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SILENCE IS GOLDEN Stars of silent fi lm are celebrated at the Bo’ness Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema
G loria Swanson (pictured) is for many people the epitome of the silent film star. She is remembered not just for her many roles in early cinema (Male and Female, Why Change Your Wife) but also as ageing silent screen actress Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s sublime Sunset Boulevard (‘We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces!’ she exclaims at one point). Swanson is just one of the stars celebrated in the Festival of Silent Cinema which returns to the Bo’ness Hippodrome in March.
Extended to five days, the programme includes silent film accompanist Neil Brand performing to Stage Struck, a comedy with Gloria Swanson playing a waitress aspiring to become a star. Still on the star-theme,
56 THE LIST 21 Feb–21 Mar 2013
Baby Peggy, the Elephant in the Room is a documentary about the oldest surviving silent film actor whose career began at 18 months and finished suddenly when she was four. UK electronic ensemble Minima are also on the bill, accompanying Japanese avant garde feature Jujiro (Crossways) with a new score. And last but not least the festival will host the first Scottish performance by The Dodge Brothers – a skiffle band which includes film critic Mark Kermode. They’ll be providing a live score to rare Soviet flick The Ghost That Never Returns. (Gail Tolley) The Bo’ness Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema, Hippodrome, Bo’ness, Wed 13–Sun 17 Mar.
HITLIST THE BEST FILM RELEASES & EVENTS
✽ Bo’ness Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema Festival dedicated to films of the silent era with live musical accompaniments. See preview, left. Hippodrome cinema, Bo’ness, Wed 13–Sun 17 Mar.
✽ Cloud Atlas An ambitious, sprawling, era-spanning sci-fi epic about fate and love adapted from David Mitchell’s best-selling novel (pictured above). See review, page 58. General release from Fri 22 Feb.
✽ Stoker Korean director Park Chan-
Wook’s first English language film is a twisted horror starring Nicole Kidman, Mathew Goode and Mia Wasikowska. See review, page 61. Limited release from Fri 1 Mar.
✽ Planet Bowie Coinciding with his first album in ten years is this celebration of
the musician on the big screen, including Nic Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth and Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. See feature, page 17. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, from Sun 10 Mar.
✽ FrightFest The final weekend of Glasgow Film Fest is dominated by two days of
horror with some famous faces due to drop in, including Eli Roth. See feature, page 20. GFT, Glasgow, Fri 22–Sat 23 Feb.
✽ Beyond the Hills The latest acclaimed addition to Romania’s impressive new
wave from director Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days). See review, page 58. Limited release from Fri 15 Mar.
✽ Hell Unltd A rare screening of this anti- war movie from 1936 made by Glasgow
artists Helen Biggar and Norman McLaren, with a specially commissioned score by Kim Moore and Gareth Griffiths. See preview, page 66. GFT, Glasgow, Fri 8 Mar.