Northern Silents
As I begin my journey into the world of cinema history, one thing I am keen to do is look into our communities to uncover what we are doing to bring the cinematic past to life, and how people celebrate the characters, the movies and the people that have left an impression on them. There is a lot going on in all corners of the world. Some of these things are experiences that we can all share through events, and others are communities of film fans that celebrate a certain aspect of the movie world.
Over the next two weeks I have got the first articles in my Reel Worlds series (god I’m good at naming things). I’m also releasing them back to back rather than the usual two week gap. Please enjoy!
Many years ago I attended a screening of The General by Buster Keaton which was accompanied by the live pianist, Neil Brand. It was my first Buster Keaton movie, but even more importantly for me, my first experience of live music to go with the film.
The experience has always stuck with me. The first thing that springs to mind was how fun it was! Half of me wanted to watch how Brand was managing to improvise music to what he was seeing on screen, and half of me was enjoying the comedy masterpiece before me.
“It's a lovely dynamic with a film that might be 90 years old or 120 years old. You've got this really old artefact, this old film, and then you've got this absolutely fresh, spontaneous live sound”,
Fast forward a third of my life and I find myself on a Zoom call with Jonny Best, Artistic Director and founder of The North Silents (previously The Yorkshire Silent Film Festival), who produce year round programming and The Northern Silent Film Festival each October.
“And the musician sort of connects the audience with the film. But really the job is to connect the audience with the film, it is to be the connecting tissue between the screen and the people in the dark.”
In 2013 Jonny had never really seen any silent films at all. He was a trained pianist (I won’t go on about his resumé, but it’s hugely impressive) and after a stint doing other (hugely impressive) things, he happened to put on a silent movie at a festival he was producing,
“I was, 44, I think 45 maybe. And I'd never seen a silent film with live music. I'd never really noticed that it was a thing that happened…
I thought, well, that looks fun. I'm looking for something new to do…So I started trying to learn how to do it and I quickly realised it was something I wanted to really work at. Then in 2016, I founded what was first of all the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival.”
I’m sure that Jonny isn’t alone in not experiencing a silent film with music for years. Have you ever seen one? Have you ever watched a whole silent film? You are completely forgiven if you haven’t. In much popular culture, these movies are simply never shown. There’s this idea that silent cinema is a “primitive form of film which was simply waiting around for recorded sound to come along”1
Over the last ten years or so, things have been changing. There have been events popping up all over the country. The BFI in London stages regular screenings with live music, there has been seasons at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, and a festival in the oldest cinema in Scotland, the Hippodrome. These are events that are slowly changing the perception of what a silent film can offer a modern audience.
The Northern Silents takes this notion and creates events that have the live music at its heart. Jonny says that he, “wanted to expand the range of music, the range of kinds of sound that audiences might encounter with silent film”. What strikes me though is the emphasis the company have in building their events around local artists, providing musicians with similar opportunities that so often centre around London.
“I wanted to challenge that by creating an organisation that was valuing the music and the film equally …
And that's the other thing, wanting to create opportunities for musicians in the North to develop new skills and to perform with film. Thinking of it really as for audiences and for musicians. I wanted audiences to hear things that they may not otherwise have heard with silent film”.
Northern Silents keeps those musicians and fosters the talent they have to create a community of highly talented musical improvisers that change and grow every year.
For their upcoming summer season though, Jonny only has percussion next to his piano for the ongoing tour of Metropolis as Trevor Bartlett joins him to improvise the score for the 1927 epic sci-fi. “It's a wonderful film. It’s a real adventure for musicians.”
“When we did it about a month ago and I hadn't looked at the film for a couple of years and I thought, well, I won't look at it again. We'll just put it on the screen. Let's see. As a musician, you want to test your reflexes a bit and test your improvising reflexes.”
Just put it on the screen!? The idea of coming up with two and a half hours of music on the spot is completely daunting to me. When I put this to Jonny he said, “it's all working with knowledge you already have even if that knowledge is so deep within you because it's stuff that you…and it just, it comes out in the fingers when you just relax, unlock and just, let it happen”.
I saw The General in an arts centre but this festival ensures they play in cinemas, village halls and community venues, as well as playing different genres to appeal to different people. This is, in part, the reason why this festival has grown and grown over the years. So much so that they now encompass, not only Yorkshire, but the whole of the North of England and have the busiest program on the calendar, more so even than the BFI.
Seeing this company from Jonny’s and the musician’s perspective has made me all the more certain that I need to take everyone I know to these events. I was going to say, “to take everyone to watch these films”, but I hope from this short newsletter you’ll agree it’s much more than that. It’s a visceral experience as a viewer, and it seems that way as a musician too. Very similar to that one-off experience of the theatre, going to watch a silent film with live music is a connection between you, the screen and the music (and I'd even say our history is in the room too).
The Northern Silents is currently in its summer season with their month long film festival happening in October. There are all sorts of things happening such as Slapstick screenings for kids, a great selection of comedies and dramas as well as their very own film, Echoes of the North which is a fantastic project to compile clips from the nations archives which show what Northern England was like a century ago. It includes the first ever all-brass band soundtrack made for the film by Neil Brand.
If you’re anywhere nearby, I urge you to go! Here's the What's On guide
Today’s Sounds for Yesterday’s Films - Making Music for Silent Cinema - P.5
Thanks to Northern Silent for their contribution and photos as well!