Screening with live music at BFI Southbank, Thursday 27 January
Globe Education’s season of events for Spring 2011 opens on Thursday 27 January with a rare screening of a 1920 silent film version ofHamlet directed by Sven Gade. Held in partnership with the BFI (British Film Institute) and supported by the German Embassy, the screening will be the London premiere of a new print of the film, and will feature a live, improvised piano accompaniment.
The film stars Asta Nielsen in the title role as a hero who was born a girl but raised as a boy as part of a dynasty determined to retain the crown in the aftermath of war. Nielsen was one of the greatest stars of the silent era and a role model for Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Sven Gade’s startling reinvention of the play provides a remarkable exploration of the European psyche in the wake of the First World War.
Describing the film, Patrick Spottiswoode, Director, Globe Education, commented, “Shakespeare without words may seem a contradiction in terms but this London premiere will present one of the finest ever Hamlets on screen - all the more remarkable is that it dates back to 1920 and stars the great actress Asta Nielsen in the title role.”
The film will be played with a live piano accompaniment performed by Neil Brand. A renowned accompanist of silent films, Brand performs regularly at the BFI and has composed the scores for many television, film and theatre productions over the last 25 years.
Commenting on the forthcoming performance, Neil Brand said: “It's always worth remembering that silent film is a time capsule - in this case a glimpse of a theatricality and a cinema stardom which could only be Europe in the 1920s. It is always a privilege to accompany these films, as each time the performance is unique and the audience takes away something different. But when the music prepares the stage for a diva of the quality of Asta Neilsen, the atmosphere in the auditorium becomes electric.”
Describing his preparation for the event, Brand continues, “I've known the film for nearly twenty years and, being aware particularly of the audience's expectations, I will try to make the music walk a very narrow line between the majesty of filmed Shakespeare and the sultry, theatrical Weimar quality of this adaptation and the time it was made.”
The screening is taking place as part of Globe Education’s ‘Shakespeare, Hamlet and Wittenberg’ season, which sees events running throughout the Spring. Other highlights of the programme include a series of lectures in which Professor Ewan Fernie and Dr Adrian Streete will explore the relationship between Shakespeare’s Theatre and the Protestant Reformation. Frank Günther will discuss the art and politics of translating Shakespeare’s plays into German with particular reference to Hamlet. Globe Education’s Read Not Dead series will feature a staged reading of David Davalos’ acclaimed 2008 play Wittenberg which wittily imagines conversations between Luther, Doctor Faustus and Hamlet at the university.
Screening: Sven Gade’s Hamlet (1920)
6.45pm, Thursday 27 January 2011 at BFI Southbank, NFT1
The new print of Sven Gade’s film with live piano accompaniment.
Tickets: BFI Members £7.60 (£5.25 concs); Non-members £9 (£6.65 concs); under 16s £5
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