been lost, or the film tapes have simply weathered over the years. However, some of them have been preserved and you will be able to watch them at the Silent Cinema!

We invite you to the screening of King John (GB, 1899), the first Shakespeare film ever made; The Tempest (GB, 1908); King Lear (Italy, 1910); The Merchant of Venice (Italy, 1910), and Richard III (GB, 1911).

It`s going to be aunique evening for fans of literature, theatre, cinema, but also music. A must see!

Live piano accompaniment by Mia Fitzgerald

*****

IMDb: 6>/10