After three years of absence due to the pandemic, The Silent Film Festival In Thailand returns next month with a programme of classic films from around the world screened with live music. Organised by the Thai Film Archive, the 7th edition of the festival will take place from June 2-4, at the Thai Film Archive, Salaya.
This year's programme is packed with many well-known classics from the silent era, with the headline including Eric von Stroheim's 1922 drama Foolish Wives, starring the director himself with Miss DuPont, an iconic American silent-era actress. The event will screen the recently restored version of the film, with the extra 50 minutes of footage added to the previous and incomplete version.
Any great silent film festival can't go without including films by the legendary comic actor Charlie Chaplin, and here audiences will get to see another of Chaplin's classics, The Kid (1921). It was Chaplin's first film that demonstrated his exceptional talent in drama, riotous action choreography and heartfelt pathos. The film also stars Jacky Coogan as his sidekick.
Fans of fantasy shouldn't miss Peter Pan (1924), the first adaptation in the silent era. The version later inspired Disney to create its own animated adaptation in 1953.
Other great films in the programme include Beethoven (1927), a German film commemorating the 100th centenary of Beethoven's death; The Organist At St. Vitus' Cathedral (1929), a silent film from the Czech Republic about an organist who witnesses the suicide of a man; Fragment Of An Empire (1929), a Soviet silent that showcases the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution; and lastly, The Brilliant Biograph: Earliest Moving Images Of Europe (1897-1902) is a collection of archive footage compiled by the Eye Filmmuseum in the Netherlands and the British Film Institute.
Every screening for the festival will be accompanied by live music. Two of the most respected silent film musicians will be in the country to play at the festival, Maud Nelissen and Daan van den Hurk, both from the Netherlands.
The Silent Film Festival In Thailand will be held from June 2-4 at Sala Cinema, Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom province. Admission is free of charge. For more information, visit fapot.org to see the full programme and reserve your seat.
photos courtesy of Thai Film Archive
Betty Bronson as Peter Pan in Peter Pan. Thai Film Archive
